Neill - Winchcombe (Last Year)

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NEILL-WINCHCOMBE (Last Year) Travelling by train to Upper Hutt, and We reached the top of Cone and, while then by taxi, five of us reached Kaitoke we had something to eat, looked out over on Friday night and tramped into the a magnificent view of the Neill-Winch- Tauherenikau, spending the night at combe ridge, main range, and Tararua Smith's with the intention of doing a peaks, and the Tauhereniqau winding in Neill-Winchcombe. a long sinuous course below us. We then We left Smith's Creek at six o'clock put on our packs again and set about on Saturday and travelled quickly up the covering the large distance which. resiowly brightening Tauherenikau Valley. mained between Cone and Hector, gashed We reached Cone Hut at about 8.30 after by two great evil saddles. a pleasant but uneventful walk; unevent- As we descended into the first saddle ful that is, apart from one brief episode the taniwhas asserted their presence by in which our intrepid hunters. laying sending over a light mist which stayed aside their rifles, tried to catch a rabbit, with us for the greater part of the long bare-handed. Eventually they got it weary plod along to Hector. The mist corned under a log and one was reach- cleared just before Hector to give a ing in to catch it when it ran up his arm. dramatic view of the peak, from this over his shoulder, and away. Then fol- angle quite flat on top, yet still appearlowed the ludicrous spectacle of one tiny ing quite massive silhouetted against the rabbit, white tail bobbing, being hotly setting sun and swathed by lingering pursued by three great hulking Tongue streaks of mist. and Meats. In the best comic-book tradi- We reached Kime at about seven tion the rabbit cleverly eluded its would- o'clock and there met the other club be capturers. party, which had come over that day On reaching Cone Hut we had a second from Dobsons. Over at Vosseler Hut breakfast and laid a plan of attack. It were Kate and Shona, who had come would be an extremely cunning move, via the Renata-Elder ridge. we decided, to avoid the slog up on to On Sunday the various parties wander- Cone and along to Neill by going farther ed down to the Forks and Roaring Meg. up the river and climbing up a spur where thanks transport was waiting for us. shown on the map leading directly to to Norm. Whiteside and Dave Neill. Capper. We were soon drawing rapidly away from the ranges and travelling This upper part of the river was very back to Wellington, watching the clouds pleasant and as far as we went made roll once more over the hills which had fairly easy travelling. On the way up. provided us yet another very enjoyable Julian and Henk shot three goats and weekend. On the trip were: Alan soon Higgens. after this gory event we passed Paul Green, Julian Pemberton, Henk round a bend from where we had a Bertholet, Murray Hall. wonderful view of Winchcombe and the -MURRAY HALL. nearby pinnacles. At about this point, just past Jacobson Creek, we found a * * * good spur which we were quite sure Christmas Trip Footnote would take us up on to Neill. After looking forward to a write-up The spur, though steep. was quite open from Bruce Jefferies and Co. deep in the and we made reasonable progress up- Hopkins and Landsborough, we are wards. The weather at this stage was disappointed as they tell us that Huev perfect with a clear sky and warm sun. was a cruel swine, giving them too much but as we were later to discover, the evil fresh water. Better luck next time! influence of the Mist Gods still remained * * * on the highly dreaded Neill-Winchcombe ridge. The taniwhas gazed malevolently Who's the Hockey Player? down upon the five happy simpletons as The hockey player is "Miss" Brian they struggled upwards. As we reached Hunt, who was instrumental in our brilthe top, smugly thinking of all the sweat liant victory last year. we had saved by avoiding Cone, a gap in the gnarled beech trees allowed us to - see the ridge once more; Hector. the pin- Cover Picture: Ann Walls on the Club nacles. Winchcombe. Neill-Neill- With Christmas in much weeping the truth was admitted: trip the Rakaia. the malignant mist gods were drawing (Photo by Fraser Walls.) us inexorably towards the top of Cone.