Easter in the South Island Tararuas

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

This is a story about eight happy trampers who decided that Easter was notafor gluttonising chocolate and getting nasty spots on your face bat was for undertaking strenuous trips in Northwest Nelson and dbing exactly the same things: gluttonising chocolate and getting hnasty spots. So we surged across on the ferry, drove through the nightand lay to rest on the spacious and palatial veranda of the Kindergarten, a well-known WTMC campsite.

RMotueks We alkfede at home on our first morning. Paul's eyes turned misty thinking about the Tararuas. It wàs pouring with rain and blowing a gale. And his eyes wern't misty - his glasses had fogged up. Maybe A wasyar cruel joke Maybe this was the Tararuas. This thought made us immediately give up any hope of doing anything too. ambitious, so we setloff in the wrong direction looking for a nice warm hut. a MmBut fate played another cruel trick and the rain miraculously stopped Kso we slogged uphill toward Mt. Arthur. It was almost windy enough Sto blow Andrew's camera tripod away, but fortunately the wind couldn't work out. why anyone would want a tripod on a tramping A. trip 2 and so ignored it. Exhausted, battered and wind blown we staggered into Ellis Basin at nightfall. Paul missed out on a bunk, but when Rasyou're party leader and have a bad back ( very: believable) you can C

always forcefully take someone else's. The previous day had been so revolting we immediately chose to do it again. So we spent another day. being blown off the tops and through Balaclavas and parkas comments about how nice the Tararuas actually arem started to be heard. To squash these rebellious tendencies our party, was marched away. from the hut to a rock bivvy to toughen us up abit! However, around Mt. Arthur that isn't much use. All the rock bivvies there are luxury accommodation and include mattresses, bunks and seats. - Since this was no way to impose discipline, Paul ordered everyone up at dawn for a forced caving trip. Two go up and five went back to sleep. Apparently the only reason that Mark got up was a pathetic effort to chat up the.women in Salisbury Lodge on the way. So three of us ended up caving with our tour guide showing us stalagmites and the other funny word that means they grow the other way. Graffitti on them went back to the 1880's. Next stop was à proper cave. Down on hands and knees grovelling through passages and soon into a. pool of water, with just a headspace between water and roof. My isn't this fun. Scratched and scarred we returned to sunlight. A romp around the Tablelands included popping heads into another cave to have wetas fall down your neck. Those who hadn't been toughened by our fearless leader stagedna mutiny at our last campsite and set off up the track looking forva another of these famous rock bivvies. Glen, Mark and Andrew vere.found the next morning shivering in the frost having discovered that the I rock bivvy was occupied. What they hadnt realised was that there was another rock bivvy which not only had mattresses but a hut attached, a further hundred metres up the track. We were very sympathetic." As we came close to the road end Chris iffed the air and decided he needed a wash.: Therensuing howls of. agony from the icy water provoked riotous laughter. The joke was shared by a number of day walkers who were passing. '1 : Pr : : neh der : When we arrived' back ih Motueka, Harry announced. that he had decided to take. a week off and head to Abel Tasman. Rumour has it that he was cônsidering rifling àa certain pack that a. certain person, not entirely unconnected to WTMC had left at Totaranui. : : : And finally the highlight of the trip - getting your pack off the ferry. These days efficiency has. been improved. This means that. you no' longer even get tonsee which truck your pack went on: to. Upon arriving you are faced-with" about 5 trucks full of. luggage, 2,000 lost people and not: a single"Railways employee. Chaos of this magnitude really is worh experiencing so let me heartily recomment an: Easter trip to the South Island. After ali: often its almost as bad as the Tararuas. : Party members: Paul Hughes (fearless Leader), Glen Curtis, Struan Little, Mark Ogilvie; Mark Randall, Harry Smith, Andrew Chisholm, Christopher Young. à f: :t :+ : Meanwhile the 28 members of the Easy/Medium Trip experienced four dream-like-days-in Abel Tasman National Park; sun and moon lit days and nights, without clouds or even. a breath of wind to dull the experience. For 'more details, see the Journal later this year.