| Leader | Mentor | Tail Ender | |
| One Group | Alan | Bev |
It was a cool grey morning when the bus departed Bishopdale for our annual tree planting exercise. After stopping to pick up more trampers at Princess Margaret Hospital carpark we numbered 39 including one guest (Neville) and one visitor (Bruce). Our President greeted everyone on the microphone with “Good Mornings” that covered every nationality on the bus including Te Reo. We were all very impressed with her skills. Chocolates were circulated – one bag from Dave R who was excited as his birthday allowed him to qualify for free skiing (even more excited than when he received his Gold Card) and one from Pip as it was one year almost to the day since she broke her fibia on the same excursion (the walk part not the tree planting!). I’m pleased to say she has fully recovered.
We arrived at the Summit Road Carpark driven expertly by our wonderful Viktor, and crossing the road walked up a short distance to the Urumau Reserve, the same area we planted last year. We were met by Park Ranger Fiona and her two assistants from Council who had prepared the ground by scraping out the top vegetation. They had placed a variety of native plants in the cleared spots for us to plant. Shovels and gloves were handed out and, as we were short of a few spades, some of us worked in pairs, one digging and one assembling the plant cage and stakes to place around the plant. We started planting about 10am after watching a “correct way to plant your tree” demonstration by Fiona. The ground was quite hard due to the very dry summer. It was important to mulch correctly around the plant once one managed to break the ground and plant the tree. Much talking and laughter made short work of the 420 trees planted. Viktor, our driver, also assisted with the planting. Such enthusiasm! Brent nearly took himself out with a bamboo stake (that was the worst part of the planting – trying to get those bamboo stakes in the hard ground without snapping them – Fiona made it look so easy!) We had a short break for morning tea at 11am and finished up at mid-day. A very satisfying couple of hours.
We then walked back down to the carpark where the bus was parked and had our lunch under the pine trees at the top of Richmond Hill. The wind had come up from the south and it was becoming bitterly cold. We were keen to get walking and set off at about 1pm to walk down the Eastenders Track to the Barnett Cave Loop Walk Track. Squally showers and wind battered us at the top but once down to the track leading to the cave it was considerably calmer. We climbed up 70 wooden steps to enter the cave to find four people sitting there enjoying the views. The sound is so amplified in the cave that as we walked up it sounded like there were a lot more people than four in there so it must have been very noisy when we all arrived. There were great views down the valley. Some of our trampers had never been into the cave before so found it interesting. We walked down the steps and followed the loop trail back to the bus. We found the left side of the loop going down a little greasy in places on some of the rocks and it was a narrower path. There were a few slips as our feet skated out from beneath us but we all arrived back at the bus in one piece apart from a couple of bruises! The light rain was enough to cause the greasy rocks.
As we arrived at the bus at 2.15pm there was plenty of time for a stop-off for a drink on the way home. We dropped into the Brickworks, Viktor skillfully managing to park the bus appropriately. The most dangerous part of the day was crossing the road. We departed at 3.20pm for home, dropping off some of our trampers at PMH on the way. A great day out, the planting timed perfectly before the change in the weather.
Text by Judy R
