Here Comes the Rain

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HERE COMES THE RAIN a If you had the misfortune to be in central Westland from 25th December to 6th January then your visit would probably have been characterised by an unbroken spell of bad weather. Hence our trip can easily be summed up by the days sp ent hut-bashing, such as four a nights at Mikonui Biv, three in Cropp Hut, two in the Tuke huts and three in Kakapotahi hut. Bit of a hut crawl you reckon? Mikonui Spur bivouac is more like a dog box and the few days spent here peering into the mist were only reliered by a trip to Explorer, walks to the tarn, and reading. A false clearance one morning after a night of heavy rain and frèsh snow higher up got us on our way to Sentinel Peak but we walked into the crap within 15 minutes and in a whiteout with cold, snowy conditions on top we just took pot luck for Noisy Creek. Luck was on our side though and we dropped below the murk into the beautiful Noisy Valley, full of flowering alpinés and golden tussocks swishing in the breeze. 1 Frequent hail and sun showers chased us around the high level route to the Cropp headwaters. The last few hours were spent in heavy d rain thrashing down through dense subalpine to Reckless Torrent and floundering through more of the same up to the hut. It was a real pain. Next day the only exercise indulged in was a determined assault on the stomach muscles while a thunderstorm lashed our hut all day and the ensuing night. The day after, with the storm mainly cleared we took a trip to the valley head - giving us tremendous views of this - remote and rarely visited valley. ite Patches of blue next morning enticed us up to the saddle S.W. of Remarkable Peak but as we clinbed on to Galena a wall of :H Ridge mist engulfed us from the Tuke and it wasn't long before we got lumbered by a furious hail shower soon easing to snow showers and mist drizzle. Progress was slow due to hopeless visibility and rising : got winds. Just beyond Peak 6200' we peeled off the ridge down steep snow slopes into the broken heads of Mirage Valley. A series of difficult sidles and climbs on steep rotten rock and snowslippery covered grassy slopes eventually brought us into the basin above 19- Top Tuke hut. We slithered down bluffs just left of the exit : waterfall to gain the main valley.

The 'aftet fracesof feeble sun helped us on our way for our crossing Ivory Glacier, but halfway up innil and cold a visibility v i wetysnow we, waited patiently several hours for the break which never came, so we, had' a,disconsolate trudge back to Top Tuke and afternoon tea before heading downstream then up to Dickie, Spur hut for the night. That night brought strong winds and :1 torrential rain so next morning we left with no. regrets for Truran Pass and Pollock Stream. There were.no views, only mist, wind and rain.oIn the last, half hour-to the Kakapotahi we were battered 'by really thunderous rain and atathe junction, we came face to face with a raging brown - torrent of the main river. We had lost the race. Wer arrived.here 1 p.m.. Monday C buts it-wasn't until 7 a.m. Thursday that the-rain eased enough.for us to. cross the river to safety. With whoops of joy we just massacred those, 12 miles outi to the main road. aa Ff 3310 With-only ar few brief spells of sunshine in the entire twelve days this was the most distressing trip either of us have had the misfortune to suffer. Those on the trip vere Paul Richardson and Malcolm Fisher. Ho P.R. - vobses -000000000a 1t10 - 2o