DATE: March 2018 Vol. 71 No. 02

Transcription

1 DATE: March 2018 Vol. 71 No. 02 Soper Shelter, Kahurangi National Park. Photo: Ian McIlraith Please submit your April 2018 H&V articles to the editor by 29 th March 2018 HVTC Postal Address: PO Box , Lower Hutt: Clubrooms: Birch Street Reserve, Birch Street, Waterloo Internet: President: Phaedra Upton Trip Coordinator: Nick McBride Secretary: Marina Skinner Treasurer: Jim Cousins Editor H&V: Bruce Miller BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

2 WEDNESDAY NIGHT PROGRAMME Starts 8.00 pm promptly Wednesday 7 March 2018 : Open Night Bring along the pictures of your excursions, contemporary or historic. Wednesday 14 March 2018 : Tony Birtwistle Buenos Aires, Patagonia and Iguassu Falls. In October 2017 Tony Birtwistle travelled to Argentina to undertake a two week trip from Buenos Aires to Patagonia criss-crossing the Argentine/Chilean border and visiting three National Parks including the famous Torres del Paine. Tony will share aspects of city life in the Argentine Capital, his treks in the Mountains and a fleeting visit to Iguassu Falls on the Argentine/Brazil border. He may also share his experience with his Insurance Company when claiming for his lost spectacles! Wednesday 21 March 2018 : Graeme McVerry To the Tip of Australia and Beyond Graeme took a four-wheel drive camping tour in September last year to Horn and Thursday Islands and Cape York at the far northern tip of the Australian mainland. The history of the area involves Captains Cook and Bligh, shipwrecks, 19 th century cattlemen, gold rushes, the telegraph road and the WW2 Battle of the Coral Sea. Slides will illustrate scenery in this formidable landscape of rainforest, eucalypts, heathland and savannah, zigzagging coast-to-coast down the peninsula back to Cairns. Wednesday 28 March 2018 : John Flux Round the world in 80 slides and 80 years John Flux has sorted through his 100,000 photos to find eighty nice ones with an interesting story behind them. The emphasis will be on the variety of places and subjects that a photographer can find beauty in. Wednesday 4 April 2018 : Ray Manning A trip to the least visited Continent A visit to Antarctic is a must do for every travel fan. Something so different from anything else you may have done. Truly a once in a lifetime Adventure! ===================== 2 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

3 FORTHCOMING TRIPS Tramping T = Overnight or longer tramping trip D = Day tramp = Dog Friendly TRIP CATEGORIES = Very easy = Easy Cycling = Intermediate = Advanced NOTES Where there is no leader given for a trip, please contact the Trip Coordinator to volunteer to lead a trip, either as shown or an alternative. MARCH TARARUA RANGE Holdsworth T2 Pre-Easter Big Bay-Hollyford Graeme Lythgoe Sun 11 D1 Turere South-stream & ridge Jim Cousins D1 Clothes Optional day trip Patrick Fotheringham Tu 13 Te Marua-Incline -Twin Lakes Te Marua-Goat Rock trig tracks Marina Skinner TARARUA RANGE Holdsworth T1 Holdsworth-Kaitoke Pat Tristram Traverse + something else Andrew Robinson Su 18 D1 Kaitoke - Tutuwai Hut John Tristram Tu 20 Pencarrow Coast John Smeith Pencarrow Lakes-tracks Andrew Robinson D1 Walk Margaret Aiken Fish and Chips Pat and John RUAHINE RANGE T1 Sunrise hut Leader required T2 Top Maropea hut Leader required Su 25 D1 Puke Ariki Track Pat and John Tu 27 Rimutaka Incline Jo & Tony Rimutaka Incline-De la Rosa Marina Skinner Daylight saving ends 3:00am 1 April, clocks go back 1 hour EASTER RICHMOND RANGE 29 March Pat and John Richmond Revels 2 April Murray Presland T2 Old Ghost Road Pat Tristram Old Ghost Rd/Seddonville adventures Murray Presland T2 Old Ghost Road C & J West BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

