| Leader | Mentor | Understudy | Tail Ender | |
| Standards | Selwyn | Chris S
|
Lynn B
|
Judy R |
| Alternates | Ray
|
Wendy
|
Pip
|
Tessa
|
Standards: Distance: 13.4 km Ascent: 853 m Time: 4 hr 50 min
Alternates: Distance: 9.93 km Ascent: 485 m Time: 3 hr 47 min
Leaving promptly at 8:30 am, our bus driver Callum took us via the Springfield toilet block where we were luckily the first to arrive of 3 buses. The Standards leader then led some of the group into a bus full of people in long robes and Burkas. Being observant, he realised that he didn’t know any of them, and luckily got off in time to find the right bus.
At 10:20 a.m. the driver dropped us at the start of this adventure, where I anticipated walking through beautiful bush filled with bellbirds, glimpsing amazing views, scrambling over stones etc. The Standards had a kilometre-long descent on scree to look forward to – a highlight for some.
We grouped into 19 Alternates and 18 Standards, and the able Alternates leader Ray took us onto Mistletoe Track, a gradual 4-wheel drive ascent through mountain beeches, flanked by a very steep drop to a stream. At 11 a.m. Ray found a welcome sunny spot to stop for morning tea. The weather was crisp, perfectly cloudless and windless.
Then the track continued, as hoped, into mountain beech canopies with only moss and beech saplings on the forest floor. Bellbirds did indeed sing all the way. Higher up there were mainly older beech saplings, and a strange, beautiful white fern in the waterways. Perhaps its autumn colouring?
At 12:15 some Alternates lunched at the Lyndon Saddle near Helicopter Hill, while others did the 20-minute walk up the hill (1256m above sea level), rewarded by spectacular 360° views over lunch. But one tramper’s nice vegetarian lunch was nearly spoiled by blood dripping from fingers cut by a sharp stone on the path. The return was steep, down the rocky top of Helicopter Hill to join the rest of the Alternates and proceed down to Sidle Track, accomplished with decorum and without incident.
Meanwhile the Standards had apparently just thrown themselves down the scree slope. Some went feet first but found that ice below the scree made hard unyielding patches. The new secretary chose to go sideways down the scree and scraped all down the left side. The leader of the Standards had sat down and slid until his shorts got a big hole. Another did it all – tore her shorts, scraped both shins and hugged a tree as well on the way down.
They eventually reached the bus where the Alternates had been for 1 1/2 hours, admiring the blue sky, rippling steam and nearby Helicopter Hill and snowy ridges.
Text by Daphne
