2022 AGM Weekend Review

AGM weekend 2022 based in National Park Village

by Margi Keys

The second weekend in November was wet, but it was fun.

Day 1 of the 2022 AGM weekend saw Murray Wilson of National Park Village being our guide to the Tupapakurua Lookouts on the Fisher Track. Dressed in wet-weather gear, 24 of us had a ball. At the half-full buckets of shingle, Murray said we could help if we liked. No pressure! Murray counted the loads carried and gave us the stats at the end: 46. This was a record number of buckets of shingle carried to the end of the shingled track to date. Willing carriers extended it by about 10 metres that day. We didn’t make it to the falls, being aware of our 4pm AGM commitment, but it’s always good to have something else up our sleeves should we return one day. At lunch time, out came two brollies. Those without were pelted as we experienced another deluge.

The AGM upstairs at Ski 150 went without a hitch. Pictorial reports and stats were impressive. It was Nature Quiz time before our delicious dinner catered by Altitude. The Marshalls were up against five other teams with a varying number of members. Hardly fair! Quiz mistress Rachel Thompson was kind; extra points were awarded for smart alternative answers she hadn’t thought of. Who knew that 283 weta legs were found in a single hedgehog’s stomach after one night’s foraging, or that 408 possums were trapped by Genesis Energy on the new power station side of Mt Tauhara in seven nights?After all the hard thinking, not-so-hard drinking and satisfying eating, it was time to watch the Black Ferns play the Red Roses. The game was live-streamed. Although I’m not an avid fan of rugby, I was obliged to join the others; I was glad I hadn’t gone all antisocial. The final score was 34-31 to our wāhine toa, securing NZ the trophy. Someone said repeated rolling mauls (signature of the England team) are not real rugby. They were deadly! However, women play rugby quite differently from men and that’s OK. The nation celebrated Ruby Tui and her team for days and weeks.

Day 2 saw a smaller PT group of 12 gather at Cuff Rd to walk the Marton Sash & Door loop with Murray plus DOC senior heritage adviser Paul Mahoney and four of his mates from their model engineering group which meets at Pokaka annually. Once again, we were dressed in our wet-weather gear. Paul showed us relics from the old bush tramway days. We saw rails, old log bridges, the vestiges of sleepers and the remains of a dam. A skid site off the trail had me scratching my head. I had a hundred questions. A train enthusiast most of his life, Paul told us he began interviewing at the age of 11. His subjects were old timers who told Paul about their working life in the bush and on the rails. He has hundreds of stories recorded for posterity. The Marton Sash and Door Company Ltd did logging and saw-milling operations near National Park Village and around Erua from 1925 until 1957. The company produced doors and sash windows in Marton. Many old bush tramways have been uncovered and repurposed as bike trails, thanks to the rural communities nearby and Ngā Haerenga. Murray said there are plans for more in the district to be utilised. Both tracks have been much enhanced thanks to the National Park Village Business Association. ‘It has been a huge project for the local community to clear and maintain the old tramlines as a cycle and walking trail,’ says Murray. ‘The next stage will see the trail linked through to Horopito where it will join the Ohakune Old Coach Road to provide a 40-km day ride from National Park Village to Ohakune.