A - SKIING THEY WOULD GO

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 25, 2 July 1952, Page 5

A - SKIING THEY WOULD GO

But the Bus Shied At The Trip At 6 o'clock in the morning of Sunday, June 22, a party of young enthusiasts of Taupo assembled at the H.B. Motor Company's depot with the idea of doing some skiing at the Chateau Tongariro. The weather was wet, but the skiing spirit was there, and nobody had the moral eourage to say, "Let's put it off." Actually there was only one that ' didn't want to go and that was the ! bus. I While the girls of the party sat ' sedately in the bus, the perfect gentlemen got out and pushed. j They pushed for ten yards. Noth1 ing happened. j Twenty yards. Nothing. I They kept pushing all the way down | Tongariro Street to the Lake, and j still nothing happened. | Then a friend hove in sight — one ! of the local butchers, who agreed to the use of his truck.. | The bus, seeing the truck approach- | ing, decided to start. That is the j way of , women, and why a bus is called "she." It was now seven o'clock. We will now have the rest of the story from one of the party, Mr Mervyn Svenj son. "Off we set," he writes, "With ! 20 out of the oiiginal 28 who said they | would go. i "We arrived at the Chateau with | the weather still the same. Every- | body in the hotel looked nice and j warm with no thought about going I out, and only a mad thought at those who wea?e — us in other words. We eventually got the office staff to i let us go up* and off we went. Well, jto cut a long story short, we bravcd !the elements for about ten minutes | to a quarter of an hour. Some of |us did a bit of skiing on our skis, etc. Some looked 011 and laughed. "On returning, our not-very-much-used skis, we were thoroughly wet and colcl but still happy. "Down to the Chateau we went, with warnings to all going up — the Army in the main. When we arrived at the bottom our one thought was to get dry as some of us did not have a change — faith in the weather. The I boiler room was the best room in the hotel and after several incidents which cannot be put down on paper, we eventually pushed off for home at 3 p.m. "At 5.30 we arrived at Taupo after ax thoroughly-enjoyed outing. Plans are now underway for another trip in better weather, although in this case it was weather, I think, that made the trip so enjoyable. 1 .