This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Marilyn Duffy
miliar’ distant mountains were lightly capped in traces of cloud and we pondered for a moment on other adventurers who might be nearing their targeted summit.
Water stretching out on three sides reminded us of our island location. We gazed in awe at the expansive view and toyed with the idea of just taking our photos and going home. We had deliberately started early to avoid the worst of the heat but even so, we were low on water and the temperature was rising steadily. Having come this far, we stoically decided we had track and once again admired the to push on to the summit.
rying (most of the time) to descend the first slope off the northern end of the saddle. Picking our way down through the remainder of the slopes and ledges did not necessitate a rope and soon saw us wandering along the very prominent moraine wall below snow level. Only a final insult of losing the route through some scrub dampened our enthusiasm for the day. The trip was practically done as we relaxed in the relative comfort of Liverpool Biv.
All that remained was to eat all our remaining food (and any leftovers at Aspiring Hotel, oops I mean Hut), trudge out down the Matukituki, and relay a message home — “Boomer trip bloke!”
Punters:
view. It was breathtaking. The fa- .
Pooh, Sherpa and G (Force).
A few more minutes and we were finally there! As always, it was worth the effort to stand proud on the highest point and look how far you had come. We wandered around the summit area, admiring the view and studying the artefacts and unusual rockform. It was a popular place that day, too. Several languages and accents were heard as other groups of visitors admired the view and took their photos. We felt vaguely smug though, when they left in their cars, campervans, bus, and bikes. At least we had walked to the top of Mt Victoria!
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