4 CHANGE TO TRIP MARCH SCHEDULE Weekends 9 11 March and March. A reminder that the trips scheduled for the above weekend and Sunday and have been swapped. The changes are laid out in the table below. T1 D1 T2 D1 Trip Leader From To Holdsworth - Kaitoke Kaitoke Tutuwai Hut Broken Axe Pinnacles Turere south - stream & ridge Pat Tristram 9 11 March March John Tristram 11 March 18 March Nick McBride March March Jim Cousins 18 March 11 March Holdsworth Kaitoke Weekend March Please note that I have decided to amend this trip to begin at Walls Whare on Friday evening, 16 March. We will camp at the road end (Waiohine Campsite) and then go up the Waiohine River on Saturday morning to climb out on the Cone Saddle Track beside Makaka Creek up onto Cone Saddle before dropping down to the Tauherenikau River to camp on flats between Cone Hut and Tutuwai Hut. On Sunday we will continue down the Tauherenikau to come out at Kaitoke. I hope those who have signed up will not be too disappointed in this change of plans, but going via Totara Flats could make it a very long day on the Saturday and given the Club has recently had a trip to Totara Flats we don t need to revisit this road end. Pat Tristram ( ) 4 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02 UPCOMING EVENTS SALES TABLE 14 March Please bring along items that you wish to donate to this effort. Home baking and preserves are especially welcome. Garden produce is also popular so bring along all the excess from you vegetable garden. Everyone else bring some cash to purchase some goodies with. Prices are always reasonable. Graeme Lythgoe APRIL 2018 TRIP TO WHANGANUI HOSTED BY WANGANUI TRAMPING CLUB. A reminder about the April trip to Whanganui, supported by the Wanganui Tramping Club, who will be leading two day walks and hosting a pot luck dinner. Further details on accommodation to follow.

5 Contact Nick at in person on club night, or on (text or call) or FANNY BAYLISS BEQUEST GRANTS SCHEME. Its time again to call for proposals which would benefit from funding from the Grants Scheme, made possible by the generous bequest of Fanny Bayliss. This year over $2,000 is available. If you have an idea, and it meets the Grants Scheme guidelines, then we want to hear from you. In brief, the guidelines for funding are that your proposal will either provide opportunity which expands members experience, competence of enjoyment of the natural environment, or will improve Club facilities, or will support the activities of an individual or organisation outside the Club which promotes our Club s primary objective. Essential or routine maintenance are outside the scope. Recent grants went toward the 2017 Youth Alpine Safety Course, a portable tea urn for the Clubrooms, a floor bike pump and 13 sets of instep crampons. The sub-committee will need a written proposal by 1 May to look at an . You will need to describe the idea to be funded, why it a good idea/how members will benefit, how much it will cost, and whether it has any support from Club members. If you have an idea and want to talk it through first or would like assistance writing up a proposal, please contact me. Lastly, if you would like to be on the sub-committee which considers the proposals and makes recommendations to the General Committee, then your input would be very welcome. Kate Livingston (sub-committee chair) kt.livingston@gmail.com or mobile HAERE MAI At the quiz night on February 7 I gave the usual introduction to the meeting in both Māori and English. Here it is in writing for those who are interested Ngā mihi o te pō Ko Anaru toku ingoa Haere mai ki tēnei hui o te Rōpū Hīkoi o Awa Kairangi Good evening My name is Andrew Welcome to this meeting of the Hutt Valley Tramping Club It's a good thing I covered myself by saying that Ngā mihi o te pō is one way of saying Good evening because as I pointed out pō means night (kākā = parrot, kākāpō = night parrot) so a better way would have been Ngā mihi o te ahiahi. One other point to note is that in Māori an adjective follows a noun rather than preceding it as in English, hence Rōpū Hīkoi rather than Hīkoi Rōpū for Tramping Club (and kākāpō rather than pōkākā). I'll leave you to look up pronunciation for yourself if you're not sure or you could ask me Andrew Robinson 5 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

