This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
By Don Goodhue
Friday evening and the Tongue & Meats began to congregate on southern Mt Ruapehu for the weekend tramps to Blyth Hut and beyond. The early arrivals set up camp at Mangawhero campsite in anticipation of the Duchess arriving, In due course, Zar and Ferrida arrived from Auckland, the frost started to settle, the possums came out to play - but no sign of the Duchess.
Still no sign of the Duchess by 9.00 am on Saturday so we made our way up the hill to find they had snuck past in the dark and spent the night at the start of the track. A note in the front explained that the rest of the Easys and Mediums had already headed for Blyth Hut. The weather was brilliant so off we went towards Waitonga Falls and Blyth Hut. Paul (aged 5 1/2) had been to Blyth Hut before and was keen to lead the way.
The walk to Blyth Hut is through quite an amazing area with along board walk across the first ridge offering great views of the mountain. From there, the track drops down to Waitonga Falls and then up onto the next ridge before heading up to the hut. Being a popular “tourist” type walk, the first part of the track to the falls is like a highway.
We arrived at the hut to find the rest of the crowd lazing in the sun, getting ready for lunch before the Mediums headed for Mangaehuehu.
After lunch, with the Mediums gone and the hut to ourselves, we claimed our bunks and then set out for an investigation of the area up towards Turoa. Instead of following the poled route up from the hut, we dropped down to the stream below and spent some time scrambling up and around a few small waterfalls before climbing out onto the ridge above the hut. As we went further up the hill, the patches of snow got closer together and the snowballs more frequent.
We had found an old real estate sign at the hut which looked like it would be ideal for a bit of sliding, so we went in search of the perfect piste. After a couple of false starts on the lower slopes, we eventually found an ideal slope with a run of about 100 metres and plenty of potential to do more than go just straight downhill. After some experimentation, we found we could control our direction and were soon trying out our slalom skills around boulders. The consequences of a misjudged turn were painful! Eventually tiring of fooling aroundin the snow, we headed back to the hut to put our feet up and watch the sunset.
Asthesunset and the sky tumed to abrilliant orange glow beyond Mt Taranaki, we settled into dinner - the younger trampers being amused at the ability of one “Mr Guzzle” being able to devour three cheese crackers in one bite!
After dinner, just as we were settling down for a game of cards, the phone rang. It was Edward of the Mediums. They had survived the trip to Mangaehuehu and dinner, and could we look for Matt’s MSR bottle top, left at Blyth Hut at lunch time. Yes - there it was, on the window sill. Saved by technology and the wonders of the cell phone. lf Saturday had been a brilliant day, Sunday was brilliantly lousy. The plan was to.head out via the Turoa car park, but a short walk up the hill and it was obvious the route out via the Waitonga Falls was a better option. At the junction of the Round the Mountain Track, we met the Mediums on their way out. Sarah and Paul counted one hundred and fifteen steps on the way up from the falls. before they knew it, they were at the top! Before we knew it, we were all out at the road and Paul was already talking about next time. Expedition Members: I Don, Sarah, Paul, Zar (down from Auckland), Fiona, and Robert (Mr Guzzle).