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TC meetings as most of you should know are held every Tuesday, 7:30 pm, Meeting Room 1, Student Union Building at Victoria - however at the moment it’s university holidays so we’re meeting down at Zebos (Cnr Cuba and Abel Smith Sts).
See you in the hills
Catherine & Tess
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The overseas contingent of the club have also been enjoying themselves with Rob and Anke spending 6 weeks in South America and getting to awesome places such as Patagonia. Chris and Leigh have also been tripping round South America getting in lots of tramping and are due back at the end of April. Last year’s president Steve has been keeping up the reputation of the club in Europe, passing out on door steps in Munich apartments after decorating the pot plant in the hallway.
The main tramping club year kicked off in early March with Freshers at Totara Flats. By all accounts it was a great success with lots of swimming in the river and relaxing in the sun. There was also a BBQ at the road end of Sunday while waiting for the bus. The next weekend was bush craft at Otaki Forks. Once again there was brilliant weather on the Saturday, which made learning navigation, campsite management and river crossing really quite enjoyable. I would like to thank my fellow instructors; Caroline, Rebecca, and Jeremy for doing a good job. Sunday saw us looking for an open Fish ‘n’ chip shop at Paraparaumu beach.
Rock craft was a good success despite the rain with close to 30 people attending. Dave reckons everyone was pretty hard-core going out in that weather and impressed that he didn’t have to force anyone to attend. Simon and I also had a pretty good early season ski on “the tongue” above Turoa on Ruapehu. That night also saw a wee bit of a celebration at Catherine’s flat which we were lucky didn’t end up in the neighbour’s flat downstairs.
The last weekend of the month was a good old-fashioned tramp into the Tararuas leaving from Otaki Forks. Twenty four people entered the hills with groups getting to Maungahuka and Kime and one heading out to Walls Whare.
Now that day light savings has ended the days are getting shorter and colder as we head towards winter. I also think it is a good time of year for tramping. It’s not too hot and you often tend to get long settled periods of weather this time of year, perfect for heading into the hills.
Cheers,
Eric (Chief Guide)
In ancient times (ie during the 1950’s and 1960’s – sort of when your parents started kicking around) the Vic tramping club had a high attrition rate in terms of club members going away anbd not coming back, ever. This reputation changed markedly during the last two decades of the millennium and instead of being a major user of New Zealand’s Search and Rescue resources, the club has been a supplier of keen, motivated volunteers. Nowadays, the Vic Club is a member of the Wellington Search and Rescue Organisation (WSARO), an umbrella group consisting of the Police and various outdoor recreation clubs that co-ordinates SAR in the Wellington Region (Kapiti Coast, Wairarapa and Wellington metro area).
Although last year was quiet, this year has been relatively busy, with a couple of club teams getting some cool chopper rides from Wellington to the Haurangi’s and back, and from Masterton into and out of Mid Waiohine. Notwithstanding the air transport thrills, WSARO offer a year round training programme which is designed to provide all volunteers with a known skill base in tracking, clue awareness, navigation, communication, first aid, rope skills, and advanced search techniques.
Of late, Vic club members on the first response list have been migrating (mainly to Auckland for some reason). This is undermining Vic’s traditionally strong contribution to SAR in Wellington, hence the request for interested people. Being a mean lean tramping machine is not a pre-requisite for SAR. Even if you are new to the club, your experience will be taken into account in terms of the type of operations you may be asked to do. Joe Prebble has some application forms for the first response list.
If you want more info on SAR, there is heaps of info in the Land SAR
homepage located at:
http://www.nzlsar.org.nz
Dave Walker
PS: Please update my home phone number on your pink club membership card. It is now 970 0599.
Committee trip to Orongarongas 2000:
“If I got offered a million $ to sleep with Steve …” Dave Hodson
“I’d pay less than a million for some guys” Dave Hodson again
“Boobs are better than biceps” Kathryn Gow
“Hold on to my ass” various people during the evening.
And while we’re on the topic:
“Nice ass” – Julian Duerr being less than subtle at the Doctors’ &
Nurses’ Party
And just a few more:
“I can’t look you in the eyes any more” - Benj to Eleanor
“If you’re a piece of shit, not many people are going to want to eat
you” – wisdom from Simon
“Women – they’re nothing but trouble” - more words of wisdom
from Phil