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DATE: October 2018 Vol. 71 No. 09

A lot of up and down on the way to Cow Creek Photo: Rosie Ngaio

Please submit your November 2018 H&V articles to the editor by 2nd November 2018

HVTC Postal Address: PO Box 30-883, Lower Hutt: Clubrooms: Birch Street Reserve, Birch Street, Waterloo

Internet: http://www.hvtc.org.nz E-mail: info@hvtc.org.nz

President: Trip Coordinator:

Phaedra Upton Nick McBride

021 023 26726 021 410 551

Secretary: Treasurer:

Murray Presland Jim Cousins

562 8194 586 2135

Editor H&V: Bruce Miller 563 5966 the-bruce@xtra.co.nz

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WEDNESDAY NIGHT PROGRAMME

Starts 8.00 pm promptly

3 October : Graeme Lythgoe – South East Asia Last year Graeme, together with Michele and two others, visited five countries in SE Asia. The first

was a re-visit to Burma after a 37 year gap, then Chang Mai (Thailand), Luang Prabang (Laos), and the length of Vietnam before finishing at Siem Reap in Cambodia. Graeme will talk about

these places and show images of their trip.

10 October : Derek Richardson – Kruger National Park wildlife and other animals. Derek will be showing photos of South African wildlife and telling us about the trip he and Elaine

made to the Kruger National Park.

17 October : John Smeith – Taranaki Travels.

24 October : Pat Tristram – Easter in Nelson followed by the Old Ghost Road walking/cycling

Pat will outline the planning and preparation that went into the final production of these HVTC trips for 33 Club members, and what was achieved by the various participants.

31 October : New Members' Nigh

An expo-style introduction for people interested in joining the club, where newcomers can see outdoor-related demonstrations, together with presentations of the terrific places our club trips

could take them to.

7 November : Graeme and Carolyn Lyon – Cycling in Samoa Graeme and Carolyn on are going to tell us about their bike ride and holiday in Samoa.

FORTHCOMING TRIPS

TRIP CATEGORIES

Tramping

Cycling

T = Overnight or longer tramping trip D = Day tramp

= Dog Friendly

= Moonlight Walk

= Very easy

= Easy

= Intermediate

= Advanced

NOTES Where there is no leader given for a trip, please contact the Trip Coordinator to volunteer to lead a trip, either as shown or an alternative.

OCTOBER

Sat tba Round Lake Wairarapa John Smeith 586 2704

5 – 7 RIMUTAKA FOREST PARK: Catchpool

T1 Papatahi Hut Graham White 565 1138

Sun 7 D1 Makara guns Alan Geeves 938 6074

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UPCOMING EVENTS

RUAPEHU EVENTS 2018

In Out Event

Mon 08 Oct Fri 12 Oct October School Holiday

week 2 Contact Booking Officer

027 451 0415

Tue 9 Rimutaka incline Pat and John 569 6705

Rimutaka incline + Keith Thomas 027 5356176

12 – 14

T1 Leader required

Sun 14 D2 Renata Hut David Barnes 021 143 7281

Tue 16 Clubrooms – River Trail Pomare Russell Oliver 021 245 959

Clubrooms - Eastern Hutt Hills Russell Clayton 027 808 0743

Clubrooms – Walk Margaret Aiken 566-2731

Pizza Clubrooms. Pat and John 569-6705

18 – 21 KAHURANGI NATIONAL PARK:

T2 John Reid Hut Nick McBride 021 410 551

20 – 21 T1 Totara Flats fault scarp Jim Cousins 586 2135

21 – 22 T1 Walk Manawatu Gorge/ Vera De Graauw 938 7325

Apiti -loop John Smeith 586 2704

Tue 23 Explore Silverstream Jackie West 528 4697

Silverstream – Blue Mountains – Whitemans Valley

Marina Skinner 021 792 260

Makara Peak Graham White 565 1168

26 – 28

T1 Leader required

Arapuke Forest Park Murray Presland 562 8194

Sun 28 D1 Paekakariki escarpment Emma Dobbie 027 252 5045

Tue 30

Paremata - Pukerua Bay Paul Haines 589 7484

Pencarrow Lake track Phaedra Upton 021 0232 6726

NOVEMBER

3 – 4 RUAHINE FOREST PARK: Rangiwahia

T1 Rangiwahia Hat - Deadmans track Irene Davies 0210566442

T2 Pourangaki hut - Deadmans Keith Thomas 027 5356176

Sun 4 D1 Plimmerton-Pukerua Bay Marina Skinner 021 792 260

Tue 6 Waiu St – Wainui Dam Tony Jaegers 973 7124

Waiu MTB

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OCTOBER SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

Ssssh don't tell anyone!

