This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
& Jot such a long time ago, all I knew of the Duchess consisted of legends. I had never seen her before. Why does everybody squash up near the front? Sue kindly explained what us new folk were in for. She then promptly shut the door and got into the cab. She knows something I don’t, I thought. Halfway over the Rimutakas I knew what it was, and I was regretting the after work beers I had had.
To the amusement of the customers in a Featherston pub there was a procession of purple, green, and blue trampers in and out of the loo. Arriving at the roadend a-few.of us decided not to sleep in the truck so we headed off witha fly. The campsite was only “15” minutes away apparently. An hour later and well past where we should have stopped, we came to a halt at a broken bridge and set up camp.
By Mark Ryan
Onward and upward the next day. A group decided to extend the route to Roaring Stag Lodge by going up to Herepai Hut first. A few of that group had ideas about going up onto the ridge proper. And so four of us did. It was quite a bit chillier up there than in the shelter of the bush. We got great views and could see both the west and east coasts of the North Island.
We sheltered in the scrub on the leeward side of the ridge and had lunch. It was during this period of pack rustling and chewing that it was suggested that we complete the horseshoe of the ridge and drop off mocracy ruled the day and the vote went 3-1, so we returned to Herepai Hut (yawn) and had a fun bash down to the riverbed.
Making our way down the river was slow and on the chilly side. “It can’t be much further now”, was muttered periodically. And so we rounded a corner as the light looked as though it was about to fade, and there was Sue, wailing and gnashing her teeth (well, not really). A grand evening meal was had as we rejoined the group. The next day we split again with io the tiver we wanted to follow to some” going-back-to~the-start-point the night stop. Prakash mumbled about the cold and announced that he “wasn’t enjoying this!”. This was the first clue that not everyone was keen on staying on the ridge. Completion times were discussed along with daylight hours remaining. Deand others to Mt Bruce Road. Those of us going to Mt Bruce Road arrived early and were forced to sit around ~ and drink tea and chat while we waited for the Duchess to tum up.
it’s a hard life...