Heels 1962
Oh for a Beer, Fresh Bread, Meat and Girls
Oh for a Beer, Fresh Bread, Meat and Girls
Hey hang on a minute mate, how about sparin' a few minutes to read this yarn. Now you‘ve bought the bloomin’ thing you might as well read it, otherwise somebodies done you. You see, I was sittin' at home with me mate Harvie havin' a few beers when this Sheila rings up and asks me whether I'd like to write about a tramping trip that meself and two cobbers, Murray Ellis and Geoff Norris, had had down South to climb Blockade Peak on the Olivine Ice Plateau. I puts her straight, like, and says no, but she makes it clear that if I don't then there won't be no report of our trip, so I tells her I'd see what I could do but no promises like. Anyway I get back to me four and a half and big-ears Harvie says,
"Well, where did you go anyway Johnny?"
So I have to tell him otherwise he'd plant me.
From Queenstown we caught the steamer up Lake Wakatipu, having defrauded the motor camp of three quid by fitting nine others into our two-man hut. From Kinloch we went by bus up the Dart to the Routeburn, then headed off up the Dart to the junction with the Rockburn, then up the side of this river. We had fun here. Some twit made a mistake with the route guide, leaving out a day's journey, so it took us longer than expected. I think we spent three days ploughing up a gorge on to deer-infested flats at the top, then out on to Park Pass overlooking Hidden Falls creek. We were held up when we were forced into a rock bivvy by heavy rain and no track. Eventually we crossed in to the Olivine where it was still raining. We shot off down the Olivine to the Olivine Flats to the confluence with the Forgotten River where we dumped some supplies. From here we climbed up above a deep-cut gorge to some more deer-ridden tussock flats. Soon we were looking up at the lip of the Olivine Ice Plateau and the next day we ascended the lower slopes where we met two men and a female from Otago University who were camping in a rock bivvy. As the weather wasn't the best we just had a look at the plateau and descended for a rest day. We were away early next from a bivvy wellup the lower slopes. It was a lovely day and we had an enjoyable wander around the inside edge of the mountain-surrounded plateau, over a few crevasses and then a short steep snow slope, a rock scramble, more snow and out on top with a wonderful view of the Darrans to the south and Aspiring and the Main Range to the north. We stayed there for about an hour then walked back along the plateau itself then, as we were a day behind schedule, we packed up camp on arrival and tramped back to the Olivine Flats making it quite a day. With the climax of the trip accomplished, we salubed out down the Olivine to the Pyke, down the Pyke, up the Hollyford, over Deadmans to the Routeburn and back out to Kinloch where we just missed the steamer to the pub at Glenorchy.
Coming down off the plateau we were out of sight of Geoff so we stopped and waited. Twenty minutes passed so we thought, "ah well, here we go again. Vic's done it again" Anyway we climbed back up to look for him, and guess who appeared below us. He‘d been taking photos and had gone on by a different route. Then Geoff and I went through the same performance when Murray lost the track and ended up climbing down rockfaces. True to form, he'd gone on rather than go back to find the track. Perhaps more humorous was the way the lady in the shop at Hollyford backpedalled when we came in ....
Party: John Powell, Geoff Norris, Murray Ellis.