13 – 14 August
The van left Pukahu at 7 AM with 6 people in it, Peter and Glenda followed in Peter’s Suzuki as Peter needed to be in town early Sunday. Just over an hour later we were at Robson’s Lodge where we got the fire going and sorted out our sleeping areas.
For most, the rest of the morning was spent inside by the fire while Peter went over the various aspects of map and compass. Susan and Glenda went for a walk around the area between the lodge and the Taihape Road placing bamboo sticks and determining their position using a GPS. Paula arrived around 11 o’clock and while Peter gave her a refresher course the others practised grid references with Susan and Glenda.
Lunch was had in the sunshine on the front porch after which it was out into the field to find the bamboo sticks using the grid references. This proved a little challenging as a small bamboo stick does not stand out very well from 100 metres away, which is the accuracy of a grid reference. However, they were all found but in the process Peter lost his brand new reading glasses, probably in some blackberry that he attempted to bush- bash through to get to the river and our second to last bamboo stake, the rest of us took the track down.
Coming up from the river Susan set us to making emergency shelters using what was in our packs as well as what was around us. Three shelters were made after which the final bamboo stick was located and we went back to the Lodge. Before dinner preparations Anthea gave us a very good talk on out door first aid and what we should have in our First Aid kit. It was then time to think about dinner.
After dinner we watched a couple of short videos, one on hypothermia and one on what to wear and how to layer your clothing so as to remain comfortable when out in the elements. We then had a sing along before heading off to bed.
Peter Anthea and Paula headed back to town Sunday morning and the rest of us walked up to the quarry practicing taking bearings off the various peaks around Kuripapango on the way. We tried to find the old site of Sika Hut and thought we found it near the quarry but Peter has since informed me that it was down the bottom near the river, so the metal pipe we found was something else.
We decided we would go for a look at Kohinga Falls but a “Keep Out” sign and a lot of blackberry discouraged us, so we drove on down the road to the Forest and Bird Shelter at Blowhard Bush where we had an early lunch, after which we travelled back to town.
Attendees: Peter B, Susan L, Glenda H, Paula K, Carol C, Anthea C, Simon W, Anne D and Jude H.