Five Go Mad on the Shortest Day of the Year

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Five Go Mad on the Shortest Day Of The Year One of the things I like about Saturday morning dawned clear Eric Evans is his boundless enthusas the five lads ventured out iasm. His ability to turn content onto the tops at the epic hour trampers into mildly neurotic of 7.30 am. Once out of the psychopaths was, however, quite leatherwood and up onto Wai ingawa, unknown to me. His eager descripwe were afforded tremendous views tion of the trip convinced me of both the Ruamahanga and Waingawa to sign up for my FE debut. River valleys. Quick time was When leader Bunks arrived on the made to Bannister with a couple scene 20 minutes later to assess of stops for photographic sessions the chances of me piking en route, aspirations plummeted, but Eric's As the clag threatened to roll helpful interjections paved the in and upset our sunbathing session, way for my name to remain. The it was time to zip down the Twins end result was the prospect of and attend to lunch at Arete bivvy. a challenging weekend and an over- Lashings of hot brew proved whelming desire to extract suitable convivial! revenge on Eric. By this time the sky had reverted Friday night was chilly and clear back to its original blue colour as the bus discarded its reluctant and cold bones were again pressed human cargo at the Kiriwhakapapa into action. Good tops travel road-end. The prospect of four with plenty of salubrious panoramas hours of torchlight tramping was became the order of the day before uninviting and Bunks' joviality Tarn Ridge Hut was reached early was lost on me as I engaged in in the afternoon. Once here, a closer inspection of the construc- David Humm tion of our first obstacle a wooden bridge not 30 metres from the bus! After disentangling myself from the woodwork and retrieving my torch, much to the amusement of Bruce who was following, we set off while the other parties settled in for a good bout of pit-bashing. Four hours later, after several attempts to deliberately lose the track, Cow Saddle materialised and new Olympic records were set for extracting pits. The final chapter of the night/morning consisted of a welcome brew and Eric trying his best to lose himself in Cow Creek.

the clag and mist arrived for postcard scene. The valley was an extended stay but with new covered in a six-inch layer of frontiers to cross we decided snow and the rising sun illuminated to carry on despite the attraction the hills with a brilliance beyond of a secure and snug hut. description. A late start was called for as we lay in bed devour- We zoomed around the Pinnacles ing both brekky and this picturesque and onto Girdlestone with the scene. accompaniment of a helicopter dodging the mist deep in the valley The rest of the morning was spent below. A slip 'n' slide grovel engaging in more mundane activities down into the South Mitre stream such as descending the snow-covered followed. The shorter members boulders in the South Mitre Stream. on the trip found the numerous Bruce and Bunks' expertise became Spanish grass plants irresistable obvious as they gradually left and spent much of the trip down the rest of us hackers behind. throwing themselves in! After Regrouping took place at Mitre a brief period of river travel Flats, in the form of a leisurely we stumbled into a potential bivvy lunch in the sun, which was then site and all thoughts turned to followed by the final walk-out the essentials: a roaring campfire, to finish a truly memorable trip. a feed and more pit-bashing. Thanks to Bunks for leading such An eventful sleep followed, punctuan experience and to Eric for ated by numerous attempts to prevent convincing me to go. our sagging fly from collapsing and depositing copious amounts Trip members: Ian (Bunks) of freshly fallen snow on our Bunckenburg, Bruce Barnes, Andrew heads. Once awake we were greeted Denley, Eric Evans, and David with a truly beautiful picture Humm.