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The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

Well we arrived in Kimbolton. Small town N.Z. Quaint, quiet and small. So small that all the town's children came out to greet us. So after the mandatory pie break we pressed on to the Iron Gate road end. Out jumped our group and Bruce's. Out jumped Christine's pack minus Christine (oops!) By the time Ben realised, the van with Rob was gone. Anyway the track to Iron Gate was good and travelling was easy. Maybe this is a good sign of things to come? Oh what fools we were. Later in the evening Christine's pack arrived at the hut. Despite the legends packs cannot walk by themselves. So there were 12 people in a 6 bunk hut. Cosy.

Sunday: A perfect day. So we started on what in theory looked like a long day. The initial climb from Iron Gate to the tops was to say the least "puffy," but we had sliced an hour and a half off the theoretical time. It was looking good. Well I'm not one to brag but we had a perfect view of the whole park. The tops were rambling and not too bad to walk on. One word of warning to anyone wanting to do tops travel in the Ruahines. There are very little ground trails on the tops. Reaching Longview Hut by 3 was an achievment (well I thought it was.) Longview is a nice A-Frame 6 bunk hut with a great view of the Heretaunga Plains.

Monday: Hut bound and hut cozy. Unfortunately the wind just blew and blew. So we couldn't move. Not even 5 minutes along the ridge. Every gust brought back terrible memories of what happened to Angle Knob Hut in the Tararuas. The wind did drop, about 4am.

Tuesday: So finally we were able to move from the hut and make our way to Tarn Biv via Daphne Hut on the Daphne River. The trip was uneventful except that I wished that we had stayed there as it is a beautiful hut. However we moved on and up to Tarn Biv. Tarn Biv is small even by biv standards. Its just a 2 man dog kennel, and we sqeezed in 4. It was a very still evening so it looked like we could finally get off the east side of the range and back to the western side where the other groups were.

Wednesday: Oh no, not a pit day in a dog box. Yep! You guessed it, the wind stopped us from moving again, worse luck. Four intrepid trampers stuck in a 2m × 1.5m box. The day was cold (as the only door was a plastic sheet,) long and boring. A hump can only be so exciting for so long. I hope tomorrow is better.

Thursday: No such luck! Wx still the pox! So it is time to end the trip prematurely. So we hoofed it down to a junction and then down the hill to come out on a river and onto farmland with a 45km walk to the nearest main road. But we lucked out. We met up with an elderly farming couple who gave us a lift out to civilisation and then their neighbours put us up in their old farm house. A soft bed, roaring fire, and a shower. LUXURY! I will tell you one thing, good down to earth country hospitality hasn't changed.

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Friday: Got a lift to SH 2 somewhere between Noreswood and Takapau. Richard decided to go north and shot off to Napier. Matt, Neil, and myself made for Palmy and the 'Fitz'. Got to Palmy by midday after getting a lift with a joker who had been to school with our one and only Sarah Weston. Found the Youth Hostel and the pub (hopefully not in that order - Ed). So on a windy Friday afternoon in Palmy we supped. LUXURY!

Saturday: A day that will go down in club history because of what happened to the other groups (not ours.) We sort of congregated in the town square. Rob came and picked me up but left Matt and Neil in Palmy. So Matt and Neil spent Saturday under the clock, and Rob and myself spent a day of tiki-touring the lower North Island.

I'll tell you one thing, that trip to the Ruahines was one trip and a half.

Bevan "and we'll roll the old chariot along" Blair