I don't have anything particular in mind beyond experiencing a reasonable selection of what's on offer and the southern tip is as good a place to start as any.
One of the first things that strikes me as I peruse the map is the number of Maori names compared to the Tararuas. I can hazard a guess at the meaning of some (Raparapawai could be about rapidly sparkling waters or perhaps the creek where eels were split for drying) but I have the same problems with Google finding any authoritative sources.
The map also indicates no open tops and I've heard there is a fair amount of leatherwood so there could be some toughish travel. There are some sporadic bits of track in the west and more continuous tracks in the east. The main Ruahine Range forms the divide and has a surprising absence of marked tracks - but surely people will have followed it!
The plan for this weekend is to enter the Range from No 1. Line road end and follow the most direct route to Ross Peak, head south along the Range on what surely will be a network of informal trails to pick up the marked track to Wharite - the southernmost 'peak' in the Range, then head back and drop east to follow marked routes to Kiritaki Hut followed by an exit west via a couple of named peaks around Maharahara and picking up a marked track that finishes part way up the spur from No 1 Line Road.
With three days in hand I should be able to manage it.
What: Solo wander around the southern most part of the Ruahine range
Where: Ruahines
Who: Solo
When: 21-23 September 2019
Maps
The drive up the coast is uneventful save for the mild disappointment of being too early for the Olde Beach Bakery. The forecast is good, the traffic light and it's very easy finding No 1 Line Road (turn right to cross the river a ways past Ashurst, then drive past lines number 1 to 3).
A tidy gravel road winds into the foot hills and ends at a DOC carpark beside an airstrip (you would be forgiven for thinking it was just another paddock).
Around 8.20 I'm scrambling down a signed and marked track to Matanganui Stream. At the bottom there's a faint trail into the bush which, with a bit of casting about, gives an easier route up a crumbly slope through supple jack. The spur has some bigger trees and is pretty good going.
There must be another route onto the spur as a stronger trail develops with some tape markers. This is looking good for a route to the tops and Ross Peak. At pt 583 (8.55am) there's a flat spot and some large rimu.
There's a couple of indications of camp fires on the way up and other signs of people. The bush stays pretty tall and open but the canopy starts dropping until, just below 900m there is a bit of a flat spot with a clearing and bracken. After that the leatherwood starts with emergent stumps that testify to the large forest trees dying off and the upper slopes being colonised by leatherwood and other unpalatable species.
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| Looking back down the spur |
There's clag around the upper slopes and the top of the spur up to Ross Peak comes and goes across the gully to the south (I suspect this is the main route people take to the peak and probably requires landowner permission).
I note what I suspect is bog pine (Halocarpus bidwillii) but my meagre botanical skills let me down - the feature that catches my eye is juvenile leaves at the tips of branchlets right beside twigs with scale adult leaves.
I can't see much indication that people come up past this point - although it is by no means the worst scrub I've seen, progress is much slower and I'm looking forward to the top. With a named peak nearby it is inconceivable that there is no trail along the ridge.
The clag has made the scrub nice and damp so I'm soon covered in that slime that grows on leatherwood.
Thoughts of getting to the top before 11am evaporate and it's closer to 11.45 that I am zigzagging through dense leatherwood on the ridge top. There's no trail. This means a kilometre of dense scrub to Ross Peak where there will hopefully be a trail leading south.
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| Not far to Ross Peak ... |
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| Having fun yet? |
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| Getting there |
The leatherwooden hell continues and it's 3pm before I struggle through the final spiky branches to reach the trig. There are panoramic views across the plains on both sides of the range and the cloud ceiling has risen to expose the range to the north.
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| Back along the ridge to the spur up |
Someone has slashed a wide swathe through the scrub and I can finally stroll along. I am expecting the trail to head west and down a spur - possibly to No 2 Line track. The key question is whether someone has cut a trail south along the ridge.
I keep an eye out for subtle signs of a side track and am relieved to find a wide trail that veers left to follow the ridge line. Life is good - it makes sense that the only reason this trail would be here is to take bush beaten travellers in comfort all the way to Wharite.
The trail abruptly stops for no apparent reason - it's 3.40 and there's over a kilometre of scrub covered ridge to pt 1015; the first possible spot where a trail might again join the ridge. The squirming, writhing and swearing resumes. The gentle slope up to 1015 in particular takes forever but I'm relieved to blunder onto another wide swathe of a trail. I follow this to 1015 to confirm that it looks like the trail descends a spur towards the Coppermine Loop track.
It's after 5pm, I'm utterly knackered and starting to get worried about water. Wharite is still a long way off and not much prospect of accessible streams before then.
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| South to Wharite from 1015 |
The colours deepen as the sun heads for the horizon. I totter along just reaching pt 967 as the sun disappears from view. Taranaki is a small blip on the flat horizon.
