It was wet and windy winters morning when six hardy Wanderers grouped at the usual spot, picked up our seventh tramper at Ngahinapouri before heading out towards Kawhia. The van was buffeted around in the nasty weather, Colin did a great job staying on the winding roads in such atrocious conditions.

We put on our wet weather gear under the shelters at Te Kauri Lodge and headed off on the wet, muddy and very slippery track.  Within minutes we met with a large ‘puddle’ that required navigation around the edges to avoid getting wet boots so early on.

The bush was lush, green and very wet. There were a few obstacles to manoeuvre but that made the day even more interesting. It was decided to have an early lunch at 11am before dropping to cross the stream that had become extremely deep in places.  Some of the group managed to find a spot to cross further up without even getting their feet wet!

We started the ascent, that was quite steep at times along a ridge but sadly the cloud cover didn’t allow for any great views.

We returned to Hamilton by about 2.30pm, all agreeing that it was a reasonably short day but the terrain definitely made it challenging enough.

Thanks to our leaders Colin and Ron for a great day out in the fantastic Waikato winter weather.                                                                                                                 

Brenda