The best kept secret on the mountain

Bluebird days - and few people on the mountain. Families are thinking about summer sports and the child-free stay away because it's the holidays. For the last few years we've had a week or

more of bluebird weather at this time and few queues.

Come and join us at the lodge with the best view and newest facilities.

School holidays 2nd week : 8 - 12 October

a number of spaces still available

contact the Booking Officer on 027 451 0415 or email sheldon.bruce@opus.co.nz

This list doesn’t mean that you have to go on an organised trip. There are plenty of other opportunities to use the lodge throughout the winter season for skiing, climbing, ski touring or just

relaxing. Just pick a time, contact the booking officer (details listed below) then come on up.

Sheldon Bruce

Ruapehu Lodge Booking Officer

Phone: 5868961

Email: sheldon.bruce@opus.co.nz

=============================

MOUNTAIN-BIKING WEEKEND - 27-28 October

Rosie Poole had this brilliant idea - that we should explore mountain-biking opportunities from Linton, near Palmerston North. The weekend 27-28 October (immediately after Labour Weekend)

is your opportunity to bike the trails in Arapuke Forest Park for a day and then, on Sunday, bike Burtton’s Track.

Arapuke Forest Park is mostly cut-over pine forest owned by Palmerston North City Council. At present there is about 20 km of formed mountainbike track – graded from 2 – easy through to a

couple of tracks graded 5 – expert and 6 – extreme, but most are in between. So plenty of variety in challenge!

Burtton’s Track runs south from Scotts Rd at the entrance to Arapuke Forest Park for 17 km through the Kahuterawa and Tokomaru Valleys to the Mangahao Valley Rd and out to Shannon.

There are several river crossings and the track can be very slippery after rain. Although it is a section of Te Araroa, mountainbiking is permitted, but the ride is graded Advanced!

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Murray Presland murray.presland@xtra.co.nz

ph 04 562 8194 mob 022 656 8309

HVTC OPEN NIGHT FOR NEW MEMBERS

HVTC will hold an open night on Wednesday, 31 October, at the clubrooms for people interested in joining the club.

The evening will include an expo-style format, where newcomers can see outdoor-related demonstrations – for instance, cooking delicious dehydrated meals, gear packing and first aid – and chat to members. We’ll also show some slides to give potential new members an idea of the

terrific places our club trips could take them to.

If you’re interested in helping to plan or participate in the open night, please contact Marina Skinner at marinaskinner@xtra.co.nz or 021792260. She’d love to have help with this event, which

we hope will attract new members to the club.

NEW CLUB PAMPHLET

This month we will have a new pamphlet to promote HVTC as part of our efforts to attract new

members.

Please pick up a few copies when you’re next at the clubrooms to share with people interested in the club or to leave in tramping huts you visit.

If you’re able to distribute some to local libraries, outdoor shops or other public places, please contact Marina Skinner at marinaskinner@xtra.co.nz or 021 792260.

RUAPEHU ROUNDUP

In case the news hasn’t filtered through to you yet, it has been an exceptional snow season so far. Whakapapa still has almost three and a half metres of snow, meaning you can ski anywhere, including back to the Lodge via the Yankee, in comfort and without danger of hitting rocks. The weekends have had more than their usual share of fine weather, meaning increased patronage for our Lodge: we have recorded over one thousand bunk nights at time of writing, which is a more than forty percent increase on the same time last year. Good news for the coffers! RAL is also

