July Club Meeting
This hardy group has been out and about despite it being the middle of winter.
Some club members tramped to Big Hut on the Rock and Pillar Range, for the annual midwinter trip where the evening meal culminated with the almost legendary pot luck dessert. The superb new Leaning Lodge hut was a good place to stop for lunch en route. Lake Sutton and Macraes were visited on the journey home the following day.
High river levels meant a trip to Hidden Biv in the Ahuriri Valley became a walk up the zigzag near Ahuriri Base Hut. Walkers encountered snow on the ridge so didn’t linger.
Wednesday Walkers enjoyed a varied month which included Slatey Creek to Belmont Hill, Split Rock at Seacliff and an old graveyard at Bryn’s Point, Dome Hill, Boundary Creek with local ‘historian’ Keith Plunket , and the Waihao Walkway.
Forthcoming Club trips are to Mt Ida from Wedderburn and to Ben Lomond from Campbell Park returning via the Bridal Track.
President Jane shared her experiences on a self-guided bike trip across Europe last year and took us on a fascinating journey through four countries, beginning in Prague in the Czech Republic, then Austria, Slovakia and Hungary – often on rough back roads .
She and her husband Graham, encountered a heatwave in July/August last year and were very glad of iced coffees and cold beers at the end of long days cycling in temperatures of 35-40°C. In one area they encountered trucks spraying water on the road to cool it down. A town in Slovakia had 350 practising dentists. The heat wasn’t the only challenge – very few people they met spoke English and the GPS provided by the tour company frequently proved unhelpful. But they made it, clocking up 1113km in 19 days.