On the Edge on Ruapehu

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 534, 3 May 1994, Page 19 (Supplement)

On the Edge on Ruapehu

Lana Coc-Kroft and the Mountain Dew On The Edge team joined the Army recently for a tour of duty on the heights of Ruapehu. The adventure television programme crew joined up with Waiouru' s Army Adventurous Training Company for a climbing and mountain

craft course for soldiers. The Bulletin caught up with them as they were heading up past the Knoll Ridge T Bar on their way to the Crater Lake area where they planned to stay overnight, ready for some ice climbing instruction the next day. Earlier the crew were filming around

iWaiouru, where instructors Rob Hoult and Jim Masson took them through their paces. Adventures began with a 40 ft jump'off the Rangipo prison bridge in to the chilly waters of the Tongariro River. From there it was downstream on tube rafts. Everyone who takes part in this particular activity has to ; figure out their own way to sling the raft together, said Mr Masson. "You get some interesting designs," he said. Next on the agenda was filming the high ropes course in the Waiouru gymnasium. The course is around 10 m'etres off the gymnasium floor and is more or less an aerial confidence course. The instructors said they didn't plan anything special for the filming. "We just took them through standard course stuff," says Mr Masson. 'Standard course stuff includes activities designed to improve communication skills, character development and trust building, he said.