So the plan is to visit four road ends and complete a final mop up of the remaining spot-heights in the Eastern Tararuas between Kaipororo (near Mt Bruce) to Featherston. These are mostly in the foothills - that marginal land hovering on the edge of the forest park. Somewhat prone to gorse and scrub but generally not as bad as you find further north.
The weather forecast is miserable with a southerly front forecast - but there's no open tops or rivers to contend with so I'm just expecting to get a bit cold and wet. And even that will be transitory as the plan involves staying in the comfort of brother number one's place.
What: Navigation, spot-heighting daytrips
When: 13-14 October
Where: Blue Range and Waiohine
Who: Solo
Roadend 1: Ruamahanga
At 7.10am I climb the style by the "No hunting, dogs will be shot" sign. It's grey with a cloud ceiling hovering around 900m. Occasionally a flake of snow drifts out of the sky and the bush above 800m has a white dusting. It's not warm.
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| North end of Blue Range filling the nip |
It's a bit of a boring potter along farm tracks for a start. I stop to disentangle a sheep with it's head stuck through a mesh fence - it's been there for a while judging by the churned up mud. It's not hard to get it out - all it really needed to do was find reverse. It trots off with it's lamb in tow.
Lambing is well underway and may explain the sign on the gate. It also means a bit more care moving around the farm.
The track pops over a spur then traverses farmed flats before hitting the bush edge (and a private hut). Four deer startle from about 50m away and trot rapidly away shortly after I hit the flats. A few minutes later I see movement on a scrubby face and see another herd, they emerge one by one from the scrub - they've seen me and are wary but regroup before moving off up the face. 6 becomes 8 and then 12. Still they keep popping out of the scrub until I've counted 26. I wait for a couple of minutes but that's all. I think the farmer needs to rethink his no hunting policy.
The huts mark the transition from farmland with a bit of scrub, to scrubland with a bit of grass. Three more deer trot off and hurdle a fence as I round a corner.
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| Nameless stream |
The bush gets thicker until finally the park boundary and real bush. It's pleasant going and the rain is still holding off.
Navigation is easy for the moment - I'm heading for the stream that drains the valley below Blue Range Hut - it's big and impossible to mistake. It's 8.40 and I take a few minutes to sit and study the map for the next bit.
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| Just before the Blue Range Hut stream |
The climb is a bit scrappy across rotting forest floor for a bit but then gets drier and more open. There may be a bit of trail but not so as you'd notice.
The first spot height for the day (9.25am) is also where I see the first dusting of snow on the ground. At 635m it is lower than I was expecting. It gets steadily thicker as I climb. It's about now that I remember that the holes in my left boot make them less than desirable snow attire. The ground ferns have soon covered my lower extremities in cold slush.
The snow starts as a dusting, then clumps on the ferns with the ground still dark, then coats the sticks on the ground forming a black and white matrix, before finally creating a solid white layer. I stop taking photos before I reach the ridge as the southerly makes the top a far from pleasant place to linger. It's about 10.20am.
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| 635 |
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| More snow |
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| And more ... |
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| Getting towards the top |
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| Starting to get cold feet |
The snow is not deep on the ground yet but I'm not about to wait around so navigate to my spur and a route down to the next spot.
There is a bit of pink tape but it's hard to see and I lose it shortly after dropping off spot 875. I rely on the compass to get me down to a large forested plateau where I nominally call that I've reached spot 618. This is the last one for this part of the trip.
I'm well below the snow now and strangely reluctant to climb back into it to try to navigate to the north end of Blue Range. Instead, I bash downwards until I connect with a farm track and navigate a tortuous route through freezing rain around the toe of the range to the official track from earlier in the morning. A curious herd of young beef decide I'm more interesting than standing around in the rain and take some discouraging to stop trailing along behind.
By the time I've scrambled in and out of scrub and gullys and climbed farm tracks the sun is starting to put in an appearance. I wouldn't say I was dry by the time I get to the car at 1.35pm but I'm a sight more cheerful than 3 hours ago.
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| Back at the car - a different day |
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| Cleaning out the north end of Blue Range |
Road end 2: Mikimiki
I decide to push daylight and head to the Mikimiki road end - it's probably going to be a longer walk than Kiriwhakapapa but it will give me a fighting chance of getting the two shorter trips done on Sunday.
The sun is still breaking through when I leave at 2.10pm. The track is an old logging tramway so it's a solid base and easy going. There's an extra bridge that's not on my map but I work out the correct one and head off track.
There are indications that people have been through, and I suspect a tramway or old road may have come in here. At one point an old rusted cable is wound around a large tree.
I find my spur and clamber up slope to the ridge. So far it's good forest (with some exotics mixed in), and easy, albeit cold and wet, going. As usual there is a bit of a trail along the ridge although not what you'd call strong. It doesn't take long before the forest breaks up into scrub and then patchy pasture. A little before 4pm I've climbed out of the saddle and have views of where I've come from, of the Waingawa River to the south and of cloud on the ridges above.
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| Looking back along the ridge |
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| Down the Ruamahanga Holdsworth road end behind saddle on left |
It's good going now following farm tracks around ridges and up to the high point for this section: Dagg. The map is a bit uncertain about vegetation and where tracks run but it all turns out to be easy to the top.
