This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
By Darren Hammond Our trip began on a gloriously fine Friday afternoon, 4 trips ranging from Easy to Medium-Fit were traveling through to the Waiohine Gorge. We ate dinner in Featherston as the sun set behind the Rimutakas. Trainee driver Margaret took over from here, and was intensively coached by Glyn, especially on the gravel road through to the Gorge. This consisted of many ‘make sure you don't do this or that’ followed by ‘but you're doing great’. Anyway, Margaret did indeed do a fine job, and we made it to our destination without difficulty. The other 3 trips had a walk in the falling darkness ahead of them, but we were camping at the road end. We were advised to expect some nocturnal visitors, in the form of some of the local youth, who come out here ‘to do wheelies in the carpark’. There were 6 of us, Liz, Melissa, Greg, Suzy, & myself, led by Helen. Personally I found it very re-assuring that my first trip in a year was being lead by a mountain safety instructor. We watched an impressive night sky unfold over introductions, and then retired to our sleeping bags. We had a quiet night, happily uninterrupted by young Wairarapans in cars. A mild night, I was doubly happy about this, as the fly (which I was carrying) was not even slightly damp in the morning. We began our walk by crossing a rather unsteady swing-bridge; I am not ashamed to say that my legs were pretty shaky as I walked off the other end. We set off along the Lower Waiohine Track on a beautiful warm sunny day, we had all day to walk about 7 or 8 km, so it was a leisurely morning’s walk. Helen was taking photos of us to use in the upcoming Bushcraft manual, as the current one had ‘no-one younger than 60 in it.’
We stopped for lunch next to the Waiohine River, just before ‘The Big Slip’. If you've walked this track, you know the one I mean. It was still sunny and warm, but the northerly wind was picking up (the forecast for the weekend was ‘breezes freshening’), and the clouds clinging to the hilis above us made us glad we were staying down on the flat.
After Liz washed her plate out in the river after having tuna, a very large eel came right up to the edge of the river, an unusual sight for the middle of the day. Soon after walking around the slip, we reached the southern end of Totara Flats, and set up camp. We decided to camp here instead of using the hut, which was about 45 minutes away, as it is a busy hut, and we decided it would be quieter here (hmmm, more on that later). And the weather looked good, so if you’re not going to camp out in good weather, when are you going to? We had a leisurely few hours recovering from our morning’s walk (let’s hear it for easy trips!) then set off up the Flats to the hut, where we met up with Craig and Victoria's Medium trip. Back to our camp, and Liz, Melissa & I had an impromptu lesson in river crossing from Helen after we decided to take an alternative route back, which did not turn out to be as easy as expected. It was all good fun though (really!). After dinner, the wind really picked up, and we endured a very noisy night, with the wind howling down the valley. I don’t think anyone got much sleep, so were all pretty quiet first thing in the morning. The fly did stay up though! A cloudy morning, with a few spits of rain, but happily that was as bad as it got, and as we retraced our steps, the weather just got better and better. By the time we got back to the bus, we had a gloriously warm, sunny day. And the news that the mighty ABs had vanquished the pitiful Poms to essentially clinch the Grand Slam was just the icing on the cake. After the other trips arrived back at base, Margaret guided us safely back to Featherston for the ubiquitous ice-cream stop, then onto the Railway Station, where most of us bade a fond farewell to the Orient Express.
I think I can safely say that a fabulous weekend was had by all, this is a great Easy trip, especially if the weather is good. Thanks to Helen for running a well-organised, and fun trip.
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Relaxing after a ‘hard’ day's tramping outside the palatial and popular Totara Flats hut. Left to Right - Melissa, Liz, Suzy, Helen, Darren — Photo: Greg Arnold