Cone Ridge – Totara Flats

This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.

Patric Lane Seven o'clock, Friday night August 7, found two Scots, one Englishman, three teenagers: one electrical engineer, b and one Newsletter editor, clambering aboard a spacious minibus. : After a quick power up the D motorway, torturous blasts of our various hated radio stations, and pieces of enlightened conversation, we arrived at Walls Whare. Led by a mad, extroverted sort of person' like Murray (What, me? 1 Ed.). we. dragged together a bonfire by the river, under the stàrs and moon. Saturday dawned bright and clear, a hint as to the rest of the weekend. The three doubting "foreigners" crossed the Waiohine River by bridge while those of us with cotton shorts (and and for chafed - Nylon), a liking legs and wet hankies, waded, sank, then rose from the river to regroup n the track. The rest of the glorious morning was: spent in what seemed like a continous uphill trudge to Cone. : - M We found a' sun bathed, wind sheltered lunch spot on Cone with magnificent views of the rest of the Tararuas. The peaçe was disturbed only by the familiar WHUMPH! of Mike's primis vigourously relighting itself. The rest of the afternoon was rather windy, as we wan- Idered along Cone Ridge through stunted Goblin forest, 0 and ill-placed cyanide possum baits, atopping only to climb gnarled trees and check compasses -when we lost the almost non-existant track occasionally. - 25: Flies were pitched near Totara Lodge and thé evening spént around a fire, under another cloudless, moon-lit sky. The others amused themselves creating sparks from the fire to burn holes in the fibrepile and polypropylene clothes I was wearing: . Morning broke and from above the mist-shrouded flats, the sun rose into a clear sky to thaw our flies and warm our boots. It was such a glorious day, we were forced to stop every five minutes-to take photos. Very soon we. were getting too hot, So we let the track meander: where it would! and boulder-hopped along the river. Mid-morning westopped as the: river was getting wider, and while. the others sunned themselves,: I foolishly volunteered to scale the near-vertical: 20 metre: bank to find the track and thon-1 back. down and. up, again with

my pack. From then on it was a gentle stroll through the bush back to Walls and another River crossing, to lie in the sun, eat lunch and reflect on a very enjoyable and extremely sunny tripo Those on the trip were: Marshall Clark, Patric Lane, Ian Bennett, Mike Drake, Crawford and Sally Lindsay: Charles Kew, and Murray Worsop(leader). gearo YOITE