This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
It was the last weekend of the Wellington Cathedral Festival of Music. Wellington were playing Bay of Plenty at the Westpac Stadium. The Circa Theatre was examining the complex friendship of Catherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf. What did this mean for WT&MC? Well, nothing really, except that these were amongst the host of events - most of them a lot more comfortable - that we had to forsake to trudge through the mud and rain to one of the best huts in the Taranaki area. Arriving at Dawson Falls at midnight on the Friday, we didn't feel awfully keen on putting up flies, even if there had been anywhere to put them up. Instead, and possibly illegally, we spread ourselves on the concrete floor outside the DOC Visitor Centre to avoid the squally showers. Well, we were visitors, weren't we? The early morning call was provided by the Fit Team. At ten past six! Whilst they busied themselves sorting ironmongery and hard hats, we breakfasted and set off about half an hour later than them. The Easy team had been wallowing in the luxury of totally weatherproof cabins. There was plenty of water about and lots more forecast. Our Easy/Medium trip was to have been to Maketawa and would have involved multiple river crossings. This didn't seem wise under the circumstances, so we opted to join the Easys at Lake Dive. Only we would go faster, of course. Some way along the track, we heard voices behind and were surprised both at the speed of approach and the loudness of the Easy team. Our surprise changed to amusement when they turned out to be the Hard Lads of the Fit team. Apparently their route-finding had been the ‘follow-your-nose' variety and now they were trying a different nose. We offered them advice on maps and compasses and they raced off, slightly sheepishly but in remarkably good humour. Mostly, our visibility was restricted to the beautiful, luxuriant bush - result of the high local rainfall. Once or twice we had super views up to the snow cone or down to the broad farmlands of the coastal plain and we had lunch above the precipitous side of one of the deep gorges. The track was obvious ‘ SSS SSS SSS SS Sey www.wtmc.org.nz PO Box 5068, Wellington
and a lot of work had been done on it but it was deeply muddy in lots of places and the many steep wooden ladders were treacherously slippery. Two would-be ice climbers were just leaving as we got to the hut and we managed to resurrect the fire. Lots of coal and wood were available, assuring us of a warm evening. Around dusk a tropical monsoon started and we watched in wonder as water gushed out of the overflow of the gutterfed water tank. The evening meal competition ended in a draw, neither side wanting to admit that the other had eaten better. (But we know that we won.) Strong winds arrived in the night to shake the hut and accompany the rain, so a late rise and extended breakfast were enjoyed by all. On reflection, we thought that the heat from the fire was probably worth the disturbances of the all-night coal-shoveller. Happily, the rain had almost stopped by the time we came to leave on Sunday. Even some outbreaks of sun before we reached the bus. The track was even muddier and the café very welcome.
Paul Exley