This was an exercise for the NCO's of the Squadron and we had threealternative locations in Tongariro National Park. On Friday night we assembled at ATC and completed a gear check ensuring that the NCO's were well prepared.

Saturday morning after loading the van, the 4 staff and 6 NCO's headed off for Ohakune. We made the decision that we would go to Blyth Hut due to poor weather conditions. On arriving at the car park we discovered that there were going to be 45 - 50 people in a hut designed to sleep 20 - 24.

We had advice from Department of Conservation that the Wanganui High School Hut was locked and that there was limited water at Blyth Hut. With this information we decided to do a long day walk and return to Wanganui later that day.We completed a walk into Waitonga Falls, back out to the van for lunch and then a walk down the old Blyth Track. The NCO's experienced snow, rain, hail, wind and sun all in the same day with good training occurring for them. Although we managed only the day in Tongariro there were a number of positive outcomes for the NCO's.