The past month has been another busy month for the club. The work building a new public shelter at Mountain House has resulted in many club members giving up a number of weekends for this project. At first I was a bit worried about whether we would have enough helpers for this project. However, we have had a good turn out on all of the working parties. It is pleasing to see how this project has come together; as well it has been quite a bit of fun. Stuart and Gerard have done a great job at coordinating and leading this project as well as overseeing all the clubbies that have contributed on the work parties.
It is great that in the last couple of years we have built this shelter (to replace the rundown Mtn House) and have fixed up Smiths Creek. I remember a couple of years ago talking to DoC about these huts and being told that they were a disgrace – well, these days DoC staff think what our club has done is absolutely fantastic. It’s great to work with DoC (with the support of others such as the Lotteries Commission) to tidy up two of the most rundown/rubbish holes in the Tararuas. Excellent – well done everyone!
The AGM has now been and gone. Thanks to those who have volunteered to help on committee this year. We are still looking for an assistant chief guide. If you are interested please let our new Chief Guide – Andrew Chisholm know. Alternatively, if you are not able to take on this role in full but are able to help out – for instance by doing just one of the tasks that the assistant chief guide does (eg putting trip lists up on the notice board), then this will be a great help. Please get in touch with Andrew if you can help. If we don’t find an assistant we may need to look at other options – such as scaling back some club activities in order to make the Chief Guide role more manageable.
It’s always a shame when summer comes to an end. However, in many ways it will be nice to have some cooler weather when tramping. I think it’s been a good summer this year – think on just about every tramping trip I’ve been on we have ended up swimming in the rivers or the sea (on a few occasions I’ve actually found it too hot for tramping).