This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Our roadend was by Anakiwa and we were faced with an immediate choice - camp
By Sue Walsh spooky story while those in the flys got what little sleep they could before the wind where we were or go in for 20 minutes to a designated camping spot. The easy option won the night and we set up camp where we were. Some punters took advantage of a shelter-type structure while the rest set up flys. Those who slept in the shelter were put to sleep by a
flys and poles around. The first people emerged about 5:45am and the main group left for Mistletoe Bay at around 8:00am. Those of us that weren’t in so much of a hurry left a bit later. Within half an hour we had our first pickéd up and started rattiing — stop at a small bay and we were soon frolicking on‘the beach, building dams and Waterways, and we had an encounter with a “deer”.
After much excitement and weka spotting we set off again enjoying the views and bush. The mist that was at the lower end of the sound slowly crept its way up to us and brought some rain along as well. We had lunch and a brew under some trees then carried on.
We reached Mistletoe Bay around 1:00ish and found the main group sheltering in a huge overgrown garage. The overwhelming desire of the punters was to stay there for the night so Kate and I went off to see the caretaker. This proved to be a pleasant surprise as the caretaker, Clem, turned out to have been an honorary Tongue & Meat from many years back when he owned a wool shop in Ohakune and used to transport the punters of that time ~ around. He asked to be remembered to those who knew him.
The weather’cleared by 3:30 and people were soon out and about exploring the: bay and putting up flys. Dinner was a scrumptious affair with beef stroganoff, and fruit salad with cream and marshmallows. Everyone mellowed out after this and.it was goon time for a Winnie the Pooh story. We headed out to one of the flys and read one of the stories. Back at the garage everyone else was settling down when singing started in one of the corners. ‘ Great songs Marilyn! We kept everyone entertained for about an hour. When it was debated about singing all the verses of Waltzing Matilda, the trip leader decided it was time for some shut-eye! We had a lazy start on Sunday with the group splitting and heading off at different times. The tail-enders sunbathed on the jetty for a while before reluctantly shrugging © on packs and heading up the hill. We had more fantastic views of the Sounds as we wound our way up over the hills, stopping for lunch in the shade at the top of the last hill. We were looking forward to reaching the Portage and going for a swim.
We got to the Portage and found the rest of the group sunning themselves on a balcony sipping drinks, but we only had eyes for the sea. There was barely time for - people to throw off their packs (let alone boots in one case) before we dived in (not literally) and soaked up the coolness of the water. All too soon we had to be out as Blenheim taxis were arriving to take us back to Picton.
The weekend was very _ memorable for the greatcom- _ . pany, heaps of amusing incidents that occurred, the songs that we learned, and the great scenery (!). Thanks to Kate for arranging it all (even the weather!).