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| 967 on left catching last of the sun |
The hidden leatherwood stumps are too treacherous to risk leaving the headtorch in the pack too long and it's pretty much dark before I'm much of the way into the saddle after 967. There's quite a few grassy clearings where it gets a little tricky following the trail so I meander along periodically having to cast about to find an old cut branch or some firmer footing between clumps of grass and flax that indicate the route.
Coming up out of the saddle I continue to find and lose the trail but mange to pick the right spot to swing south east and stumble onto a trail that leads up and over a knob to meet the Wharite track (8pm). There's an old sign at the spot. The track is a huge swathe with markers and lots of foot prints.
This looks like the first place for a possible foray off the ridge to find water but the scrub is still dense and I decide to test my luck that there is water at Wharite or access to the headwaters of a stream. 50 minutes later the trig emerges from the gloom and behind it a huge tower and buildings.
There's no water so I bash off the side of the summit until a trickle forms in the gully and I can scrape a hole big enough to fill my water pouch. Back at the top I determine that a picnic table is probably the best place to pitch my fly.
Preparations for dinner and bed are well under way when the lights of a ute swing into the carpark. I wonder if it's security come to check me out - however it turns out to be Fraser and a couple of his mates popping up the hill for the evening's entertainment. We chat briefly then they pop around the building to do god knows what.
It's a pretty nippy evening and my poor pitching arrangements mean my bag gets damp from condensation on the fly. A car wakes me in the morning and I realise I am precisely in the shade of the building so have missed the best of the sunrise. However, the cloud is far below and the light is good. I stagger out, avoiding the patches of frost and set about getting damp kit to dry.
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| South towards second tower with Tararuas beyond |
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| Cloud to the east of the gorge and the range |
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| Not the best sleeping arrangements |
There's a firm breeze that, combined with the sun soon has my bag and fly tolerably dry. A second ute turns up - the occupants of the first seem to have disappeared somewhere - possibly hunting as I don't see them again. The second ute are a couple of women who are enjoying the views but don't seem inclined to communicate.
On the horizon the snow clad volcanoes are clear but the east is completely covered in cloud. As I fiddle around with kit and breakfast it looks like the gorge is funnelling a wind strong enough to clear the clouds in a increasingly wide arc around Woodville.
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| Southish across the west end of the gorge |
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| North up the range - Ruapehu and Tongariro to left |
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| Woodville clears |
Around 8am I ease weary legs back into action and head north back along the track I covered in the dark. Less than 25 minutes later I'm at the old sign where I joined the track last night and set off towards Coppermine Sream and new territory. I'm heading for the east side of the range and a series of hops over ridges and up streams to get to Kiritaki Hut.
The morning is cool, the sun is warm, the sky is clear. Before long the wide track is descending and pops in and out of regenerating bush. The clouds in the east are lapping into the foot hills of the range and it looks like I'll be descending into them.
It's getting decidedly hot in the sun so I'm glad when the track is mostly in bush.
At 0915 I drop down the last steep wee section and there's yellow danger tape across the track. I suspect someone has moved it as there is no reason the track to Wharite would be closed. I poke my nose up the track towards the copper mine and there's a wash out around the corner. I assume there are a few more and DOC has run out of money to fix them so has closed the track.
There's a marked track across Coppermine Stream which climbs steeply to the ridge and a choice of right (road end) and left to Mangaatua Stream. It's a hot clear day now and I find an excuse to sit a while in the shade on the ridge.
Although I keep half an eye out I don't see a track heading further up spur - there must be one though as the trail I joined at 1015 must come up this way. The track I'm following today drops steeply through beautiful forest to the Mangaatua Stream, arriving about 1045.
Half an hour up stream, the exit from the stream is marked with a large orange triangle (just go up the creek in front of it - no need to climb the foot of the spur to the triangle). The creek is small but there's a mass of fresh debris coming down it.
I can't see much sign of traffic but it is pretty active so would be obliterated pretty quickly - it's steep and a bit mucky in places. I'm expecting to see some sign near the top to indicate where the track leaves the gully but must have followed the wrong trickle at some point as it ends up being a bit of a bash up through tight horopito. Once at the ridge a short bash along and I meet the wide swathe of Granges track.
It's another steep descent to the next stream; Raparapawai. It's 1.05 and I'm feeling the heat and the exertions of yesterday so sit in the shade for lunch and recoup. I had thought that the spur opposite Granges track looked like a plausible route - but one thing I've learnt in this neck of the woods is that if there isn't signs of a trail; it is probably not worth the aggravation. The stream route it is then.
This is a longer stream route so I take care to monitor progress on the map. There's fresh foot prints in places to confirm I'm heading the right way but it looks like they went up and back so after a bit there's not much obvious sign of the route. The last 500m or so in particular; the stream gets quite small and I'm starting to think I've gone too far.
The sign that appears up the bank a little on my right is old school, and the track is not the wide highway I've become used to on the marked tracks around here. It's about 2.45 and I'm just about done - but there's a small matter of 2-300m of climbing to the hut.
