Otaki Headwaters

It's not so many years back that I would look at the map and think how adventurous the Ohau river system was. Two huts reached by travelling up the unmarked river bed - what if the river came up, or you missed the correct junction, or worse, wandered past the hut without seeing it?  Far safer to take the longer but marked tracks.

Now the river is a familiar and much more pleasant way to get into interesting country - and the tracks are just for a rapid exit when all the fun has been had.

The plan this weekend is to head up the South Ohau to the top of one of it's tributaries; drop over Butcher's Saddle into the headwaters of the Otaki River and find my way to five spot-heights which defy any rational connecting route.

On my intention's sheet I have described the trip as ambitious and the support crew is mentally prepared for me putting in a no-show on Sunday night.

The interesting bits - deer infested knob at arrow, camp at triangle

There's a good few cars in the park as I head out on a clear morning at 7am.

I make reasonably good time up the river arriving at the North/South branch junction at 8.20 and South Ohau Hut at 9.30.  There's a few terraces you can short cut across which save a few minutes - and if you pick the wrong one, waste you a few minutes navigating through supplejack. I usually get it right now.

Junction - Deception spur in middle

I haven't traveled the upper reach of the South Branch often and quite enjoy that, although smaller, it is a bit steeper and less sedate than the lower section.  I reacquaint myself with a hunters camp mouldering into the forest (it'll take a long time for thick black polythene to break down).

South Ohau Hut

South Ohau Hut is empty as I pause to fill in the log.

Butcher's creek has a wide rocky base with vegetation starting to recolonise but between the deer and historic rock coming down it is still quite open. It's quicker travel than I expect and I whistle past the correct junction to head up the wrong one.

After topping up from the wee stream I notice a bit of a smell and come across, first a deer leg in the water then a bit further up the rest of the deer (minus head), fortunately not in the water.

The stream I'm following heads in the right direction and remains open but gets steeper topping out in an eroding gully that I have to scramble out of. When I finally make the ridge it is 200m higher than the saddle. Oh well, on the track it is short work to get back to the correct spot.

Wrong route

The saddle is a more complex shape than the map suggests and I can't see any obvious trails heading south which is a bit surprising as this is an obvious connector route to the Otaki River. In the end I just pick a spot and bash on down. A trickle develops and becomes a stream and the stream heads over a waterfall. Fortunately, although mossy you can scramble down provided you don't mind a bit of sliding.

I emerge on a bend on the Otaki River about 11.40. I'm intrigued to see what it's like this far up. Most of us know the Otaki from driving across the braided mouth, a visit to Otaki forks, crossing on a swing bridge or maybe going off track up the middle section.

It's smaller up here (obviously) but clean, clear and still a good size. As I head up the valley there are occasional wee flats and cascades but no gorges and no swimming.

Side Stream

I exit the river bed onto a grassy terrace and see the south end of a ten pointer. It hasn't got wind of me yet so I take a step forward every time it faces directly away. When it finally twigs and crashes off into the undergrowth I am about 15 paces away. I'm not entirely sure what I would have done had I got any closer.

All too soon the pleasant wander up the river is over - the foot of the spur to 998 is obvious with a good size stream entering from the true left - there's a massive bolder in the stream bed a little up from the junction. It's 12.25 so, about 45 mins up from the bottom of Butcher's saddle stream.

Upper Otaki River

Lunch - bottom of spur

I stop for lunch and top up my water - I'm expecting a long hot climb and the spur looks a bit gnarly on the map.

It's a bit of a scramble to get onto the bottom of the spur from the junction - it might have been a little easier a little way up the side stream perhaps? Once on the spur it's a steady climb - no trail noticeable but pretty good going.

Breaking out of the bush onto a knob I'm shocked but not really surprised by the damage - it is churned up, flattened and chewed by deer. And four of the culprits are there. One heads up the hill and out of sight - two others and a fawn haver about 50 metres away waiting to see what I'm going to do. They crash off the side when I start closing the gap.

Deer knob - Te Matawai Hut on ridge behind

It's a steepish climb now but the deer have made trails that see me through the worst of the scrub then fade towards the top. It's a clear, hot day and I'm regretting not bringing sun screen or sunnies but at least have a long sleeved shirt.

The ridge is part of the Main Range; north is Pukematawai, Arete, Dundas and other peaks - south is Nicols, Crawford and so on. To the east, across the lovely glaciated Park Valley is the isolated Carkeek Ridge. One of the spurs brings back some sharp memories of a hairy climb down, and a scrub bash up into clag and flurries of snow.

Carkeek Ridge

Today though it is still and hot - the track is a little soft and shows the scars of the Te Araroa season. There's an awful lot more feet heading through here than there ever used to be.

It is so much easier wandering around up here when you're not in cloud. I can see exactly where my next spur departs and don't need map or compass to work out where to leave the track.

The tree line on this spur is just below the ridge and I am very pleased to slide into the familiar shade of gnarled and mossy beech. The plan is to follow the spur down to pt 855 - I'm expecting it has been travelled before as the bottom of the spur points directly at Butcher's Saddle and is an obvious route between the range and the Ohau. From pt 855 I'll return to 1020m to take a more tricky route down to pt 755 then the valley floor.

Soon after leaving the tussock there's a bit of a trail and someone a long time ago has marked the route with blue packing tape. Much of it is missing now and the rest is somewhat brittle. At a couple of critical junctions a more recent someone has left a tiny bit of pink tape. I make a mental note of the one I think might mark the spur to pt755.