6 TRIP REPORTS POADS ROAD - NORTH OHAU HUT 13 & 14 January 2018 Chriselda McMillan When the opportunity to spend time in a river during such a hot summer was offered by Chris and Jackie I jumped at the opportunity. The Hutt four of Chris, Jackie, Murrey and myself left the Hutt at 8am to meet Kate at the end of Poads Road, behind Levin, on a hot, calm, sometimes overcast day. There is plenty of car parking and, best of all, a clean toilet. As this is an access point for the Te Araroa Trail I expect the aforementioned loo gets plenty of use. We set off across farmland at 9.45, reaching the bush edge, then a well-used easy going track, crossing a couple of bridges before arriving, just after the 2 nd bridge, at a large clearing, the site of the old Ohau shelter where we stopped for a relaxed morning tea at 11.20am. A short distance of track then took us to the river where we stayed for the remainder of the journey. The confluence of the North Ohau and South Ohau Rivers was a pleasant spot for lunch soon after which the river became gorgy with bigger slippery boulders, swift rapids and deeper pools before widening out again. Two hours from the confluence brought us to the big orange triangle on the true left marking the beginning of the short climb up to the 4 bunk North Ohau hut arriving at The hut is positioned for afternoon sun and has a view down the valley. Clothes dried well. The hut has a good size deck but only a small portion at the entrance is covered. The ground on the level of the hut is too stony for tents, the best spot being a short Photo: Jackie West distance down the track, but Murrey never-theless did find a tiny area adjacent to the hut and about on the track. The rest of us opted to sleep inside. Dinner was a yummy lentil dish with rice that Jackie had taken from Wilderness magazine. The next day was again hot. We got away just before 8am. The river was noticeably lower. This time a break for morning tea was enjoyed at the forks and a bit later the sight of a gorgeous welcoming pool tempted some of us to partially strip down for a cooling swim. Oh, the relief from the heat! Short-lived! We spotted the big orange triangle marking the way into the bush and after a few minutes reached the clearing where we decided to have an early lunch. It would have been a good idea to refill water bottles prior to leaving the river as the later bridges are high above the two side streams. The return journey back to the cars took a similar time as the walk in, just slightly shorter at 5.25 hours. Generally, travel was challenging and was a combination of: criss-crossing the river which went like this - put one foot down, slide on the slippery rock, let foot come to a stable resting place before placing the other foot and repeating often through deep pools or fast water; negotiating the 6 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

7 mostly slippery riverbank rocks; clambering around or over gigantic boulders or other obstacles; and a few welcome, easier sections of finding a way through the undergrowth on the riverbank. But what a buzz! This was every kid (and big kids) dream journey several hours of water fun on a hot day in beautiful surroundings with lovely companions what could be more perfect? We were: Chris and Jackie West, Kate Livingston, Murrey Totton, Chriselda McMillan. ON BEING AT SOPER SHELTER January 2018 Jan Heine My heart keeps time with timeless things, 7 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02 Chriselda A long sidle around two gendarmes, guardians of the Stanley catchment, and down gentler slopes to a small tarn nestled in the folds of the land. We camped there for the night in the tussock, home for a special alpine weta, under the stars so clear, before working our way down the Stanley River (and rather tight divaricating shrubs) to the new Soper Shelter, our objective for Andrew s HVTC trip in Kahurangi National Park. Being Wellington Anniversary weekend Andrew Robinson s party of Keith Thomas, Tom Halliburton, Ian McIlraith, Grant Roberts, Doc Watson and Jan Heine, had 4 days to come from the Cobb Valley to Fenella hut, over Kakapo Peak and down to Soper Shelter built in the old-style fly camp of canvas and poles, before coming out by the Waingaro River to the Kill Devil down to Upper Takaka. The southern rata were in full bloom, scarlet splashes in the beech forest, robins calling so loudly they threatened to damage my one good ear, bellbirds chorusing, long time since I ve heard so many, tomtits, fantails, and weka being cheeky. A kiwi called near Fenella. Down at the mouth of the Stanley where it enters the lake, a family of Whio were occupied with their daily lives at dusk. Dad was perched on a log dozing, Mum preening while the 3 teenagerspoked and played about, oblivious to us. Still there next morning when Ian went for his own preening time. The 1080 drop has not harmed them. Frank Soper is a long-time resident of Golden Bay and instrumental in building three wellused huts at Boulder Lake, Lonely Lake, and Adelaide Tarn. This shelter has been built as a partnership between DOC and Golden Bay Alpine & Tramping Club as a tribute to Frank s love and that of his wife Berna for this part of New Zealand. He is also a poet of some sensitivity, as recorded in his anthology These Small Fields. Here is a sample that touches on our search for the quiet stillness that can be reached deep in our minds, and that comes in such places. So there s much more to tell about him: Mine is the sunlight, mine the space, these and the wild deer. This is my own, my special place, my mind rests easy here. Photo: Ian McIlraith

