It's been a couple of months wait for enough rainless days in a row that the river will be passable for a solo traveler - this week finally delivers. The plan is to polish off the last few remaining spot-heights in the area, visit Snowy River hut, and foray into the mid-parts of the catchment. As with all spot-height trips, the route is ... complicated.
What: Navigation and spot-heighting
When: 22 October 2017
Where: South Western Tararuas - Eastern Waiotauru
Who: Solo
Map: Link
In the southwest, the Forest Park boundary rather annoyingly just takes in spot-height 543 on a spur on the way to and from nowhere. In the end, the best route looks like a drop into Bull Creek below the Akatarawa Saddle Road. Which is what you would have seen me doing, had you been driving that way at 6.45am.
The support crew watches with bemusement and mild concern as my pack rapidly descends through the roadside trash and down a crumbling slope. It's about 50m down to the creek which has an island in the bed - with wheels. On closer inspection it is a car wreck which is well on the way to becoming integrated into the landscape.
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| Car island |
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| 'BMW M Power' |
Further up river it gets worse - generations of nick-thrash-and-trash toe-rags have discovered that if you push a car off at just the right point it will smash down the hill into the creek. Possibly more fun then setting fire to them at the saddle layby. The mangled remains form the stream bed and the creek gurgles through like any rock formation.
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| Ford in the river |
It's nice to start climbing my spur and get away from the mess. It's a steep haul at first, with no noticeable trails. It levels off after 150 odd meters then climbs more gently - the bush gets more bush-like with forest giant emergents. The sky is clear and the morning sun filters through the tree tops.
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| Rimu |
At the top there are dense saplings for the last few meters before the Waitauru 4WD Road (8.05). It's a slog up to Maymorn Junction but quick going. Unfortunately someone has done a lot of earth works and repaired the road where it was eroding at the saddle before 762. I idly kick at the road edge wondering how many trampers it would take to make the road impassable for 4WDs. There are probably many fine examples of the breed who don't leave litter, and trash huts, but this route and the Waiotauru Hut are not a great advert.
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| Slip in saddle before 762 |
On the way up the clag thickens, first lit by the sun then eventually blocking it out.
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| Waiotauru Road |
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| Maymorn junction |
At the junction (9.30), tracks run east (Renata ridge), NNW (Waiotauru 4WD road) and north to Kapakapanui. The clag is hugging the hills and condensation drips from the trees. I follow the track north, past the smashed remains of a DOC sign.
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| Old tree stump - track to Kapakapanui |
It's a little tricky finding the top of the spur I want and it's a wee while before I'm convinced I'm actually on it. There are animal trails but any human traffic is rare.
The spur is not strongly defined so is challenging - all the better for practice. I get to the bottom without dropping into one of the streams. A little too successfully as, shortly before the spur meets the road, the animal trails disappear (generally not a good sign). Sure enough there is a 10m cliff above the road, I skirt along WSW trying to find a route down - no luck so with a quick bash north I find a goat track down to the next stream.
The hut (11.40) has more rubbish in it than last time and someone has left the door open. Motor bike tracks could indicate the culprits.
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| Waitauru - the worst treated hut in the Tararuas |
Crossing the river at the site of the old bridge (dry feet) I follow the road down valley. As it climbs towards the gorge I figure to take a spur north and down. Pausing for a compass bearing I notice a reasonably clear 4WD track heading up the spur - and a less clear one heading down. This must be the point and I assume I was probably on the upper parts of this trail previously.
The trail disappears after a bit so I bash down through the bush, hit an older one and leave that to arrive at the river just above the junction. The spur opposite looks a bit steep but the map indicates a possible approach up the side stream. There seems to be a bit of a foot trail but I leave this to bash straight up - emerging onto another old logging track. It keeps going my way so I follow - along beside when it gets too overgrown. At the top there is another trail pretty much to spot-height 472 - the sole object of this 240m diversion and 1.10pm. It is as remarkable as most other spot-height, however it would be a reasonable trip to continue on along the spur and up to the Pukeatua track via spot-height 692.
Yet another trail takes me part way down but then heads off in directions unhelpful. There's a bit of a spur shape to follow steeply down. At one point I find a tidy little nest of fresh fern fronds - I've seen these a few times now, I'm not sure what animal makes them but they certainly put a lot of effort into it.
