DATE: April 2018 Vol. 71 No. 03

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1 DATE: April 2018 Vol. 71 No. 03 Ruakokopatuna Chasm. Photo: Jan Arts Please submit your May 2018 H&V articles to the editor by 27 th April 2018 HVTC Postal Address: PO Box , Lower Hutt: Clubrooms: Birch Street Reserve, Birch Street, Waterloo Internet: President: Phaedra Upton Trip Coordinator: Nick McBride Secretary: Marina Skinner Treasurer: Jim Cousins Editor H&V: Bruce Miller BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No03

2 WEDNESDAY NIGHT PROGRAMME Starts 8.00 pm promptly Wednesday 4 April 2018 : Ray Manning A trip to the least visited Continent A visit to Antarctic is a must do for every travel fan. Something so different from anything else you may have done. Truly a once in a lifetime Adventure! Wednesday 11 April 2018 : Derek Richardson A few South African places. Derek and Elaine spent 6 weeks in September 2017 touring unique areas in the country of their birth, including the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal. Wednesday 18 April 2018 : Neil Hickman A Lifetime of Memories For over 35 years Neil has spent many of his happiest, most memorable, most tragic, and most glorious times in the high hills. Tonight, he shares with you his best and favourite pictures over those years. Nothing ordinary, only spectacular and memories guaranteed to stay with you. Wednesday 25 April 2018 : Daniel Watson Ecuador & Colombia Wednesday 2 May 2018 : Anja & Maarten First Aid Anja van Kesteren and Maarten Vink will run a first aid quiz evening. Please join them and test your first aid knowledge! FORTHCOMING TRIPS Tramping T = Overnight or longer tramping trip D = Day tramp = Dog Friendly TRIP CATEGORIES = Very easy = Easy Cycling = 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. APRIL 2018 TBA RIDE Paekakariki Pekapeka Ray Hyndman TARARUA FOREST PARK Holdsworth T1 Atiwhakatu Hut Irene Davies Sun 15 D1 Cannon Point-Karapoti Marina Skinner WHANGANUI REGION hosted by WTC T1 Atene Skyline / Waitihinga Trails Nick McBride Su 22 D1 Dobson Loop David Barnes TARARUA FOREST PARK: Mangahao Rd T1 Mangahao Flats Hut Leader required Su 29 D1 Korokoro Str-Belmont Trig Emma Dobbie BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No03

3 MAY 2018 TBA RIDE Dalefield-Belvedere-Hururua Dennis Page Moonlight Walk: Cake at Butterfly Creek Chriselda & Murray McMillan RUAHINE FOREST PARK T2 Purity hut Andrew Robinson M1 Central Hawkes Bay cycling Frank & Robyn Usmar Sun 6 D1 Plimmerton Pukerua Bay Tony Birtwistle UPCOMING EVENTS SALES TABLE 11 April Please bring along items that you wish to donate to this effort. Home baking and preserves are especially welcome. Garden produce is also popular so bring along all the excess from you vegetable garden. Everyone else bring some cash to purchase some goodies with. Prices are always reasonable. Graeme Lythgoe APRIL 2018 TRIP TO WHANGANUI HOSTED BY WANGANUI TRAMPING CLUB. A reminder about the April trip to Whanganui, supported by the Wanganui Tramping Club, who will be leading two day walks and hosting a pot luck dinner. Further details on accommodation to follow. Contact Nick at nick.mcbride@icloud.com, in person on club night, or on (text or call) or BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No HVTC PHOTO COMPETITION 1 August 2018 We invite all those interested in participating in the 2018 HVTC Photo Competition to start hunting through your photos to decide which ones you ll enter. The competition will be held on club night on Wednesday 1 August - and the winners will go forward to the FMC competition before the deadline of 15 September. Because the two competitions are aligned, we have to closely follow the FMC rules when running our competition. Categories: The number of categories for the last couple of years has been reduced to only the six choices listed below (we do urge you check out the FMC rules for the various categories before sending in your entries to us their link is

4 A. Above bushline (with no human element) B. Above bushline (with a human element) C. Below bushline (with no human element) D. Below bushline (with a human element) E. Historic F. Native flora and fauna Please note: All photos must be taken in New Zealand and should be between 1mb and 5mb in size. Entries for the contemporary categories must be taken after 1 January 2016 (hhmm don t know how they can tell the date of the photos in some instances!) Any photos taken prior to this date will automatically be entered into the historic category. But WAIT.there s more There are also categories that are just HVTC-related for our club competition - but the winners and runners-up don t go forward to the 2018 FMC competition They are: o Topical o Personality o Hut or Camp Life o Overseas o Novice o Prints And the rules re processing are: Adjustments for exposure, white balance, contrast and levels are allowed Cropping is allowed, as is stitching for panoramic shots But, removal or insertion of features not in the original image are not allowed. Photo Collating: Murray Presland has very kindly offered to be our photo collator again this year. This role is pivotal to the competition and we are very grateful for his help. J Murray has asked if you would please ensure that each image offered has a title. Also, as you can see above, each of the categories is labelled from A F please ensure you prefix each photo with the letter denoting the correct category for your photo. This will help Murray collate all your entries into the appropriate categories before he then saves them all into one folder to be forwarded on to the judge. Murray is happy to accept the entries on disc, memory stick or ed to him as an attached file - murray.presland@xtra.co.nz. The deadline for your entries to Murray is Wednesday 27 June. Happy snapping Pamela Campbell/Helen Lukes for HVTC Social Committee END OF AN ERA For decades generations of HVTC trampers have been looked after by four angels though few would look upon them as specimens of beauty! Phil Rundle, Graham Craig, John Rundle and John Tristram have been Club Search and Rescue Contact Officers, each for a very long time here is the record: Phil Rundle took up the role in December 1967 and relinquished it May years!; 4 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No03

