This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
E/M 4-1 June — Steve Kohler
There were snow-covered ferns in the Travers valley and snow-streaked ridges roaring up into the sky. Nelson lakes national Park is a wonderland when there is a little snow on it. Sometimes there was bright sun shining through the trees and grasses in the valley.
There were snow-sculpted handrails on the several bridges we crossed.
John Tait Hut is sited in a small clearing about 5 hours up the Travers Valley from the south end of lake Rotoiti. We spent two nights at this hut. The hut had a very odd woodstove and some hardy souls managed to get a fire of sorts to burn at times.
During Saturday night it snowed and The Travers Valley, from John Tait hut up, become a winter wonderland. On Sunday we went further up this valley to Upper Travers Hut. The scenery at this upper hut was wonderful. Mount Travers itself was a dominant feature. After lunch we returned to John Tait.
The upper Travers valley had beautiful snow conditions with just enough snow to cushion the walking but not enough to hide the track, and just enough to make a nice squeaky crunch underfoot.
Being a party of 13 people, we didn’t do too badly at keeping the group together though there were a couple of times when there was a missing person, but not for too long. Coming out on Monday, we saw that ice on parts of the track from the night before still hadn’t thawed even though the sun was out. Included in the trip fare was a boat ride between the St Arnaud jetty and the Cold Water Hut jetty, cutting some hours off our travel. Thanks to all the organisers (including the organisers of the ferries) for a great tramping trip at what turned out to be a great time of the year.
The E/M team were: John Hickey, Sonia Scott, Jo Gregory, Graham Morley, Caroline Wood, Darren Hammond, Steve Kohler, Anna Heiler, Craig & Victoria McGregor, Nicole -Lewif, Mike Lightbourne, lan Gemmill.