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| Someone's nest |
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| Waiotauru forks swing bridge |
The next bit I have traveled before but I'm hoping that there are trails that will avoid some of the river bed - I think I have seen reference somewhere. The trail drops to the river to the point I found it on the way out last time - but I can't see any sign of it continuing so it's time to get bollock deep in the river - again.
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| The bracing Eastern Waiotauru River |
My walking pole has so far been doing little but tangle branches and provide ballast - in the river bed though it is very helpful. I debate whether to have the wrist loop on or off - just after deciding that off means I won't be tangled if I fall over - the tip catches my boot and it catapults from my swearing grasp into a rapid.
It's not so much the expense (it was very cheap and I have another pole exactly like it at home) but the sheer annoyance that elicits an unseemly outburst of cussing - however it floats out the bottom and catches on a rock so we are reunited.
After scrambling up river to Tregear Stream it's new country. Casting around there is a bit of a trail on a terrace on the true left. This comes and goes so there is a mix of river and terrace travel. It's all very civilised until a few hundred meters short of the next major junction. There is a short, tight, gorge with very deep water. Scrambling around the edge is not an option. The water is slow, green and very deep. The sides precipitous.
Someone has tied what can best be described as a frayed shoelace to a sapling on a rock face on the true left. I get part way up the face and pause for a good long while. In the end beating a retreat is clearly the only sane choice - I could probably get up the face and someone has clearly been through before - but I don't know what's around the corner and getting back down from higher up would be fraught. Not an option on a solo trip.
Downstream a few meters the slope has enough vegetation to scramble up so I take a high sidle and follow goat tracks until I find a spot to drop down to the river again at the junction.
People have been a wee bit coy about the location of the hut so I won't spell it out here. Suffice to say that it was easy travel after the crux and I find it where I expect. On my approach, three goats take their time to saunter off across the flats - the one across the river doesn't even bother to pretend to be scared of people.
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| Snowy River Hut - first encounter |
At 3.40 there is still a fair chunk of daylight left and I could feasibly get to Elder hut but I have an inclination to stay here and feel like I've done a reasonable days work. There's wood under the hut and plenty more along the river edge so there is soon a fire going.
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The hut has three bunks with mattresses, a sink bench (and buckets for river water), three seats, a form and a bench table. It's corrugated iron with an old school chimney on one side with a pile of rocks forming the base. The inside is lined with silver paper and the floor is covered in galv - but with the open chimney the wind can whistle in. It's clean and there are brooms, a few billies and assortment of cutlery. A wee stack of shooting magazines provides reading material for the discerning hunter. There's no loo but a spade and shovel and plenty of surrounding countryside to choose from.
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| Functional and comfortable |
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| Another one for Angela |
The wind and rain get up in the evening and the fire is welcome. Some red tape on the roof above the bunk turns out to be a leak but it's slow and once I put a bucket underneath there's still enough space for my mattress. I drift off to rain on the roof and the idle thought about what the river will be like in the morning.
The rain blows through during the night and the next morning the river looks no different. At 7am I head up stream and, apart from one sidle, don't have any problems.
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| Junction at foot of 684 spur |
My first target is the spur up to 684. It looks very steep at the junction so I head up the main river for a couple of 100m then scramble up a steep spur - there are soon some reasonable animal trails and it is pretty good going, particularly once it levels out. There could be a bit of a trail but it comes and goes and pretty much disappears where ever the ridge broadens. A single piece of litter is all the evidence of people I find.
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| 684 - five down! |
It's 8.30 and the next bit is a little harebrained. If I continue up this spur it would be good travel all the way to the southern crossing just north of Aston. However, I want to pop across to the next spur west - a small matter of a 200m plummet and climb. The valley wall has some fairly steep sections so I back track from 684 to about 590 then take a bearing which should follow an indeterminate spur between two steep sections.
By following where the goats go it works out well (barring a minor brush with some nettles) and I'm soon refilling my camel back in the creek (9.05).
The other side is also steep enough, but again the goats show the way and I hand-over-hand up until the slope eases. At the top it is a short saunter north to the second spot-height of the day: 666 at 9.45.
There are sporadic pink tape markers and the ground trail is much more pronounced - unsurprisingly as this spur leads to Renata Ridge just east of Elder hut. Spot-height 666 is deeply disappointing. There is a distinct lack of satanic alters, pools of fiery brimstone or horned demons. In fact it's just a gently rounded, flat-topped knob in delightful bush - hardly in keeping with it's namesake.
