This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
KETETAHI HUT ~ TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK his.was to be our final trip in the Duchess. We set off from Wellington—same place, same time. Our hostess (and also our © leader) was Sue, and Roger, the driver, was in good spirits as he’d safely overtaken a car and also a train (although whether that was actually moving is another subject). After picking up two stray sherpas with shovels at a petrol station we then went on to get rid of the rest of the riffraff (ie the Mediums) on the Desert Road. After spending a sleepless night in the Duchess, we made sure our rucksacks (ruck-what? Fd.) contained only the essentials, such as fancy dress costumes, and one brave soul carried six litres: of water!
With the sun shining and blue skies, we headed for Ketetahi Hut, stopping occasionally for poo stops—or was that pooh stops! Courtesy of our leader, we were
issued with lollies—real ones with sticks!—and once we were all sitting: comfortably, she began “Once upon a time Eeyore lost his tail etc...”
After a cruisey walk up a lot of steps, we arrived at the hut just in time for lunch. In true form some of the group slept for the afternoon and a few walked on to see Blue Lake which was white with snow, and the Emerald Lakes’ before returning in time for the fancy dress ball! It's a bit of a worry.when the leader (who our lives depended on) dressed looking like.a pink fairy complete with plastic nose, bizarre hat and red polypro— I CLASH!
Surprise, surprise, guess. who made the cheesecake—AGAIN— which the Mediums did their best to steal—luckily without success.
It was time for bed—goodnight Tigger, goodnight Piglet and Owl. Daylight saving, therefore even less sleep, but the view out of.the tents and hut over Lake Taupo made up for it. Back to the Duchess via the hot springs which nobody in their right minds went in! We headed down the track, some making use of the showering facilities on the way, ie the waterfall. Roger arrived in good time to collect the weary souls but then proceeded to dance on the roof of the hire.van taking photos of the Duchess whilst Harry made signs of “Save the Duchess” in vain.
It was a great trip, thoroughly en- ~ joyed ‘by all, which had nothing to do with the fact that there were nearly more English punters (that explains it then—rucksack! ?) than Kiwis and what we lacked in numbers we made up for in noise!