From the top I find a 4WD track down but can't find a marked side track. A bit of bush bashing and I'm soon in regenerating scrub with enough grassy patches to wend a way down. Across the valley the two final knobs for the day are basking in bright afternoon sun.
The old trail is still there and takes me on a zigazag course across the face, into a gully and dense forest. I cross the stream and climb to spots 560 then 600; breaking into scrub again on the way up.
The trails are in the process of disappearing - you can generally find them on the ground but some are being dropped off the later map versions. From 600 the trail is somewhat overgrown but still quick going and it looks like hunters use it. The are views across the valley north to the points I intend to explore tomorrow above Kiriwhakapapa.
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| South from near 600 to the face I came down A bit of a Dagg above |
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| Tomorrow's business in the middle distance (615 and 613) |
The track abruptly drops onto steep hillside pasture. This is a block of land we looked at buying a few years back with the idea of turning it back to bush on the boundary of the forest park. It looks like it didn't sell as the farmer is still running stock on it. I walked over enough of it at the time to know the quickest way to the bottom and the car.
It's 5.40pm on a clear sunny afternoon. I head for Carterton arriving just in time to shower and decamp to the Wairarapa Deerstalkers annual prize giving and auction. But that's another story.
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| Final wander down to the car |
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| Saturday arvo wander - part of Sunday at the top |
Road end 3: Kiriwhakapapa
In the morning I have a fairly leisurely get up. It's a beautiful morning - the expanse of horizon visible from the house makes the rising sun look small. There's a light frost across the Wairarapa.Janne, horrified at the idea of me putting on soaking kit in the morning has prevailed - even scrub pants are now bone dry after a night in front of the fire.
It's 8.40 by the time I leave the Kiriwhakapapa road end. Mist is curling off the grass and a lone camper van is drowsing in the sun.
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I head straight off the track and up the hill. I'm exploring a sort of island; separated from the park by the Old Tramway Track between Kirikiriwhakapapa and Mikimiki road ends. There's no trail apart from a few very old bits of red tape. A bit of scrub on the upper reaches is of a more benign sort - a lot of animals have been wandering around up here. The map underestimates the amount of clearings though - scrub and gorse are taking over.
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| Clearing on the way up - weather coming in from the south |
By the time I get to the top (9.50am) the temperature has dropped and rain is blowing in from the south. The going speeds up though as there is a large bulldozed track along the ridge. Frequent goat bones suggest someone comes up here shooting.
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| Whakapapa (735) - looking towards 725 The weather has arrived |
It's less than 10 minutes to the next knob (725). Unfortunately the track heads off towards the Mikimiki road end. I bash 200m down a steep scrubby face into mixed bush. It's a little tricky but in the saddle I hit a not so old fence with an overgrown trail beside it. This leads up and over 613 and 615.
These two spots don't look like they are in the park but I'm a bit suspicious about the file I was looking at so chucked them into the trip just in case. They also make an elegant loop trip to the saddle on the old tram track between the two road ends.
At 613 I whistle past where I should turn off and have to back track and take a bearing. I'm soon on a gently shelving ridge top in tall forest. I know when I'm just about on the track whey I see a plastic container tucked into a hole in a tree - a geocache. Five metres later I'm on the track. It's 11.20 and a little later than I thought I would be so I trot out to the car taking just under 20 minutes..
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| Sunday morning loop (Saturday arvo at bottom) |
Road end 4: Waiohine
The day is clearing again and the roads are dry as I head for the Waiohine road end. There are plenty of cars in the park at 12.45.The river is clear and the sun is shining as I trot across the swing bridge. This should be a straight out slog up the track, climb the knob and straight out again. I haven't been along the track for many years though and am surprised how much work has been put into it. There's quite a few scrambly bits across steep crumbly slopes but overall it's in good nick despite it being the tail end of winter.
I idly wonder whether there will be many people on the track, then click that this is the exact time that overnighters at Totara Flats Hut will be heading out - half to Holdsworth and half to Waiohine. Sure enough I see 14 people on the way in. It's a bit weird having to share the outdoors with other people.
I keep a good pace up as I intend to make a dinner appointment in Tawa - the tail end of the southerly chucks the odd shower through but just as much sun. There's no navigation needed for a start: follow track to cone saddle intersection, cross bridge, climb spur.
It takes an hour to get to Makaka Stream. The spur turns out to be steep for a start and no tracks that I can see. It takes me up to an impressive plateau in mature forest. My altimeter has drifted (probably as the front has passed) so I head to the next climb before I'm prepared to accept that I'm there.
It's a slightly unsatisfactory end to my eastern Tararua spot heights (more on this below) - the plateau is impressive but doesn't really have a spot you can sit on and say - this is it. However, I wander across enough of it to consider it well and truly bagged before plunging back down slope. The mucking around means it's 3pm before I get back to the stream.
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| Is this it?? |
I come out bang on the bridge and motor back to the road end. Two hunters coming in (probably for a morning shoot on Totara Flats) are the only traffic. I manage to keep the same pace taking an hour to get out by 4pm.
For the second day in a row I'm out in time to get home for a rapid shower and head out for dinner. It's been a bit of a busy weekend but, with a bit of an effort, I manage to keep my end of the conversation up before heading home for a good sleep.
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| Mostly on-track for a change |
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