This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Friday 3"4 - Sunday 5" August 2001 By an anonymous inexperienced tramper
There were ten in our group and_to allow the reader’s imagination to have full range Lam_writing this report without naming any of the individuals involved.
‘Planned Activity/Route The weekend was planned to be a tramping/navigation weekend and the schedule was set roughly as
Walls Whare — Cone — Cone Ridge — High Point 957 — Totara Flats Hut via easterly spurs follows: Friday night: Spend at Walls Whare Saturday: Saturday night: Totara Flats Hut Sunday: Totara Flats — Walls Whare via the Lower Waiohine Track
Actual Activity/Route Friday night was fine and we spent the night at the Walls Whare roadend, four in the shelter, five under a fly and one in the enclosed trailer on the back of the hire van. It was a peaceful night apart from the hoons in the Holden Ute collecting firewood. The trampers under the fly had one of those sleepy late night discussions debating the topic of “How do we know they are hoons.” The debate was won by the rednecks team. A clear win on the basis that the wood collectors were clearly hoons, not because of any specific undesirable behaviour but because: a) they were in an old Holden ute, and b) the driver had his arm hanging out the window. Rather straightforward really; and apologies to all those respectable ute drivers out there. Saturday morning we got moving at the target time of 8.30. To minimise waiting time at the swingbridge one group went ahead, completely missed the large arrowed sign reading “SWINGBRIDGE” and headed has got us warmed up”. The rest of the day went well. Great views from the top of Cone across to the Tararua Peaks and Mt Hector and quite a few compass bearings got taken along the way. The highlight of the day (well the day/night actually) was after we passed high point 957 and prepared to take our “shortcut” down the eastern spurs.
the river. OOPS! Quote of ‘the moment ....“Well th that I
Out came the army of maps and compasses and after another briefing in taking bearings we headed off towards Totara Flats Hut directly due east. To cut a long story short it took us the best part of five hours to get from this point to the hut. The terrain (and the learning curve) was steep in places. There is a lot of supplejack in this area. If we were tramping here again I believe at least one person would take secateurs. (Do trampers ever carry these things?) One of our taller members was noticed to have particular difficulty in the supplejack. Out of the darkness came Quote of the moment.....“He looks like a man in cage”. Spirits got a little low at one particularly difficult stage and as all the headlamps slowly gathered together again at the bottom of the slide we heard Quote of the moment..... “Anyone want a toffee?”. We had a communal toffee munch and re-gathered our spirits. It was a lot easier to make good decisions while we could still see where we were going. Once it got dark we pretty much just kept pushing nearer until we e heard Quote of the Moment from our leadey.. “Hey hang-on there’s a bluff somewhere just — hog th th mh
A RGU OREM RE Le ee Papeete see ares
Trip Reports
Fortunately a sturdy tree on the bank brought him to a halt after about 5m of tumbling fall. We could hear him shouting back up to us and concluded he was physically OK. His petzel had come off and rolled a further few metres down. There was no funny side to this experience. No one was permanently injured but I think we all learned a lesson about night time travel and bluffs. It was shortly after this that we spotted the light of Totara Flats Hat about 500m up the valley which brought us ~ to the next Quote of the Moment “I think we have been making too many right-hand decisions”. It was not long before the occupants of the hut (including two WTMC members) heard us in the bush up behind the hut and came out to guide us down the last bit at 8.30pm. It was all a bit unreal for us and must have been the same for them. The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful and Sunday 3pm had us all back safely at Walls Whare.
Conclusion This bushy grovel had all the required elements of excitement and intrigue for a medium trip. It would be a good trip to run again but some thought might be given to scheduling it during daylight saving.
Comments From An Inexperienced Tramper There are a lot of aspects to tramping that get picked up along the way. We all increase our experience level as we do more tramps and inevitably there are things that the experienced tramper takes for granted. The following comments and observations do seem rather obvious but, bearing mind that they have come from the inexperienced tramper, here goes anyway...
@ Staying at a roadend overnight? Pack your sleeping bag/ground sheet etc in the top of your pack. (No big deal when the weather is fine but when it’s raining...) ® If you want to keep in practice with the compass, keep practicing (like most other things, it does get easier)
© Satisfy yourself that you know where you are. Just because everyone is heading in the same direction does not mean you are all heading in the right direction. When travelling to levels above the bushline take plenty of water. Carry Disprin or Panadol (there seem to be a lot of headaches associated with this sport of tramping.) Carry a torch. (A little bit of light goes a long way when you find yourself in the bush after dark)
ee ¢ ¢ @ Take spare batteries and practice fitting them when you have a blindfold on. (It’s danged dark out there.)
we .
2 No it-s not OK to tip. YOur-sl ixplus fond down the long. drop © If you’re a snorer make it known so that your fellow trampers can suitably distance themselves if they wish. ® A bag of sweets lifts morale to new heights when the going gets tough (and dark). @ If you’re looking for a turn-off and you see markers heading off in a new direction this does not mean you have found THE turn-off. @ Stopping for lunch? Sit down on the leeward side of the track to get out of the breeze.