Gollans stream

What with Covid and winter ennui I have become lamentably sessile.  However, if you scratch around there are trips to be had around Wellington that aren't on the maps but are well known to locals.

I've pottered around a few of the tracks around the Eastbourne hills - enough to know there are informal tracks, pest control lines and a bit more space than you would guess from the car.

Angela has clearly forgotten the expensive rips in her underarmour from the last time we wandered off track and is keen to come out for a bit of compass practice.

What:     Day navigation trip
Where:   Hills behind Days Bay
When:    20 August
Who:      Angela and me

I must have lent my Lower Hutt map to someone so I have to resort to one that shows some tracks that are no longer there, and is missing some that are. However the streams and contours haven't changed so it will be fine.

The start isn't auspicious - we can't find the track on my map marked as running SSE to the ridgeline from Lowry Bay, so we follow our noses to Cheviot Road.

The well marked track dives immediately into dim forest with Nikau and supplejack. We pick a spot where there might be a bit of a spur and climb directly away from the track.  It doesn't look like people come this way, but it's open enough with the morning sun lighting the canopy.   Every now and then we get a glimpse out to the harbour.

Just short of the top we cross an old benched track that is still easy to follow.  It seems to sidle around to join the ridgeline a bit further south.  

At the top, the noise from the Wainuiomata Hill road is a bit intrusive and we can see cars flashing by not far below.   However, the sun is on our backs and as we head south along the ridge the sounds fade behind.

It's an easy amble up to the view spot just short of Mt Lowry where we meet a runner - the first person today.  A bit of a stop to transfer control of the map and compass to Angela (no separation anxiety at all) then a short hop along to the survey peg marking Mt Lowry. 

Angela takes a bearing from the top towards the spur we want to take to Gollan Stream.  The track continues our way for a bit but then hives off to the left leaving us to find our way into tiger country.

It turns out that someone has a well cared for trapping line with possum and stoat traps, and rat bait stations. The state of the flour lures for the possums indicate someone has been through not too long ago.  The bark on a few coprosma trees show signs of being chewed by something bigger than possums though - goat or deer by the look of it. 

We studiously ignore the markers for the trap line as Angela takes more bearings, estimates rate of progress and matches the map to the landscape. It's a fairly gentle spur so the hills on either side gradually get higher as we drop and pretty soon we can only hear the sounds of the valley.

The spur meets the valley floor at a flat area in tall, rich forest - there's a bit of of treefall, kiekie and supplejack and the stream wanders around. We're pleased to discover that a trap line continues down stream (as well as other lines going up various spurs).  It's almost a track barring a few overgrown sections. 

I try to make sure that Angela doesn't pick up my rather agricultural approach to navigation so we take time to estimate how long we think it will take to get to the next side stream in this terrain and study the map to work out how we will know when we have reached the points where we might follow a spur out of the valley.  We identify a kink in the stream where the map shows it briefly looping back to flow north - we estimate it will be a stretch about 200m long so it should be pretty obvious when we get to it.

     

It turns out that there is an informal camping spot with an improvised swing and homemade sign, so it would indeed be hard to miss. The stream comes hard back on itself so we are fully confident in our navigational prowess.

We've been taking it slow so decide that we will head up to the ridgeline rather than further downstream to Butterfly Creek.  To avoid taking the obvious spur straight up, we continue downstream for a bit as it steps down through a narrow section with deepish pools.  It's surprising how good the bush is, sandwiched been Eastbourne and Wainuiomata - there's some pretty big rimu and the occasional elegant nikau looking out of place below the canopy.

At the next side stream we cross and immediately follow our noses up the side of a spur towards a marked spot height on the ridge (named on some maps as Hawtrey 343m).  

A short way up we bump into a deer fence.  It's a Regional Council vegetation monitoring plot built in 2001.  You find them in the oddest places and of various sizes. After this there is a reasonable ground trail up the spur with more possum traps.  

At the top we're on the main ridge again.  Heading south from here the Hawtrey track ('route') follows the ridge to join Mackenzie track (to Butterfly Creek) it looks like you could also follow a long spur that drops to the junction of Butterfly Creek and Gollans Stream.   

We can smell the iced coffee at Chocolate Daze cafe though so we head right, along a solid marked track which drops gently to join the main ridgeline track just as it starts the steep descent down Kereru track to Days Bay.

Our relief driver is already happily ensconced at the cafe. Aching knees are soon forgotten over coffee and sticky toffee cake while the late afternoon sun slants in from across the harbour.  A day well spent.