8 with rocks and clouds and trees. I move and breathe in rhythm with the restless mountain breeze: And when I go (as go I must) into some other where, if I should wake by Diamond Lake* I d make my heaven there. *a cirque lake between the Cobb and Waingaro valleys Jan HUTT GORGE TRAVERSE 6 February 2018 Patrick Fotheringham Both ends of my prospective trip were sorted for travelling down the true right of the Hutt Gorge, I just had to figure out what to do in the middle. I was familiar with the sidle track on the true right from Pakuratahi Forks to Putaputa Stream. I had also recently explored the bottom end of the ridge on the true left of Kororipo Stream to find a way from the ridge line into the last fork of the stream, from there an old logging road on the true right leads out to Te Marua. I pored over the topo map and aerial images looking for the ridges with the best tree cover, and therefore likely least undergrowth. The best candidates were the ridge on the true left of Kororipo Stream and a ridge that started about 400 metres downstream from Putaputa Stream. Both these ridges meet at the south end of the long flat ridge with a point named Kakariki on it. I envisaged starting the trip at Pakuratahi Forks, so navigating up on to the Kakariki ridge should not be a problem, the real challenge would be traversing the flat topped ridge and working through the maze of small spurs on the upper part of the ridge beside Kororipo Stream. I asked Doug Flux if he would be interested in coming along to apply his GPS skills and equipment to the navigation task. He was more than happy to help out. On Waitangi Day we put cars at both ends of the Hutt Gorge and started walking over the swing bridge track to pick up the gorge sidle track. Finding the sidle track and then staying on it can be challenging, it is often just animals that maintain the ground trail and in places their interests differed from ours. There is a reasonably active slip where the track turns into Putaputa Stream, fortunately some foliage has grown back recently to give more to hang on to when crossing the slip. From the Hutt-Putaputa junction, we walked about 2/3rds the way to the next downstream bend then scrambled into the bush on the true right to climb and sidle up onto the ridge line. Once on the ridge line the travel was easy under the high canopy. Toward the top of the ridge a distinct ground trail emerged and some red tape on the occasional tree. As we climbed, more tape, bigger ground trail. At a high spot on the flat top of the ridge the ground trail split, one branch appeared to head off in the direction of Kakariki, the other headed where we wanted to go. 8 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

