November 1993: Trampers were: Alan Rogers, Ross Dunlop, Ian Bardsley, his brother Jim and cousin (?in-law) Kevin, John Barrell and me (Keith Blayney). We started at the Whakapapa Village in wet conditions and headed anti-clockwise around Mt Ruapehu. Some might have predicted bad luck by heading that way, but it was more a combination of failing take the rising rivers seriously and the lack of alternative "wet weather" crossings that resulted in three trampers (all the runners, weakened by the cold, wet conditions) being washed a short distance down the Mangaturuturu River.

Some of us non-runners (with a healthy layer of subcutaneous fat) were needed to rescue two of them. We had been trapped between rising rivers and would have welcomed even a "3-wire bridge", but DOC only seems interested in fancy bridges, which it can't afford, so the rivers stay unbridged!

The next morning and river had dropped back to stream size! After patching up Kevin's abraisions, and admiring the effects of the night's snowfall, we tramped around to the Turoa Road where Kevin got a lift back to Ohakune with some Canadian tourists. The rest of us continued around the south of the mountain where the weather was much better, and we even got some mountain views.