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They'll be coming around the mountain

Mike - 'I'm bored'. Bev - 'I'm bored. F**k it lets go up to Tongariro for the weekend'. So started a small epic. So Friday came around. The car was loaded and away we went. Friday night was spent at the very nice and extermely cheap Forest and Bird lodge. Our aim was to walk from the Chateau , around Ngaurahoe and back to the Chateau in one day. Then back home on Sunday in time for work on Monday.

We left the Chateau bright and early on Saturday. The day was brilliant . The sun was shining bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We reached Mangatopopo about 10 am and chatted to the ranger. He really wanted to know what the latest news was. I was pleased to inform him that Fran Wilde had retained her seat on the special votes. He wasn't so happy. So we left him in his self pity and continued up the valley to the base of "the" saddle. For anyone who hasn't walked up to the saddle it looks really daunting. However, by the time you reach the saddle you start to think that it really was not as bad as you thought.

We stopped at the saddle for lunch part one. It was an extremly hot day and the fluids were really flowing in and out of us at rates of knots. I looked up at the volcano and thought "Boy I'm glad we ain't going up that beast today". It was really hot. After talking to some loopy's (Bev, what the hell is a 'loopy' - ed) we started across South Crater and then up to Red Crater before ending up at Emerald lakes for lunch part two. The sequel. I am a firm believer in breaking lunch up into 2 parts on summer trips, especially if its really hot, and it was (so was the wx hot?! - ed). One good thing, and there were many, was that there was a surprising lack of people in the park that weekend. You seem to get so use to the endless columns of people pararding through the park that when there are not many, you find it rather strange and erie.

We set of for Outere Hut after lunch and got there in a surprising 50 minutes. By this stage I was really thirsty and Mike "mountain Greek " was parched. So we lay on the porch of the hut, read log entries and drank the necter of the gods. Ngauruhoe looked resplendant in the afternoon sun. T.N.P has to be the one most beautiful parks in the country. Pity it is so touristy. So mountain Greek and myself left and pushed on to Waihohonui Hut where we met up with two trampers who were flabergasted in what we had done in a day. They were doing a 5 day round the mountain.

The last strech back to the Chateau is long and boring. We stopped at the old historic hut to soak up some of that history that just oozes from it. By the time we reached the juction of the track and the turn-off to Tama Lakes, we decided that it was time we hoofed it so we could reach the pub before closing. It was also getting dark and Mike confessed he was afraid of the boogie man. We made it to the pub at around 9.30 pm bruised and very sunburnt. I always wondered what the ski bunnies thought as these page 29two rugged, mudcaked, smelly trampers walked into the bar and orded 2 jugs. Maybe I'll ask Mark.

Bevan and Mike .C.