9 9 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02 We followed the ground trail and investigated a few side trails, none of these were useful to us. Finally we came to a trail split where there was no tape marking the left hand trail. Odd we thought, as it went in the direction to pick up the ridge beside Kororipo Stream. We walked on for a bit and I said we would stop for lunch when we found a grassy glade with picnic tables. Less than a minute after saying this we stumbled into very well appointed permanent tent camp, it did not tick all the boxes but we did stop for lunch. The tent camp had obviously been there for some years and could offer shelter in the worst of weather. It looked like it was used as a hunting base and had bags of gear inside hanging from the roof. After lunch we continued down the ridge, there was now no ground trail and side spurs everywhere. None of our spur choices seemed to work out but the ridge is almost flat so another spur could be chosen without difficulty. We were constantly using the GPS to stay on track. Then we saw an orange dot. This will make things easier was my immediate thought. The next dot was partly obscured by an odd coloured green film, the film came off easily when I scratched at it with a twig. It was paint! Someone had put big blotches of green paint over most of the orange dots. We discussed some possible reasons for applying the paint, none made much sense as the orange dots were only intended to help with travel down the ridge. Now knowing the shade of green to look for, we continued down the ridge in scratch and win fashion. The dots also zig zagged a bit like we had previously. As the ridge narrowed, navigation became easy and we ignored the dots. Using the GPS we positioned ourselves above a tiny side spur that would take us to the fork in Kororipo Stream. We knew we were in the right place when Doug found some orange dots heading downward. The descent is steep and the trail ends at the top of an active slip, sidling to the right took us down into the smaller branch of Kororipo Stream, then it was a short scramble to the forks. The stroll along the logging road was uneventful. We popped out of the bush at Te Marua and had to get our feet wet for the first time to get back across the Hutt River. The trip, car to car, took nine hours and one minute according to the GPS. This time included some random exploration, not all of it useful, and an extended lunch. The whole trip was fairly good travel with the odd patch of scrub, some fallen trees and occasional slips to deal with. Patrick ANOTHER TARARUA MIDDLE CROSSING Waitangi weekend 2018 Andrew Robinson Plan A for the four-day Waitangi weekend was the Southern Main Range: Otaki Forks, Maungahuka, Anderson Memorial and Waitewaewae huts and back to Otaki Forks. Doc, Grant, John Smeith, Tania and I headed for Field hut on Friday night to make for an easier day to Maungahuka hut the next day. We got to Field hut just before midnight. There was a party of at Field hut intending to do the same as us but over three days. Saturday morning was looking promising but as we ascended the clouds came down and the wind came up. At Bridge Peak the party of three decided to give Maungahuka a go, one of them having done

10 it previously in worse conditions. We followed them. After about half an hour we all stopped for a rethink and decided that while it still might be possible it wouldn't be particularly enjoyable. We retraced our steps to the last junction and then it was 20 minutes to Kime hut. The hut is new and double-glazed but despite it probably having had quite a bit of sun earlier in the day it was only 9 degrees inside, better than the 6 degrees outside I suppose. The 8 of us were joined by a few more over the course of the afternoon until the arrival at about 5 o'clock of the group of 11 on the HVTC grade one trip who had set off from Otaki Forks that morning. With their arrival there was just enough bunk space for us all if we squeezed up a bit. More people continued to turn up, including a group of 7, by which time I decided that as leader I should set an example and sleep outside in my tent. I went searching for a flat spot to pitch the tent and was unsuccessful until I realised the broad deck would be ideal for the purpose. By tying the guy ropes to the planks and in some cases wedging some pegs between the planks I pitched it straighter than I ever have. Before heading for bed I firmed up plans for the following day. The forecast for Sunday was for great weather so we were initially going to proceed with plan A with slightly different timing. We then got the forecast for Monday and it was for gale force northerlies, precisely when we'd be heading north from Anderson Memorial hut or Aokaparangi biv. Plan B was to go to Penn Creek hut but that idea was abandoned when we learned the group of 7 was also headed there and it would be a day too short anyway. I spoke to Jan on the grade one trip and she gave us plan C. Elder hut would be ideal for our purposes, subject to no one else going there. I went to bed looking forward to my second visit to Elder hut and hopefully my first visit to Snowy hut. Doc had decided that sharing the tent with me would be preferable to sleeping in a crowded hut, even if it was considerably colder. It was 2 degrees when we climbed into our sleeping bags so I was grateful to Jackie on the grade one trip who had lent me her bivvy bag as an extra layer. I was very comfortable and warm but the fierce wind made the tent flap like mad so I didn't sleep that well. The wind stopped abruptly not long before it was time to get up. The temperature had dropped to 0 degrees but I was still snug and warm. I was up before most of the hut occupants and counted 36 bodies on either a bunk or the floor. As the place came to life I discovered yet another change of plans was required. The day was beautifully fine and expected to stay that way, which was good, but the word was another group was headed for Elder hut which sleeps 4. John had decided he would head back with the grade one group which gave us the option for him to pick us up from a different road end. The best option was to head for Maungahuka as planned but then go to Neill Forks and Totara Flats instead so plan D it was. Having done the track to Maungahuka a year ago it seemed to go quicker this time though in fact it took longer. The Tararua peaks weren t quite as challenging but I was still glad we didn t have the wind of the previous day. When we reached the hut we were the only ones there which added to the enjoyment of a lovely spot. The wind picked up during the evening but the hut was sheltered from it so we didn't notice it and had a very pleasant evening there. Monday we had a long day ahead of us. John was going to pick us up at the Holdsworth car park the following day so realistically we needed to get to Totara Flats that day. That meant Neill Forks for lunch then Totara Flats. The sign on Maungahuka said 2 hours to Neill Forks but I knew that was unrealistic and it would be more like 4 hours. It was a bit windy until we got to the bush line but as Grant had predicted the wind wasn t really a problem because it was a tail wind. It took nearly an hour to get to the bush and from then on we were sheltered from the wind and most of the rain. We descended over a series of bumps, the Concertina Knob Photo: Andrew Robinson prominent one being called Concertina Knob, perhaps on account of the corrugations. We got to Neill Forks hut for a late lunch, four hours and twenty minutes after leaving Maungahuka hut. After 10 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