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| 666 |
I turn south and head along the spur - destination up, occasionally pausing to exchange chirps with white heads - at one point a bush robin turns up, immaculately bedecked in black and white, to see what the racket is about. But I need to keep going.
The spur would provide easy travel but for the amount of wind fall - huge branches have ripped from trees and working around and through them is slow. It's a long climb up (450m) and it is one of those spurs that keep hinting that you're near the top but adds a little more. The clag is giving nothing away about the shape of the surrounding landscape.
On the ridge track it is a few minutes longer than expected to get to Elder hut (11.15) - it isn't raining but the saturated wind is cold and sucks the heat from your body. I'm too stubborn to stop so wait 'til I get to the hut to rug up fully in shelter.
It's a small (four bunk) but pleasant hut with good views when the cloud isn't flying about. I read the log (10 days since the last visitor) and search out my last entry - June last year. I note the name after mine which was the chap I ran into at Waitewaewae a few months back.
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| Looking back towards Elder - Not so pleasant up there |
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| Not so bad here though |
It's much quicker going on a marked track - I pause to flick more wind fall off as I go along. There appear to be fresh footprints on the track - certainly not 10 days old though - lots of people don't stop in and fill in the log book.
The tops at Renata (1pm) provide unobstructed views. South is Maymorn ridge and some of the more challenging navigation in these parts. The way ahead is past Renata hut and back to the Waiotauru Road. The weather south seems a bit more settled than here.
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| North west to the ridge up to Kapakapanui (in clag) |
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| Maymorn Ridge |
At Renata hut (1.40) the log book has the same 10 day prior entry. The chap may be from DOC as he notes that he has left rat poison. It is sadly needed as the vermin have thoroughly chewed one of the mattresses.
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| Still better than Waiotauru though |
The sound of motorbikes scrambling up the Waiotauru 4WD track from the river sounds quite close as I leave the hut - on reflection this will be because they are - it's only about 1-2km away.
Back at the road I have about a km to travel down it and I'm a bit wary about a clown on a bike wiping me out on a corner. As it transpires I only see one waiting by the road as I slip into the bush to climb to spot-height 762. There's a bit of a track with spray markers and someone has made some efforts with a chain saw. It sidles to the spur without going to the top so I pop up through the bush to brave the blast of cold air hurtling up from the Ngatiawa river valley (2.40).
It looks straight forward on the map and I overestimate my likely rate of progress when I call home command for an extraction at Cloustonville. The going is pretty good and marked so I turn off my navigation brain and potter along until I realise; a) I haven't seen a marker for a while and b) I don't seem to be on a trail. After a bit of casting about and thought, I take some bearings and follow the shape of the land (the spur is pretty obvious).
After a while different markers start appearing and these take me in quick succession to some grassy clearings, a grassy track, some water tanks and a lodge at the end of a respectable road.
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| Not a DOC marker |
The lodge is not huge but is clearly someone's pride and joy - a hideaway in the hills with the Tararuas on your door step. There's a road car parked outside so despite being 350m above the valley floor there is clearly a genteel route down - suitable for weary joints.
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| A good access road |
I jog and walk down the road - until, at last, some iron gates and a wee silver car a little before 4.30. The support crew has been waiting 20 minutes in exactly the right spot - but more by accident then by design because of the warning signs on the road - and on the gate I just came through. A bit sad to see access restricted as this is a good gateway to the range - far better than the Waiotauru race track.
Postscript
A very varied and enjoyable weekend. Aside from box-ticking 10 spot-heights, it witnessed the Tararuas and human nature at its best and worst. In retrospect I have probably dwelled a little much on the nefarious habits of motorbikers and 4WDers, but I guess there may as well be an area and hut that they can call their own. The track to Kapakapanui is pretty and worth a visit, and Snowy River is beautiful and interesting - I wouldn't recommend it for solo travel if the weather is in anyway questionable though.Snowy River hut is basic but well cared for - an example of the respect that the harder to reach corners are afforded by those that travel there. Spot-height 684 was sort of cool - nothing to see, but it requires a bit of work to get to and you get some small sense of being in a place few others go.
Renata Ridge is good travel with its goblin forest and views - possibly a slightly underutilised route onto the southern crossing. Finally - the ridge down to Cloustonville is mostly easy going and someone is keeping an eye on it. I didn't come across any signs saying I couldn't come out that way but there are warnings going in - the Lodge is right on the route so sneaking through is probably not the wisest.
