17-18 August 2019

Leader: Paula Richardson

This is a traditional midwinter trip for the Parawai Tramping Club, one which many of us look forward to. The weather forecast this year was pretty crappy really. Rain and snow were forecast, however four of us remained enthusiastic by Friday night and decided to go ahead as we would be able to turn around and return home easily if the weather was really bad.

It was beginning to rain as we left Otaki forks on Saturday morning and someone suggested we may have the hut to ourselves that night, someone else suggested we may have the whole Tararuas to ourselves! It was a wet walk up to Field Hut where we stopped for lunch and a hot brew. As we continued on to Table Top the rain stopped and there was no wind but black clouds were looming in the distance. These were snow clouds and as they got nearer the snow began to fall. It was very beautiful.

By the time we reached Kime it was snowing hard and windy and very cold. We were happy to reach the safety of Kime. Everything which we had that was wet, had turned to ice! We took off all or icey gear and put on dry warm clothes. It was definitely not a night for Hector. It was blowing a gale and freezing cold outside but we spent a comfortable night at Kime. When we woke the next morning all of our wet gear was still frozen. Its’ really difficult putting on frozen boots. The forecast was for the wind to drop mid Sunday morning so we took our time and true enough the wind dropped and we had a pleasant walk in quite deep snow back down to Otaki Forks. It was very beautiful. Patrick and Tony came up to meet us. It’s a winter trip I’ll never forget.

Those on the trip were:

Paula Richardson, Marian Cox, Owen Cox, David Williams

No photo album was created for this trip.