This is your friendly editor here who does the fun editing thing for this here newsletter. I am also a tired editor who wants to get some sleep before work in the morning. If someone would like to volunteer to help with scanning or anything else in future, speak up!

This is a great job. It’s a pity I don’t get paid for doing this kinda stuff! But I keep in sight the fact that this is your newsletter. Self-indulgence and making fun of people are just fringe benefits as far as I’m concerned. There are some people who we just can’t help making fun of in that good-natured way. Oh, that reminds me, Rene would like to point out that I edited out the sexy girl he was dancing with in the photo at the top of page 3... oops, I mean page 5! There is no end to the photgraphic gems containing our dear club captain although he does tend to expose more skin than many of us feel comfortable with. Elf-man of the forest to fisherman hardly encompasses the range of this man’s persona.

I’m looking forward to an exciting year. Lots of you new people joining the club. Make sure you say hello to peoples! For those seasoned members, don’t dis’ the newbies. No harems please! That naive urbanite who asks if he can bring a suitcase on the tramp instead of a pack is probably a great guy once you get to know him. Don’t miss the first few trips. There’s no work for students in March so it’s a perfect time to get out of Christchurch and make some new friends in the process. I look forward to not sitting in front of a computer next weekend! I can cope without my cellphone.

How good this newsletter is depends upon contributions from club members. I don’t write 24 pages myself. Until now, material has always been from committee members. They have enough to do already! If you have something hip you’d like in the next newsletter then email me. Does anyone have any gossip? I’ll print your letters! If you have great photos of a trip (whether scenic, informative or embarrassing) I’d like to see them. If you write something or find something that I could metamorphose into a fab space-filler for a corner of one page, send it in!

email: send text or any kind of attachment to: b.webster@ext.canterbury.ac.nz

Analogue Snail-mail (post): Bruce,79 Condell Ave, Papanui, CHCH.