Hutt Forks or Bust

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HUTI FORKS OR BUSTI (The Trip Schedule Goes On!) During January - after all the Christmas trips - there seemed to be a surprising lack of interest in tramping trips and I had great difficulty in persuading anyone to come vith me to Hutt Forks, The only person who seemed to be at all interested was Nick Jennings vho immediately began talking about Alpha and Quoino With visions of a nice lazy weekend lying in the sun and svimming it was my turn to be disinterested thank you! On the way home from Club on the Thursday night I managed (rith the aid of Phil Phillirs) to talk Barrie into coming vith me. His excuse of a sore foot or ankle or whatever it was was not good enough and the two of US caught the 8 40 train to Upper Hutto Just imagine!ian official Club trip and only tro of us on ito "Let's go to Dobsons tonight." says Barrie. "But the Trip Schedule says Hutt Forks." I protest. "Never nind, we don't have to go to Hutt Forks if we don't want to." "But we do want to." However it came on to rain ratner heavily and when we remembered that neither of us had been to the Forks before (that was why we wanted to go) and that there was no hut and that the sailing directions had said quite a bit about pushing through gorse - well, in the and Dobsons wono Luckily the rain did not last long and the journey up to Dobsons was done with only one minor incident. This was an argument over whether the track went up or down. Vith wonderful logic (as I thought) I pointed out that as te were going up the track must go up! Barrie was convinced until a few minutes later when we realised we were going in the wrong direction. Despite this little difficulty we duly arrived at Dobsons and just in time too for down came the rain really heavily. Isn't it wonderful to have a hut all to yourself? Pe just spread gear all over the place knowing that it would be quite safe and there was no question of having to keep vithin 5 feet of it. Not that you could get much further than five feet from anything inside Dobsons.

Next morning the weather was not very good but in the end our consciences (? - Ed.) got the better of us and after all the Trip Schedule did say Hutt Forks. Following along the Marchant Ridge we struck some really heavy raino Can you imagine anything more depressing than the bare parts of the Marchant in a cold Southerly with driving rain? Remenber this was still January which is supposed to be our Sunnero A bit further along the weather started to look brighter so re followed a good blaze from the Axe Hole down into the Eastern Huti river, reaching it at about 3.30p.m. After lunch and a brew we pushed on downstream and pitched camp at 6p.1o As luck would have it we had our little tent with us and after pitching it we gathered a bit of firewood and put. the stew ono By about 9.30p.mo we were just turning in after finishing off a very luscious tin of pineapple when it started to rain againo "Von't be nuch - just a shover and then clear up again," says Barrie hopefully. "Ahenmmn, I1 says I doubtfully, "I've heard your weather forecasts before." We lay there, quite warm and comfortable like, when suddenly, in the middle of a very heavy downpour Barrie says, "It's no use - there's nothing else for it," and disappears out into the rains "Was your journey really necessary?" No answer! That night it rained pretty steadily and in the morning the river which on Saturday had been a pleasant little stream was nov a roaring muddy torrento At least I think that's vhat Barrie said when he poked his head out to have a look! All thought of a river trip had to be abandoned and there was nothing else for it but to climb back onto the Merchant. Bread and honey, biscuits, greengages and a sweetie made a fair substitute for breakfest but there was no hope of lighting a fire for a brew to finish things off. We took it in turns to pack before finally getting out into the rain to take the tent down. Were we glad of that tent that weekend! It nov weighed more than its 28 lbs. though = I know, I carried itl At about 8.30a,mo we set out straight up onto the Marchant Ridge and had not been going long when we picked up a very easy spur. At least it was easy to follow up but it would have been a very different matter trying to follow it down. To nake matters easier still the rain went off after half an hour and by 10.30a.Mo we vere up on the ridge againo Before ve had got back to Dobsons the sun had come out for a while. There was a rather anusing little episode not long before reaching the hut; though I doubt if Barrie saw the funny side of it just then. With his usual long lanky stride he had put his foot down firmly and was just bringing the rear foot to the front when he found that Of ing to the interference of a piece of wood the rear foot decided to stay at a distance of about 21 9" from the other. It was a rather subdued Barrie who picked himself up from the mud! No sooner had we reached Dobsons thanthe rain started again. We just had time to fill the-billy and- get the brew on before it simply teemed. It vas about mid-day so we had a few slices of bread and cheese with the brew and were just sitting in front of the fire resting when Barrie reminded me that we had not yet had our breakfast. He promptly got busy with the frying pan and the bacon, eggs and tomatoes. Very nice too! Well, after that little snack we needed to stretch out and sleep for a while and it was almost three o'clock before we regained consciousness. We debated at length whether we would remain there and go out in time to catch the 8,25 bus or go then and there and trust to luck on picking up some form of transport. To make a long story short we left then and eventually shared a taxi with three others from the Camp to Upper Hutt. Denis.