This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
collected’ the van from Avalon rentals on Friday afternoon and Eric collected the Fit’s van and trailer. Both had cracked windscreens and looked a bit oldish, but they went all right. Having raced home, I collected my gear and whizzed down to the Railway Station to meet the rest of the party. All ready and waiting were lain, lan, Lisa, John and Chris. Allan was driving the truck and picking up Wendy and Pat from Tawa. They werent entirely ready though, as John had packed his pack onto the truck, so after burrowing under the seats, rescuing his pack (and losing his wallet in the process) we set off.
The journey up was uneventful, the only stop being for Chinese takeaways: at Levin (Chris had pork - a fatal mistake. See note later regarding barking rats). As the Manawatu Gorge was closed we took the Pahiatua Track - a new experience for several members of the party. We successfully. navigated the Dannevirkian plains and arrived at the Triplex Hut roadend where the
By John Sim van was parked and we embarked onan epic journey to Triplex Hut (10 minutes away). Being considerate toward the Easies who were vast in number and yet to arrive, we set up camp around the hut and settled down for a good night's sleep.
We arose to a weatherman’s nightmare -he was completely wrong. The forecast storm had disappeared and been replaced by fine, clear weather beckoning us up to the mountains. Despite this, Pat and Wendy announced that they were too ill to do the Medium trip and that they would spend the weekend with —the Easies-so Pat passed the-mantle-} of leadership on to me (oh, the responsibility; could I handle it without the normal weeks of preparation? Only time would tell).
We had aleisurely stroll up to Sunrise ‘Hut, meeting snow well below the bushline. We made Sunrise Hut in good time for lunch and proceeded to feed while the Easies made their leisurely way up the hill (please note that Pat and Wendy had actually made it to Sunrise Hut before us, having whizzed past us in their afflicted state earlier in the day.)
From Sunrise Hut we fled amidst barrages of ill-aimed snowballs (from the Easies) up the ridge to Armstrong Saddle, pausing briefly there to souvenir the ice casts of the signposts. However, they proved to. be too fragile to travel properly and were soon abandoned. We continued north west along the ridge, pausing briefly to admire the views across the range to Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe, before turning off onto the spurleading —to- Fop-Maropea-Hut:
After a short descent we entered snow-covered leatherwood, and other alpine shrubs, and the snow poles finished to be replaced by an unmarked track. It was observed during this part of the trip that some of the lighter members of the party could set off in the lead, walking WT&MC. AUGUST 1995 delicately through ankle deep snow, and when some of the heavier: members followed, the snow suddenly became thigh deep! We followed the unmarked track successfully until shortly before the hut, where deep snow made its location particularly difficult.
We Spread out in an attempt to locateit, and having found ourway to where it was supposed to be (according to the map) and found that it wasn’t, Allan looked through the trees and announced, “I can see something orange like a hut down there”. (it should be noted at this point that no-one else in the party could see this orange - see later note on hut colour). Because we knew where we were, and we knew where the hut was supposed to be, we decided to head through the bush in the correct direction, and shortly arrived on the track (which wasn’t where it was supposed to be) and 5 minutes later we arrived at the hut, which on closer examination turned out to be red - Allan’s perception of orange, like a hut, was explained by the fact that as we were travelling toward it the colour would shift toward the blue end of the spectrum because of the Doppler effect.
The hut was a cute little 4 bunk hut with a dirty floor which was fine apart from there being seven of us in the party. Allan and Lisa were keen to snow camp, and a tent was set up on the adjacent helicopter pad (hoping for no late night visitors), and John: elected to sleep on the shelf above the door.
Dinner was set to cook and a fire was started (this took several hours of dedicated effort by John and lan, who eventually got a little blaze roaring which created a pleasant atmosphere (after several attempts resulting in unpleasant atmospheres as the hut filled with smoke. (It should further be noted that the snow in the fireplace took several hours to melt). Dinner, consisting of savoury mince with three peppers and rice, followed by boysenberries and black cherries, accompanied by custard and cream, topped off with Cadbury Flake, was consumed, and we sat round making pleasant conversation in preparation for supper. (If was at this point that Chris’s barking rats made their presence known - see earlier note on pork in Chinese food; their presence was put to use and the fire roared).
After supper Allan and Lisa headed out to their humble abode which was now lightly dusted with snow, and the rest of us settled for the night in the hut.
The next morning the weather was fine and clear. Several members elected to eat breakfast outside and admire the views across the mist covered valleys to distant mountains, glinting in the morning sun. Having fed, watered, and dismantled the tent we set off up the hill the way we had come, making sure this time to follow where the track actually went (even though it was difficult to be certain), as opposed to where it was meant to be.
We regained the top, and crossed to Armstrong Saddle. With the weather so fine and clear, five of the party dumped their packs and headed to the peak just north of the saddle while lain and I wandered down to Sunrise Hut to put the billy on. We were shortly rejoined by the rest of the party after a successful ascent of the unnamed peak, and a relaxing lunch ensued. A gentle stroll down to Triplex followed, where we found Pat and Wendy, no worse for wear after a night with the Easies.
The journey back to Wellington was looking uneventful, so to liven things up a little we took the scenic route running parallel to the main route across the Dannevirkian plains, till we arrived at Dannevirke, stopping briefly forice cream and petrol. We crossed the Saddle Road to Palmerston North, this section of the journey affording views of the northern Tararuas and Ruapehu, as we headed blissfully back to Wellington, revelling in the marvellous weather and scenery that the trip had blessed us with.
The punters were: - already mentioned in the first paragraph.