The track is rougher than the others but perfectly fine. At the ridge line I note that there could be a bit of a trail heading south. But I follow the marked track north towards Kiritaki hut which appears tantalisingly close - although there is a wee saddle to clamber through first.
On reaching the final ridge there is a definite trail heading westish which bodes will for a link through to No 1 Line Track (I'm already thinking I might take the direct route out tomorrow rather than visit the two peaks to the north).
The DOC estimate of an hour from the stream takes an hour twenty and it's a relief to clump onto the deck of the hut a little after 4pm. The clag is piling across the tops from the west, to the south east the plains south of Dannervirke are visible below the clouds.
It's a good sized 6-bunk hut, and if the log is to be believed the last person in was a month ago. Mostly hunters but some trampers. The log confirms that although most people come up from the eastern side via the stream valleys quite a few come over the range from the west. It also indicates there is a route down to Oruakeretaki Stream from the helipad (more direct than the marked track).
My original plan was to follow the track east, north and west to Maharahara then bash down the range to pick up the top of No. 1 Line Track - the route straight over the top is too tempting though.
The wind gets up during the night and slams the hut unrelentingly; the wall beside my ear thrums and it doesn't let up until morning. The sun briefly sneaks in below the cloud in the morning but that's pretty much all I see of it.
Well rugged up I leave the hut about 7.15 am and climb east to the side trail I saw yesterday. Sure enough it's pretty good - a little overgrown in places but straight forward. The weather looks pretty grim but I'm mostly protected by the scrub.
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| Looking back - last view of the hut |
Half an hour later I'm joining the Main Range and am a bit surprised to see no indication of a trail heading north to Maharahara (under 2 km away) - I could easily have missed it though. The leatherwood clad knobs disappear in the clag and I'm quietly glad not to be crawling over them.
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| The view north from the top |
The track drops into a saddle for the last climb to point 1011. I take my time and plod up pausing briefly to pick up an orange camo dog jacket that some enterprising pooch has managed to escape from.
At point 1011 I don't see any sign of a trail heading south on the main range. This confirms my experiences on Saturday - it would be a miserable trip from here to Ross Peak (over 3 km away).
Now on the western side of the range the track starts dropping and there are occasional breaks in the cloud. There's a few places where grass and windfall make it easy to drift off the track but it's quickly found again and I make steady progress down to where the track is marked on the map.
DOC triangles start turning up and shortly after there is a sign and a seat indicating the end of the maintained trail from the road end. It's 9.00am and from here it is a broad track that descends steeply through mixed but more mature forest.An intersection and some large rata with possum bands gives the option of right via the trig or a slightly shorter route down. I head to the trig and follow a fence and the edge of pasture to the bottom.
At 9.30 it's taken 2 hours 15 from the hut. There's another car in the park with gear lying beside it but I can't see anyone about so set about sorting wet gear into the car.
After a bit, a disheveled figure emerges from the other car. It turns out to be a possum trapper who carefully hid his keys in the bush and couldn't find them again. He rang his mum to come but his cell phone is on the blink and he's been here a couple of nights now.
I give him the rest of my water and a ginger beer and we yarn while I try to charge his phone.
His life story is a bit sad with a long term marriage split and a drift from farming into possuming. He reckons he needs to get at least 20 possums a day (skin the big ones and pluck the smaller ones) but killing the youngsters is starting to get to him. We exchange experiences about the Tararuas near Eketahuna and agree that the land owners south of the Mangahao are killing access. It's intriguing that he clearly knows his way around the bush and talks knowledgeably about the life cycle of possums including how their poo has changed colour with the rich pickings at present (mast year), but doesn't seem to know his trees.
His phone still won't work so he uses mine to confirm that his mum is leaving soon with a metal detector for the keys.
He insists there is nothing else he needs and help is on the way so I say goodbye and leave him to it.
It's quite refreshing to have no pressure for the drive back so stop in at the Long Beach Tavern in Waikanae for lunch and a (small) glass of the Northend Brewery's Baby Grand - a not too shabby knock-off of the Rodenbach grand cru. That's beer geek talk for a sour beer that most normal people wouldn't touch.
Postscript
Although there are a number of unmarked trails of good quality it pays to do your home work hereabouts - as soon as you get into untracked territory the vegetation is all against you. The marked tracks are mostly wide and well cleared - in fact I don't think I have ever used the word 'swathe' quiet as much. The hut was well looked after.Because of the vegetation and the Range being so narrow here there's limited exploration potential, but it's well worth pottering around the tracks and streams in the east where there is some beautiful bush. But note that there are areas of active erosion and DOC closures are in place for Coppermine.
There's clearly heaps of hunting going on so I would be careful about going in the roar. And with all the leatherwood I would also be careful about going in the raw.
All up, an interesting first brush with the Southern Ruahines.
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