This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
n 27 June we drove up to Mt Ruapehu. We arrived at the Blyth Hut/Mangaehuehue carpark and a strong wind hit us as we emerged from the warm car. Christmas dinner was ‘waiting at the other end so-we set off quickly. Five minutes into the trip and it was already snowing! Cold, icy snowflakes hit me with-an icy. chill. Splash! Oh no! I stepped in another one of those pesky puddles. Only 30 minutes in and I had wet feet, cold hands and a frozen nose.
We got to the falls and carefully crossed a rotten punga bridge. I was so glad I wasn’t with my dad — I knew he would already be reeling off tree names. There are just so many to remember. Luckily Alastair didn’t know so many of the trees! So then we just kept on walking. Up, down, round the corner. And then finally we got to the hut after lots of splashing through the icy cold water. We burst through the door and caught a wiff of roast pork. Anne Mould had kindly cooked it and all the
Sarah Goodhue
wonderful cook from the Taihape tramping club had to do was heat it up. We did enjoy our mid-year Christmas dinner, despite - -greans from some Palmy- people. That night was. really bad. Do all people from Palmerston North snore? No-one really got any sleep. Everyone got up early except that snorer — he was still peacefully snoring in his pit. Oh and DOC, that stool flips unexpectedly (but it was funny). The next morning we stepped out the door and wow — there was a light dusting of snow everywhere. We got off to a slow start and when we finally did start walking, it was still quite icy. Ten minutes later we met up with John, Miriam and Matthew Booth and Anne Mould. After a short stop we continued on and then we just walked up, down and round the corner. Finally we got to the carpark and then we drove home. Hope we can do that next year as well!