11 lunch we headed up the track to Cone Ridge, a route I d been down twice before but not up. It wasn t as bad as I thought it was going to be, not quite as steep as the climb out from Mid- Waiohine hut I did not quite a year ago. From the top we followed Cone Ridge northeast. I d been along that stretch once before and my memory of it was it took a lot longer than it felt it should have. It was pretty good going for a couple of hours and I was wondering if my memory was failing me but then I checked my gps and we had about a kilometre to go horizontally but about 400m vertical to descend. The track then deteriorated significantly so the last stretch took us an hour. Ten hours and forty five minutes after we left Maungahuka hut we got to Totara Flats hut, an epic for Tania, but nothing out of the ordinary for Doc, Grant and me. Fortunately there were only 4 or 5 at Totara Flats hut when we arrived and another three arrived after us. The fire had been going so the occupants could do their cooking on it. It was nice and cosy without being too warm. In 2013 a new swingbridge and accompanying new piece of track were put in on the route between Totara Flats hut and Holdsworth. The first time I used it I thought it was a good idea but the second time it felt like they hadn't done as good a job of the new track as they could have. A year ago a flood undermined the foundations of the swingbridge leading to its closure. The word was it was still closed, which didn't bother me. Before the new swingbridge we had the existing one across the Waiohine River to cross. It is long and exposed so can be problematic in high winds. Although it was windy there were no problems crossing it. I timed a couple in our group and they both took about a minute and a quarter to cross so it is a real bottleneck for large groups. When we got to the new swingbridge it was still closed. The old track up Totara Creek was good going in the good weather. The climb from Totara Creek to the Gentle Annie track needs work doing on it as it is pretty rough. It is joined about halfway up by the new track and I am a bit surprised that when the new track was put in they didn't take the opportunity to upgrade at least the top half of the track up to the Gentle Annie track. We stopped for lunch when we got to the Gentle Annie track. The temperature dropped and a few spots of rain came so out came the coats but it didn't come to anything. An hour and a half after lunch we got to the carpark and a waiting John. Not quite the trip I'd planned but a good one nevertheless. Maungahuka hut is a great place to visit and from what I can gather it seems I've done well to get there two times in two attempts. Andrew WAIRONGOMAI ORONGORONGO VALLEY February 2018 Pat Tristram As part of the get fit campaign in preparation for the multi-day Old Ghost Road trip, a couple of longish weekend trips were devised to this end. We last did the Wairongomai Orongorongo Valley trip in 2009 and parts of it have either completely changed or completely slipped my memory. Because we expected a long day on the Saturday, we walked into Wairongomai Hut on Friday afternoon. An eel was spotted in the Wairongomai after the first crossing, and travel up the stream and through the bush was uneventful until we reached a drop (with a rope) and a climb up the other side. We then had a tricky little rock ascent a bit further on before arriving at the crossing I remember with another clamber up onto the terrace. However the combination of river and terrace travel went well and we arrived at the Hut (taking a little over two hours) just before 6pm. There was quite a breeze blowing with the wind moaning through the tree tops, but it was 11 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02