There's a few spots where you have to cast about a bit to keep on the right spur but I find my way to 855 and have a bit of a sit down (a bit after 4pm) before the slog back up the hill. It shouldn't really be a slog but the legs are not quite as spritely as they were this morning.

It turns out my hunch was right - I take a bearing from near the pink ribbon and find myself on the correct spur. It sounds straight forward but it is tricky finding the right point to depart a relatively flat spur under canopy.

 Pt755

There's no real trail apparent and it's trickier to stay on course now. At one point I take a new bearing too soon but work it out and sidle out of a gully onto the correct route without too much lost time. A bonus of this is catching a few cups of water from a tiny trickle to supplement my dwindling water.

From 755 another bearing takes me down a spur to old terraces beside the river - near the bottom there's a faint trail marked with blue triangles indicating a pest monitoring line - it's not quite going my way so I leave it to its own devices.


The canopy is a long way above and it's starting to get dim but, although nice and flat there's no water here. I can either head south to Collie Creek or carry on to the river - the river wins out simply because my route in the morning is north and heading south just feels inefficient.

A few minutes later (6.30), at the exact point I clamber down the last bank, I find the perfect camp spot.

A large mossy space just above the river is as level as a billiard table and has a tree each side perfectly situated for hanging a fly. A circle of stones for a fire indicates I'm not the first to fancy this spot. This sounds pretty straight forward but finding a fly camp spot is virtually always an exercise in compromise. Candidates will either have an inconveniently placed root or no handy trees (a necessity when you have no poles).

I hang the fly high as the forecast is good then get on with making dinner (well, boiling water to stick in the dehy packet).

It's calm and mild and the soporific chuckling of the river has me dozing before dinner is ready. Over venison risotto I make my plans for the next day (up river, find spur, along ridge, down track).  I turn in with the last of the light and try to relax the cramps out of aching feet and legs.

There's no rain in the night, nothing that bites and just a gentle down-valley breeze in the early morning - just enough to require a corner of sleeping bag to be twitched across an exposed cheek.

As the morning light filters into the valley (the sun will take a while to follow) the head torch is initially required to get the billy going for breakfast. There isn't even a dew so the fly is dry and everything packs away tidily. An unbelievably civilised camping experience.

Yesterday was a little more productive in terms of distance than expected so I'm thinking I might even be out by 3pm today.

The map says it's a little over a kilometre to where I intend to start climbing out of the valley. I have the land marks in mind - stream on (my) left slip on left, stream on right, slip on right, stream on left and climb. It should take about half an hour travel time in the open river bed.

The river is small enough that I find spots to skip through without filling my boots - they're still wet from yesterday but it's nice to keep them a bit lighter.

The last slip is a big one - boulders and smashed trees have been carried across the river which was probably blocked for a while. It's still active so I don't hang about crossing the debris field to the stream on the other side.

A pause to fill the camel back and it's climbing time - just after 8am.

From the shape of the land this is not a route that people are likely to have taken previously and I am unsurprised to find no trails - it's reasonably open though under a good canopy - free of supplejack and kiekie. It's a steady climb up the side of the spur and onto the top of it at 780m.  From here it climbs more gently through 815 towards a junction and a turn westwards. There's a lot of windfall so not speedy progress.

The vegetation changes a few times and a bit of a trail develops over 1024 and the next wee knob. I wonder whether some of the changes are still related to the 1936 storm that smashed the forest in this part of the range.

Pt 1024

At 9.55 I'm at pt 1015 on the long Oriwa Ridge.  Last time through here was in the pitch black and it was a bit tricky - I'm hoping daylight will speed things up.

This is another one of those areas with fond and not so fond memories - the first time through (fond)was one of my early forays off track as part of a slightly harebrained idea of getting from Poads Road to Otaki Forks with no stream crossings (doable - although at the forks you have to cross at least one water course to get to the carpark). The second time (not so fond) was an aborted attempt to get into the Otaki headwaters resulting in the aforementioned late night staggering about off track in the dark.

Today, it's a warm calm morning and I can potter along and find the occasional piece of orange tape to guide progress.

Climbing out of the bush into the tussock I hear voices on the breeze and see a group of trampers at the memorial half a K away.

I divert to the top of Waiopehu (11am) just to confirm I've dunnit before dropping onto the track and down to the hut.

Top of Waiopehu

It's empty of course but the log shows that there have been a few people through.

Horowhenua Plains from Waiopehu Hut

Top up water, fill in log, admire the view and head off at 11.20. I'm now of a mind to be on the way home so although it's a pleasant track I keep as quick a pace as I can manage, passing a family, a couple and a man, son, dog combo before exiting the bush onto hot, dry farmland.

At 1.15 it's taken a little under 2 hours from the hut and 5 and a half from my campsite. A lot quicker than I was expecting and giving the lie to the 'ambitious' claim on my intentions sheet. The carpark is even fuller than when I left - I get changed whilst warding off three avaricious and completely unafraid chooks intent on exploring the car interior.

Postscript

I could quite happily head back to the Otaki headwaters. There's lovely little camping spots and the river is mostly pretty gentle from what I saw. Plenty of opportunity to explore spurs and I only followed a fraction of the river let alone side streams. There even seemed to be a more genteel variety of scrub then some parts not too far to the north. However this may just be due to the depredations of voracious quadrupeds.

The Ohau River was as enjoyable as ever and I didn't mind the extra climbing up Butchers Creek.

I contemplated following Blackwater or Makaretu Stream rather than the track out from Waiopehu Hut but had basically had enough by then - either would be a good option on a nice day with time in hand.

And of course - only 13 spot heights left now - maybe this season after all?