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Medium Trip 19 - 21 May 1995
4\riday night saw us all aboard the Duchess for yet another pleasant trip over the Rimutakas. Allan fearlessly drove on into the night - until he suddenly realised he’d run out of road. By this point, the navigators had figured out we'd overshot the “roadend” by a good few K’s.
We found a nice place to stop. Somebody said, “it’s a nice night to sleep out”. At 2. am, those of us who chose to sleep in the Duchess were_ woken by a call to “move over!”, to make room for everybody who wanted shelter from the rain. Famous *) last words!
Saturday morning - everybody back into the Duchess to drive back to the start of the Mangatoetoe Stream. Chris had left his shorts in the back of the car, so he chose to tramp in polyprop leggings and a matching top. Both of these were white with black horizontal stripes. For some reason we christened him “The Michelin Man".
We made our way up the |_ Mangatoetoe. Stream, stopping.at.the— hut for morning munchies - just as the Fits were heading off. We continued on up and over the saddle down to Kawakawa Hut for lunch - arriving just in time to see the Fits off (beginning to notice a pattern here?), I Lunch was a mobile affair, moving a couple of times to stay in the sun
(which had an irritating habit of moving just as you’d made yourself comfortable). That afternoon we headed off up and over another saddle to Pararaki Hut. A group of -yahoos were camped just across the river. from the hut: I headed over to find ” out who was making all the noise. Yep - it was the Fits.
We woke up on Sunday morning to a wicked frost. Mike (who'd slept --uunder-the-fly)-came-in-looking-a-bit-—_——— cold. Breakfast was demolished, and we wandered out along Pararaki Stream. Allan walked off down the I road to get the Duchess, while the rest of us spent most of the afternoon. playing cards in the sun. _ oe When Allan got back,:we learnt that I D he had to. walk all the way to the, — WT&MC SEPTEMBER 1995.
Duchess, because nobody would give him a ride... ? We stopped off briefly on the way home to terrorise the Featherston shopkeepers . ..
The trip was mostly memorable for the quotes...
“My legs are hairy!” Chris (picking up on a line that was aimed at Natasha).
“It isn’t a problem to walk in high heels”. Prakash (is there something. he’s not telling us?)
“The saddle is just around the corner”. (Not!) Allan (the saddle/stream/hut ...is never “just around the corner’).
“t’s all downhill from here”. unknown
“It’s a nice night to sleep out”. unknown
“t's a nice night to sleep under a fly”. Mike, Andrew and Prakash
Allan (leader) Mike Chris Natasha Prakash Andrew Brian (scribe)
Punters:
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By Brian Ellis