5 Graham Craig took up the role in January 1972 and has just relinquished it, in March years!; John Rundle took up the role in November 1978 and relinquished it in May years!; and John Tristram took up the role in November 1984, relinquishing it in July years! (John followed Trev Jones who had filled the role for 25 years.) These are remarkable records of service to Club members that have, for the most part, remained invisible to most of us which is actually a good thing! Initially the task involved these men calling out Club members to form Search teams when asked by the Police for assistance and some challenging searches and rescues were undertaken, especially before helicopters became readily available. That function is now run by Wellington Land Search and Rescue, though it still relies on volunteers. Throughout their careers, the Contact Officers have also needed to respond to family members or flatmates anxious about trampers becoming overdue. They have needed to make a decision about the likely cause of any delay weather-related or accident and choose, knowing the competencies of the people in the group, to give them more time to walk out or inform the NZ Police that a party is overdue and probably needs help. Of course they have also needed to contact the relatives/friends/employers of all the members of the overdue party and keep them informed as the event unfolds. The job description has evolved with the arrival of personal locator beacons and cell phones, making groups more independently able to call for help. Our Club s SAR Contact Officers are always first phoned by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre when an HVTC beacon is activated to check that it has not been triggered accidentally. The Contact Officers then helpfully keep everyone at home up-dated about what is happening. So that is why the Trip List - which each of us should fill in accurately whenever we join a Club trip is an important document. Most of us have not needed help, or even been aware of a need to call for help thank goodness! So thank you, Phil, Graham, John and John (and Trev) for taking care of all our Club members, and other trampers, whenever help has been necessary and over such a long time. You have been guardian angels! Phaedra Upton HVTC President TRIP REPORT NORTH OHAU HUT10 February 2018 Andrew Robinson For those like me unable to do the overnight trip to North Ohau hut in mid-january I offered it as a Saturday trip mid-february. I had been up the South Ohau several times but not the North Ohau so was keen to explore. Doc, Keith, Andrew McCrorie and I left the clubrooms at 7am and there was a bit of rain on the drive to Poads Road. We started tramping at 8:40 in our coats but they came off once we were in the bush. After a 15 minute stop at the start of the Six discs track we headed up the Ohau River. On a couple of occasions heading to South Ohau hut I had counted the number of river crossings so I expected that to the forks there would be about BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No03

6 We had a brief stop after 22 and sure enough the forks were just around the corner. The going was a little slower heading up the North Ohau, at least to begin with. It was more bouldery and the pools a bit deeper until we got out of the narrow section. The last three quarters of a kilometre offered a lot of bank travels so was easier. We got to the North Ohau hut in time for lunch, a little under four hours since we'd left the road end. It was the first time to North Ohau hut for all four of us and from looking at the hut book it doesn't get many repeat visitors. One group had unintentionally visited it when they took the wrong branch at the forks. It's a compact but comfortable hut so might get another visit from me now I know what's there. Not much to say about the return trip except it was my first time walking down the Ohau River, walking time was the same in each direction and the forecast rain came later than expected so we didn't need coats on the way out. POETIC FILLER Andrew 6 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No03 FIFTY-THREE AND FIFTY-FOUR A wee decrepit bivvy Tin-walled with dirt floor We first saw Dobsons in fifty-three and then in fifty-four They said it oozed character (it oozed sometimes more) Snug on the Hutt watershed It had to go, no place for it Way back in fifty-four New Dobsons site seemed just right We helped a little in its lore Carried lead-heads up the Puffer Some painting here and there Way back in fifty-four Years later, a bit beat-up new Dobsons new no more But welcome as it ever was in fifty-three and fifty-four Sixty years on

7 New Dobsons gone Vandals didn t know the score They destroyed the dream of fifty-three and fifty-four Dobson Hut in the Tararuas was the second one we visited, the day after Tauherenikau Hut, in 53. Tom Anderson PHOTOGRAPHIC FILLERS In the absence of written contributions to fill this edition, here are a number of pictures of recent day and weekend trips, stolen from the club s Facebook page. Readers are invited to work out for themselves just where the trips went. 7 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No03

8 8 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No03 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.