Attempted Southern Crossing

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ATTEMPTEDSOUTHERN CROSSING. June10/12th. "We will build a better land up at Kime." On hearing that there was no snow on the Tareruas I decided to join Marie Marshell who was leading Joy Parsons and Max Martin on their first Southern Crossing instead of doing the Winchcombe. after a late start and an uneventful ride we were dumped seemingly miles and miles from the Cottage. As Joy was very tired we decided to spend the night at the Cottage while the Winchcombe crowd pushed on to Fields. 7.30 Saturday morning saw us on the move in perfect weather. ie renched Fields 2t hours leter efter clearing bush lawyer on the way. A short spell and then, "On to Kimel"; "No. No. I'm only 13.".... (sorry). Everything went according to Hoyle until about an hour from Kime when Joy suddenly found the going tough. With cerefree abandon (I don't believe it. - Edo) we divided her gear three ways and moved on slowly. After a "period" of time ("period" being sufficiently vague) we reached Kime and heving eaten a cold, brewless meal we bundled Joy off to bed and busied ourselves cooking teso While collecting leatherwood we had a wonderful view of "Tappy" jutting proudly above the clouds and bringing back memories of "Sweet Misery". Ne soon hed a good fire (Yes, et Kime) going outside the Hut while we shivered inside and eventually dinner of soup, boiled meat and vegetables, fruit juice and stewed apricots wes readyo We roused Joy and fed heartily about 6.30p.m, By this time the mist was very thick and damp and the patches of snow looked eerie in the failing light. So to bed with everything including parkas on. Surprisingly enough we slept warm and soundly and at 5.30 Max informod us that it was raining and blowing a gale so we abandoned the idea of continuing the crossing as planned. Instead we turned over end went to sleep again to venture forth from our sacks et8.30. Joy had "prepared" breakfast and it was good. With commendable speed and efficiency Max was first packed but overlooked two minor detnils; (1) a billy and (2) a plate. The fact that his billy turned out to be the unwashed stew billy appeared to puzzle him somewhat. It was a different size to his anyway. You've got to be quick Max! Into the harness and on the nove again. The strong gusts of wind with driving rain provided a typical Tararue contrast from Saturday's weather and the track had suffered accordingly - "glop"!: Joy with some seventeen hours sleep to her credit moved well and in an hour we reached Fields where we hada. short break before moving on to the Cottage in an hour and a. quarter. More food then along the road for four miles when we sere picked up by a small truck and so to Otaki about 3p.m. We made straight for the Station where Butch put a call through to the truck driver intending to inform him of our whereabouts and thus avoiding a dreary weit (we thought) for the rest at Kaitoke. Unfortunatoly the driver was out and with disturbing thoughts we invaded a cafetaria and consumed large quantities of toast, tea, cakes and biscuits. (Oh for steak and eggs.) Then beck to Wellington on the 5.50 train, and COLD . G.. D... Stan Kinder.