Early Easter, Delmar Schafer and Mike Peat had grand plans of a Southern Crossing of the Tararuas, but an injury saw our objective revised to a North-South traverse of Mt Kaukau (445m). The ascent was made on mountain bikes, which made it harder than had we simply walked. The summit pyramid, a 100m high steel tower proved too much for the bikes so we had to be content with the trig instead. We regained our camp before nightfall and the only mishap to report was a punctured tyre during a staircase descent. On Easter Monday Mike Peat teamed up with Paul McCullagh (CNI section) for a spot of ice climbing on Ruapehu. As usual, the early season ice was excellent, although our activities were confined to “The Fingers” (Giant Cirque) due to the inclement weather. Mist, wind and icy rain prevailed throughout the day, but a lot of good ice bouldering was done and one route of 20m at about W14 was climbed. Eventually we could ignore our discomfort no longer and soaked to the skin and completely covered in ice, we retreated to the luxury of the Fat Pigeon Café for a deserved tonic of espresso and cake. Mike Peat