It had been three or four years since the last time NTC had ventured up the Pearse Valley, so memories were a bit vague as to what to expect. Heavy rain 24 hours before had raised the river level, not to dangerous levels - but man, was the water cold, as we discovered on the first crossing next to the car park.

The track starts through private land and is wide and smooth, but as soon as it enters conservation land it becomes narrow and overgrown with ferns

and blackberry for the first couple of kilometres as it starts climbing above the river. There are no bridges on this track, so it was a good chance to practice river crossing. This was a new experience for some people, not something often encountered on most of the manicured tracks around. Amazingly, no one fell in during the total 22 crossings, as we crossed individually, or linked up on the deeper, swifter bits.

Three hours got us to the resurgence. After a quick look at the source of the Pearse, we enjoyed a break for lunch before most of us headed further up valley to Nettlebed Cave.

Those of us who had been up here before tried to remember the way. Andrea had been mother hen, crossing and recrossing to help the less experienced across the main river, without incident, then...

It took a bit of bashing about in the bush looking for the rough track before the light came on, memory returned, then ten minutes later we were at the dark cave mouth.

This time, our intention was to venture in further, down the rope and ladder at the end of the second tunnel to see where that led.

We had taken chalk to mark the way back, but this was soon curtailed when the trip leader brained himself on the roof of the cave, then had to back out to survey the damage. A bit of blood, but luckily, the wound was only superficial. The perils of wearing peaked caps, eh Pat?

Dodging the onga onga we returned back down valley without further incidents. We emerged at the car park by about 5.00pm.

A cheerful crew of eleven handled the river and overgrown track without fear or complaint. Thank you, Pat, Kelvin, Grant, Kath, Andrea, Corinna, Mark, and guests Diane, Samantha and Greg. Trip leader Chris (scribe).