The ranges behind Levin have some lovely wee spots and fond memories - the upper reaches of the Ohau Rivers; beautifully formed but unmarked tracks; a forest gecko that stayed put long enough for a photo. And then it is justly infamous for parts best described as scrubby hell holes (or ridges to be precise).
This weekend is a foray back into the interior and pretty much covering both ends of the spectrum.
What: Navigation, spot-heighting and scrub bashing
Where: Ohau River, Mangahao, Tawirikohukohu
When: 21-22 April 2018
Who: Solo
Map:
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| Large scale view - red is the current trip, blue the Easter excursion |
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| Close-up of start and finish bits |
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| Close-up of middle bits |
A quiz evening last night results in a lack of sleep and a late start. Consequently, it's 0800 when I arrive at a busy Poads Road end. A motley crew is gathered preparing for a day walk - I head out just before them.
The familiar track wends across farmland and into the Ohau River valley. The sky is a bit grey but the forecast showers are holding off. A couple of paradise ducks kick up a racket when I appear on the terrace above their pond.
My navigation brain is barely required at the start which is probably just as well. The first bridge marks the target spur and there turns out to be a well worn track heading up. There are a number of leg-hold traps (all sprung) stapled to trees, one clutching a well-dead possum - not a pleasant death. And someone has left an old pack hanging on a tree with a secateurs and a knife sharpener in it.
Spot-height 295 (0845), like most others, is unremarkable (and to my annoyance, I realise later that it is technically not in the forest park - oh well).
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| 295 - open forest with just a little bit off supplejack |
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| Hallmark pack - remember them? |
At the top (0915), the spur emerges onto the track that will take me back down to the river at Blackwater Stream (6 discs track?). It's marked and reasonably well trod but still easy to wander off in a few places. Spot-height 372 is a short distance off the track and even less remarkable than 295.
At the bottom (1010), the bridge over Blackwater Stream leads to a pleasant grassy clearing and a track down to the river junction. Across the river is the base of the spur I have my eye on - it turns out to have sporadic markers indicating that someone thought it was a route once.
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| Back on the gorge track |
On the way up, the wind in the trees is a constant refrain but the rain still holds off. The wind noise is such that I step around a tree and startle a large stag about three metres away. He's completely oblivious to my approach and, it's fair to say, gets the bigger surprise. He leaps and thunders off around the slope. The place must be infested - a little earlier I heard something crashing off and, at another spot, caught a glimpse of a rapidly dwindling deer's bum.
On the ridge (1140) there's a lovely wee track with old orange bait stations - it looks like part of a line I've seen further up the ridge around Square Knob. The stations aren't in use but the track looks like it might be. The weather gets up a bit more and there must have been some rain as the trees are a bit wet.
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| Ridge - pretty open |
I figure the track is likely to take the obvious route and drop to the junction of North and South Ohau Rivers. It doesn't. I lose it around 670m and take a bearing to my spur, taking a while to triangulate to ensure I'm in the right place - a little tricky with the cloud ceiling hiding the higher points.
The spur is ok with a bit of steep clambering at the bottom - I'm chuffed to emerge just below the junction (1340). But not so chuffed at the downpour that is slashing up the valley. It blows through quickly with just a few parting shots, so I don't get my coat out.
The name of the spur that splits the two branches of the Ohau River is Deception Spur. As names go it's up there with 'False Spur' off the Southern Crossing. In this case it is possibly a testament to the challenges that have always existed of navigating below the bushline in Tararua clag?
The spur caught my eye a while back - it looks like an efficient way to get into the head of the Mangahao and the big spurs up to the Main Range - but I failed to work it into my Easter 2018 double crossing. It proves to be a good route, a little overgrown and steep at the bottom but quite navigable and easy to follow further up.
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| Nice to see rata in flower - Deception Spur |
I notice I've slowed a bit - with low energy levels the plan of dropping to North Ohau hut then bashing over pt 1025 is clearly off the table. I have a sit and think and regretfully decide to leave the spot-height for another day - and thus an orphan is born. It will take a dedicated trip to knock it off, buggrit.
The top of the spur has a large cairn (1545) - perhaps indicating early problems finding the right spot and hence the name?
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| Top of Deception Spur |
This is (briefly) familiar territory - I whistle down the ridge to the area of treefall (about 720m) where I pick a random spot and strike off for the valley which is less than 200m below at this point. No trails to speak of, but I would be very surprised if there wasn't one somewhere.
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| Mangahao River |
The river (1630) is not up but deep enough for wet boots. The track here is wide and well formed, following river terraces beneath mature forest. It's relaxing swinging along familiar ground without having to think quite so much about navigation and foot placement. What is not relaxing is the prospect of being mistaken for a deer (in a flouro vest) in the gathering gloom. I periodically let out a loud whistle just in case.
It always takes s little longer than I expect to get to the hut and it's just on dusk (1740) as I clomp onto the deck to find it empty. It's as tidy as usual (probably due to the ministrations of the Manawatu Tramping Club who seem to be sending working parties in reasonably frequently).
I have a luxurious 10 hour sleep disturbed only by a few heavy dumps of rain during the night. By the time I'm heading out (0720) the sun is already drifting down the opposite valley wall.
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| Morning from Mangahao Hut |
The plan today is to climb to the ridge running west up to Tawirikohukohu. Forays into this area in the past have been ... challenging, but I've heard there is an old route up by Tawiri Stream and I'm hoping the ridge is better traveled then some in the area.