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having a bumper season at Whakapapa thanks to the fine weekends, although tempered by the unfortunate avalanche damage to the main lift at Turoa, putting it out of commission for the rest of the season and causing an influx of Turoa refugees to our side of the mountain. RAL need to make lots of money to pay for their ambitious development plans. In case you haven’t heard, this is the last season you will be able to ride the Waterfall Express chairlift, which will be removed over summer and replaced with a new $25 million gondola which will run from the Top o’ the Bruce to the Knoll Ridge café. So get yourselves booked into the Lodge to enjoy the masses of snow and experience the Waterfall Chair while you still can. There is, at time of writing, still space on the second School Holiday week and Labour Weekend should be a cracker. The Wellington Area Mountain Clubs races were held on Saturday 22 September under fine blue skies, hosted by WTMC. For the last two seasons these races have not run because of poor weather so it was nice to have such perfect conditions this year. Our men’s team came second and our women’s team was third. Most impressive, though, was Adam Bruce (17) who was second fastest man overall, while Rachel Bruce, our fastest woman, was 6th. Adam was fresh from his success in the recent North Island Secondary School Champs where he came 8th out of about 120 in Senior Boys. Well done Adam, there is certainly something in that Bruce blood! Enjoy the rest of the season, I’ll see you at the Lodge.

Ian McIlraith For Ruapehu Committee

TRIP REPORT

AN EASY TRIP FOR A WINTER WEEKEND Burn Hut Jan Heine

It’s quite an easy trip, Andrew assured me, only one big climb near the start, all the rest is downhill, more or less. And we start Saturday morning, which was another attraction. Away at 7.30am with a stop at Shannon for a bit more breakfast before the long drive that used Graham’s driving skills to the Top Mangahao Dam. Oh yes, we have to walk back the 5km to the lower dam where the other end of the track to Burn Hut begins. Chap going upvalley warned us that track was overgrown but he did not detail which part.

Let’s get going for say ½ hour before lunch? But took quite a time to get the five of us all together after Jan got in the middle, and somehow the front two got behind her, and waited for her, then

the back two caught them up. In the meantime Jan was trying to catch up with the two in front who were no longer in front. OMG. Am I on the right track? Such a classic case of confusion.

Time for late lunch now, and needing it by then. A very fine bridge over the last of three streams, then THE climb. Steadily up to eventually reach the scrub (not bush) line as befits the northern Tararuas. Now for the rolling part, oh yes, a lot of flax, astelia, all over the track, hiding snags and often deep mud, the

Burn Hut out on a limb

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boot-sucking type. Staggered on through the stuff, Burn Hut visible but kms away still. Will we get there by dark?

Suddenly the track is wide, clear, are we hallucinating? But it kept wide, and yeah, making progress at last to 6-bunk Burn Hut perched so exposed on the end of the spur. Real welcome. Some of us indulged in nana naps over a warm sleeping bag with the pasta cooking within, while Chriselda and Ida chopped up the great array of vegies. Several hot brews later there was a brilliant sunset over Shannon, followed by quite an early night, wondering what the next lap would be like, how overgrown?

Sunday was fine, a little more breezy, but a clear track that snakes up and around the long spur to the south and into College Stream. Too good to be true, will it last? Good going right down to the stream, where we found a sign to Burn Hut and on for some time, lunch in open river bed, and then it turned to custard. No sign of a track and the stream starts getting a bit gorgy despite its small size. Chilly and slow going, and the prospect of a rather deep wade around a log jam really put us off. Where is this track? So it is overgrown after all? How high above the stream would it be?

Andrew decided to cut our losses and go straight up true left valley side to intercept the Ngapuketerua track up on the spur above us. Bit of a bush bash and steep, was a bit slow making but once on it we soon bottomed out on the top dam lake. And there was another sign to Burn Hut, on the true right bank where the track was truly overgrown.

Still not out of the woods, as track markers come and go. Nevertheless reached the top dam about 3.30pm into dry clothes and off home, no stops with Graham White in the driver’s seat, Andrew having led us, Ida Yussein and Chriselda McMillan and Jan Heine, on not quite as easy a trip as hoped.

Jan

RECYCLING

Don’t forget that I am collecting wine bottle caps and the small aluminium tabs from beer cans or other drink cans with tabs. I give these to a Lions group who

collects large enough amounts of these to earn money from recycling them.

The money earned goes to charity.

There is a bucket to next to the entrance door on club nights for people to put their caps and tabs in.

Anja van Kesteren.

Burn sunset

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Contour-wise

Tom Anderson The views expressed in the articles in this newsletter are not necessarily the views of the Hutt Valley Tramping Club. Any queries or comments should be directed to the writer of the article. Contributions to the Hills & Valleys are welcomed and encouraged but all are accepted on the understanding that the Editor has the authority to make minor changes if deemed necessary, refer back to the contributor for amendment, or return the contribution for amendment by the Writer