This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
This trip report is dedicated to a small tree outside the Caltex Service Station in Levin that is now, inexplicably, the same height as the back step of the Duchess.
Our trip to the roadend has been sufficiently covered in other trip reports so I will dwell onit no further, other than to say that I sympathised with our truck driving trip leader when he dragged his fatigued and reluctant body out of his pit at 9 am on Saturday moming.
Saturday dawned overcast and drizzling with. the rain tuming gradually to snow as we climbed higher for lunch at Makino Hut. The hut had recently been vacated by some hunters who had left it nice and warm. As we left, more hunters turned up hoping for some bunk space.
After lunch we dropped down to Makino River to find Robert and Allen walking back and forth along a stretch of gravel looking for Robert’s contact lens. After an exhaustive search, Robert and Allen gave up, with Robert swearing to never throw stones in rivers with a loose hood toggle again. The rest of the trip members who " cartied on, were afforded some magnificent views along the ridge to Maungaturutu Hut where we spent the night.
Wehadhoped that with the lovely calm night we had that we would have a nice calm day for our travel along the tops on Sunday. Alas we were wrong. We stopped at Tira Lodge for morning tea where Stuart attempted to defrost the tap on the water tank witha stove. I think that the whole tank being frozen would explain why Stuart was only able to get a few drops out. Never mind Stuart, Il bring a gas axe next time.
The weather was too bad to stop for lunch and it was three before we hit the bushline. Without lunch in my tummy to hold me down I was blown about a bit on the tops. By the time we got to the bushline, I began to feel some empathy with Shane's kite. Stuart relieved me of my rather wet fly when we reached Makino Hut as I had managed to get some food in my tummy and no longer required it for ballast.
On the rapid drop from Makino Hut to Te Puia Lodge the snow turned to rain. Lyndsay was relieved when he began to regain feeling in a rather delicate portion of his anatomy; real men don’t need overtrou’, ay Lyndsay.
Te Puia Lodge was undergoing renovations when we arrived and a DoC worker's girlfriend had walked in to join him for the weekend. Unfortunately she seemed to find most things funny, so funny in fact that she giggled until midnight, stopping briefly to take a breath. At five the next morning a very keen fisherman's alarm went off inciting yet another fit of giggles. Allen commented that he now knew why a certain DoC employee worked in such remote places.
Daniel, Peggy, and Robert made the trip back to the hot pools on Monday moming before walking out to the roadend. The rest of us wandered out to the roadend with the other trips.
The punters were:
Daniel Meares Peggy Christianson Robert Cross (living proof that tramping can be a non ‘contact’ pastime) Stuart Palmer
Lyndsay Fletcher (Leader) Sue & Allen Higgins
Matthew Craig (scribe)