This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Words and Pictures by Paul Christoffel
The Queens Birthday easy-medium southern crossing had a few variations thrown in to make it interesting. Most of the group had never done it before. The trip was spread over four days, the extra day enabling us to be among the first in the club to test the recently-completed bridge across the Tauherenikau River that replaced the one removed last year. If we could find it. ‘Very cold’ southerlies and rain were forecast for Sunday and Monday. A river crossing would be required on Sunday — would the rain hold off long enough to make it possible? On Friday night lousy weather was far from our thoughts, with a windless starry night providing ideal conditions for a pleasant walk up to Field. The walk would take two hours 20 minutes according to a mysterious formula of Nicky's — and sure enough it did.
The hut was packed of course. We let the medium fits sleep on the floor downstairs as they were making an early start. A very early start as it turned out. ‘It’s 5.30,’ said a voice in the dark that belonged to neither WTMC party, ‘time to get going’. Twenty minutes of rustling followed by a cooker starting up with a jet engine roar made further sleep impossible. Everyone was up by 6am and we were away by eight.
Two hours 20 minutes later we were at Kime, and not long after at the top of Hector. At last I had a view from Hector for the first time ever! We could see Mounts Taranaki, Ruapehu and Tapuaenuku, along with other landmarks visible only through Constanze’s amazing bionic glasses. The wind was icy cold, making for wonderful ice sculptures but also slowing our progress along the tops, as did the boggy ground. Alpha was pleasantly quiet after Field. A member of another party had the skills to create a fire out of the damp wood we'd collected. Sharon and I had forgotten the second billy. In penance we had to carry out the group’s rubbish, cook dinner for six with one billy (luckily not that hard), write an article for the newsletter and let trip leader Michael win at cards. But the last of these would have to wait as our exhausted crew retired to an early bed. The forecast rain eventually arrived the next morning. But apart from blustery winds and a bit of sleet over the wonderful scenery of Bull Mound it was pretty easy going. When we crossed the Tauherenikau River it was still flowing at a comfortable level despite the rain. Lunch at Cone was cut short by the arrival of two other groups, making 14 in a tiny hut. But it was only an hour to Tutuwai where we arrived in the early afternoon.
After walking in rain most of the day we compared the performance of various items of clothing. Constanze was impressed with the way Sharon’s merino boxers kept her bum warm. We were all amazed at the water resistance of Eddie’s $2 Sally Army over-trousers and at the pristine cleanliness of Nicky’s brand new gaiters.
Despite the hut book warning that the fire didn’t work well, Michael and Sharon set about trying to light it. The shortage of wood was soon alleviated by Eddie, who ignored the absence of an axe by whacking the large hunks of wood in the shed with an even larger one, shattering one after another into fire-sized pieces while we watched in awe. After a smoky start the fire was quickly warming the hut.
I had earlier heard of Constanze’s deprived childhood, in which her parents made her go on hiking holidays instead of teaching her card games. I therefore endeavoured to make up for this educational gap by instructing her in the noble art of 500. She took to it with an enthusiasm that impressed (and startled) everyone in the hut. True to our word, Sharon and I let Michael and Constanze win two games in a row before taking the third. It was rainy and windy that night but when we left in the morning there was just a little drifting snow, although this later turned to rain. The river was brownish and fast flowing — not a crossing prospect — so we set off along the new track that a couple of guys in the hut had warned was something of a bush-bash. In fact it was pretty easy most of the way, until we came to the spot where the DOC workers had clearly given up on track cutting and it became something of a scramble. The pink ribbons acting as track markers were often hard to spot without Constanze’s bionic glasses and at one point we got lost until she and Nicky came to the rescue by finding the trail. The new bridge, when we finally reached it, was a welcome sight. It took nearly three hours — twice the normal time — to reach Smith’s Creek shelter. Nicky’s gaiters were muddy at last.
When we reached the car park just before 3pm there was no sign of our taxi, despite my confident prediction it would be there early. Fortunately Michael had cell phone reception which enabled him to establish that the taxi, which had been booked for ‘the Kaitoke road end’ had, not unreasonably, gone to the end of Kaitoke Road. With further directions the driver eventually found us. Michael’s suggestion that he take us all the way to Wellington rather than just to the Upper Hutt rail station thawed the driver's grumpy demeanour after his wasted half hour, and we had a pleasant trip back to town for a similar cost to the train. So in the end it was a pretty uneventful southern crossing, but an enjoyable one all the same.
Participants were Michael, Nicky, Eddie, Constanze, Paul and Sharon.