The weather forecast was looking a bit dire leading into the trip, but the call went out on Thursday that it was going ahead. There was hope that some climbing could be done on Saturday morning before the predicted rain front came through in the afternoon. The group consensus was to have a bit of ‘luxury’ in the weekend and stay in a backpackers. After the last minute discovery of an accommodation mix-up the group was forced to change plans to the dreaded Alpine Lodge. Kevin, the club’s trip coordinator, had previously warned of the “scary Ohakune backpacker” with DRDs and SBCs staying there (note, you will have to ask Kevin for the definition and story to give it full justice). After swearing at the north bound School holiday traffic it was welcome relief to stop in Bulls for a kebab. This also provided a bit of comic relief with lots of deliberate, and possibully non-deliberate, word play on the bull theme. Unbelievabully, this game, regarded by some as the lowest form of humour, retained its humorous appeal for a remarkabully long time. No bull. The clear skies on the drive up helped to motivate an early start, although after dealing with multiple disruptions in the 5 hrs remaining for sleep there may have been some regrets about this decision. The day dawned with the walk up the ski field. It didn’t take long before one of the Steves decided that the lure of a day skiing was too great, and he headed back down to swap gear and enjoy the lifts. Photo courtesy of Reece Geursen The rest of the group headed for the top of the chair lifts where it split into two, one group gaining the skyline ridge and heading for the top of Tahurangi and the other traversing the ridge and crossing the glacier towards Girdlestone’s south face. The Tahurangi group reached the top in time to enjoy spectacular views of the Crater Lake and surrounds. Meanwhile the Girdlestone team was making progress on the south face. This group had split into pairs to pitch the top part of the face and, after losing sight of each other for most of the climb, crossed paths again with less than 100 m to go to the top. It was also at this point that we came into view of Tahurangi once again, only to see it complete shrouded in a dark menacing cloud that was heading our way. Because of the rapidly deteriorating visibility the decision was made to head down the Mangaehuehu face back to the ski field. Unbelievably the cloud never really left the top Tahurangi, and the rest of the mountain stayed clear. Photo courtesy of Rongo Patel The Girdlestone group was still keen for some activity and so we stopped by the frozen waterfall on the way down and set up a top rope for a play. The groups finally rejoined back in Ohakune at the pub for a meal, beer, and an early night. Photo courtesy of Vincent Zintzen We slept in on the Sunday with the view that the forecast had it right and we would be waking up for rain and snow. Logistics meant that one group ended up returning to Wellington early while another group decided to brave the snow and visit the waterfall ice. This ended up being more about the drudge up there, but the group persisted and all had a top rope along with a couple of other climbers that showed up. The weather wasn’t very accommodating with it snowing the whole time and being bloody cold. All agreed it was worth it though. Overall an enjoyable trip! Photo courtesy of Reece Geursen
