15 th June 2025

On a cold crisp morning 7 of us boarded the club van at Te Aute Rd. Arriving at Makahu saddle carpark we met up with Anton who’d made his own way there. Seeing it was such a perfect day, brilliant sunshine and clear skies, Nic our trip leader decided upon a change from the original plan (Ngahere to Mackintosh) and climb the ”J” as he’d never been up in clear conditions such as today. We all agreed to his idea

We (8 of us now) set off just before 9am, the temperature hovering around freezing. Approaching Dominie misty conditions suddenly surrounded us, not so bad that you couldn’t see anything, but maybe a concern to Nic in as much that the views from the summit would be limited. These conditions seem to change the whole feel of being on the mountain with rock formations looking more defined and somewhat eerie.

After having our break at Dominie we carried on and soon we were back in glorious sunshine
Reaching the Cairn we had great views all around, across to Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe and looking
back into the ’Bay’. Four of Pam Turner’s family appeared not long after us and after a catch up we moved onto North Kaweka and had lunch there.

By this time the views over to the volcanoes was obstructed by cloud, but that didn’t matter anymore. We made our way back down in clear conditions but as soon as we encountered shade you could feel the cold and there was still frost around and ice on the Tarns. Arrived back at the car park around 3pm and Nic was a happy chap.

Steve B, Nic W, Colin J, Peter Mc., Selina C, Donna W and Anton D.