This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, no 8, September 2017
The Monthly Luncheon Gathering,
Wednesday July 12th 2017
It rained, it sleeted, and a bitterly cold southerly wind numbed our fingers and toes. David McNabb’s medium fit trip was cancelled, and Bill Wheeler’s medium trip attracted just four hearty souls. Peter Nixon was leading the easy trip but was the only person at the starting point, so he went home.
Despite the elements, eighteen veteran TTC members, inured to weather conditions, turned up in dribs and drabs for a lively lunch at Karori Park Café. One irrepressible 89-year old caught two buses to the venue. Others, some not quite as old, drove from Eastbourne, the Hutt Valley and various parts of the city. Rarely at a loss for conversation, always ready for good food, invariably interested in meeting up with old friends, we adjusted our spectacles and tuned our hearing aids, preparing ourselves for a great catch up. Our combined ages represented well over a thousand years of life and very many hours of memorable tramping, skiing and for some – climbing. Even more importantly, many friendships have been formed – some over fifty years ago. Though many have resigned themselves to a less active life there are some still fortunate enough to tackle three to four hour wanders in the hills or to cycle rather longer distances.
As Brenda Neill, our lunch trip organiser, remarked, “A certain madness has always prevailed among Tararua members.” I say, “If a little madness is the catalyst for such conviviality, long may it last!” But in that weather, the madness didn’t extend to an after lunch walk. Barbara Ogilvie ‘Trip’ members: David Burson, Judith Claridge, Dorothy Douglass, Margaret Foden, John Gates, Carole Haigh, Paul Jones, Mary Kempster, Kath Kerr, Janet King, Rolf Kluger, Frances Lee, Chris Lock, Brenda Neill (leader), Barb Ogilvie (scribe), Celia O’Neill, Peter O‘Neill, Kath Satory.
- Party members
- (leader and scribe).