12 pleasant at the Hut, apart from the whiff of something dead close by every now and again. With the flys set up, a brew and then dinner, a good evening before an early night. We were away at 8am on Saturday morning going up Oreore Stream to find the toe of the spur to climb onto about half an hour later. It was a steep haul through the bush to begin with, but opened out after about half an hour and through beech forest and swathes of flowering Earina autumnalis to reach the Saddle. We had a snack stop and then seemed to wander around the large flattish area with lots more under-growth than I remembered before coming to the unnamed stream to take us down to the Orongorongo River. Finding a wasps nest created a bit of concern when four members of the party received multiple stings. A stop for anti-histamine Photo: Pat Tristram cream and tablets for those affected was called and as no major ill effects were apparent, we continued on. Travel down the stream was quite good and with a stop for lunch around 12:30pm (when there was a shower of rain necessitating parkas for a short time) and we reached the main river around 1:30pm. There were three markers on a tree and markers on a route that we followed for a short time until it began to go uphill (this is a wet weather route out to the GWRC Council road in the Wainuiomata Catchment area) and so we carried on along terraces and in the river, which was very low and therefore quite slippery. A few of us had unexpected dips! The cutty grass was high and sharp on the flats and progress was a little slower than anticipated. However we reached the Weir and had a brief stop on the lovely grassy area, although we were disappointed to see cow droppings and hoof marks here. (We understand they had come up the Valley from Orongorongo Station and the farmer had been told to remove them, which he must have done, as we didn t see any animals). We carried on down to quite a reasonable campsite, well ready for a brew, soup, dinner and then bed. Another 8am start on Sunday morning and it was great to see some rata still flowering in the bushes. Travel was better and the huge shingle fans from the floods of 2005 are still very much in evidence. Jim feels there could be more than a million cubic metres of shingle in the Valley, with probably more still to come down. We had a snack stop at the foot of the Whakanui Track to fortify ourselves for the steep climb and so it was. However after minutes we seemed to have done the worst of it and it was quite pleasant wandering along the undulating track, admiring the rata and not have to inspect closely where to put your foot each step. Around midday the front runners met John who, with Pamela, had come in to meet us, although Pamela had turned back about 20 minutes earlier. He had carried in thermos flasks of hot water and so we had lunch, with a hot drink before the final leg through to the McKerrow Junction and then down to the vehicles in Sunny Grove around 3pm. Thanks to John and Michael Grace for driving us through to the Wairongomai River on Friday afternoon and having the transport in Sunny Grove for us on Sunday and also to John for the hot water. It was very much appreciated. 12 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02 Photo: Pam Smith

13 Thank you also to the participants who at times, I m sure, wondered what they had let themselves in for, but carried on with good humour and no grumbles (that I heard anyway). Jim Cousins (who agreed to come as navigator), Michele & Graeme Lythgoe, Robyn & Frank Usmar, John Smeith, Vera de Graauw, Frieda Collie, Doreen Courtenay, Liz Davis, Pam Smith, Jackie & Chris West, David McQueen and Pat Tristram (leader). Pat The views expressed in the articles in this newsletter are not necessarily the views of the Hutt Valley Tramping Club. Any queries or comments should be directed to the writer of the article. Contributions to the Hills & Valleys are welcomed and encouraged but all are accepted on the understanding that the Editor has the authority to make minor changes if deemed necessary, refer back to the contributor for amendment, or return the contribution for amendment by the Writer 13 BJFM/H&V/Vol71/No02