On the flats a few minutes from the hut, for the second time this weekend I manage to sneak up on a stag - this one is about five metres away when we see each other. This close he looks pretty big and spiky. Irrespective of our relative placement in the food chain there's an instant of relief when he runs away rather than toward me.
Not for the first time I get caught out crossing between two maps (mind the gap!). And, if I'm honest, confirmation bias. I have it in mind that I enter the river at the big slip (which must be the one with the high level bypass track). My morning brain refuses to count the first slip without the bypass and I amble gormlessly twice as far as required and consequently take the spur on the true left (not right) of Tawiri Stream.
The bush is beautiful here. Rain forest like - dripping with moss that is bright green in the morning light under a tall canopy (the classic goblin forest at higher altitudes is generally darker and often a bit drier). I'm a bit suspicious that there is no sign of any trail but don't really mind.
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| Deer wallow on way up spur |
It's a steep climb and the dreaded scrub starts about 800m, there's no real signs of travelers other than game until an old powerade bottle signals an(other) idiot has been this way. The scrub bashing is not too bad, and at least I can now see the Main Range, and the fact that I'm on the wrong spur.
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| From the wrong spur - back towards the Main Range |
The ridge (1000) brings views to the orderly Horowhenua plains and the infamous Camelbacks. I am delighted to discover that there is a bit of a trail to follow.
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| Difficult country - Camelbacks and other scrubby places |
Having come up the wrong spur I now 'have to' drop down to pick up a spot-height on the correct spur (pt 940 - 1025). This spur has an old cut track and is probably pretty good going all the way to the bottom. However, my attention is more taken by the shape of the ridge up to Tawirikohukohu from the south. It is the site of the most miserable scrub bashing I have ever endured. It doesn't look so bad from here but does look a little ugly towards the top.
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| Tawirikohukohu on right - I think it took two hours to navigate that stretch of ridge Those little knobs up to the right are nasty |
Just before Tawirikohukohu the track sidles around to the right (north) and it's easy to miss where a foot trail continues upwards. A bit of clag is starting to gather. From the catchment south east of the peak a stag roars - I roar back and another joins in. We roar at each other for a bit until I clearly say something inappropriate and they both shut up.
The top (1105) is largely in scrub so I take a bearing to the next spot height (897) and am relieved that there is an old cut trail leading in that direction. The plan at this point is to nip down and back, then exit on what I know are nice but unmarked trails via Square Knob. You can guess that this is exactly what doesn't happen.
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| From Tawirikohukohu - towards Square knob |
Part way down, the trail simply disappears leaving me floundering through leatherwood and other scrubulous species. Sometime during my sweary down-spur progress it becomes clear that coming back up is going to be miserable. I hunker down in a patch of dracophyllum and study the map - an escape route into the upper North Ohau River is quickly identified and a text is sent to home command in quick order.
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| Don't forget to scrub |
There is a bit of a knack to scrub bashing and often a bit of a knap to the scrub. As soon as I start heading off the ridge I am no longer pushing through the scrub but crashing over scrub that is lying in a downwards direction - progress further accelerates as the canopy lifts and progress underneath becomes possible.
No-one in their right mind comes through here so it's animal trails again. The spur is a bit messy in shape so some compass assistance is necessary but the only real challenge is at the bottom where it bluffs out. The river (well, stream really) is visible below, flowing though a slot into a deep pool, but it takes a wee while to safely navigate the crumbling bank to the bottom (I may have marked the wrong spur on the map above).
The North Ohau (1335) then provides a delightful series of cascades to negotiate before leveling for a long (slippery) wander down to the hut. I reach the major junction upstream of the hut about 1400. There are a few useful terraces that speed up travel, and one or two lower down with deep cutty grass and elephant traps that are best avoided. On one high terrace I find another bloody hunters rubbish heap.
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| Wee cascade shortly after joining North Ohau |
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| Junction |
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| Bloody hunters! |
There's a large hind grassing on the flats below the hut. My approach is masked by the sound of the river so it isn't until I whistle that she takes a long look before trotting off with another in tow. If I had been a hunter it would have been another for the pot.
North Ohau is a tidy wee hut (1515) - I notice in the log someone else reporting seeing part of a cut route on Tawirikohukohu and lamenting that it stopped (so it wasn't just me) - it looks like they dropped into the headwaters of one of the streams.
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| A nice wee hut |
I'm keen to get on as it could be approaching dark by the time I get out. At this point I notice the heel of my boot has ripped in half. It might just be time for a new pair - still, it won't be much more slippery than the well smoothed soles already are.
The sun had been streaming into the valley but is now just hitting the slopes above. Pairs of fantails are feeding above the river and pause to investigate as I cross their territory. One pair is a normal pied version with a black mate - s/he is stunning, and it's odd to see all the familiar mannerisms in a bird that looks completely different. Black fantails apparently make up about 5% of southern populations but are rare in the North Island - I have never seen one so close before.
The trip down river is familiar. The gorgy bit to the junction of North and South Ohau (1605), then the more open wander down to where the track starts (1645) with occasional short cuts across terraces. There are some footprints in the river bed from earlier in the day but I don't see anyone.
Just after sundown I'm back at the carpark (1740). 8 spot heights knocked off, an exploration of the Northern Ohau complete and that fantail. A good weekend - shame about the orphan.
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