Start of the Trip - CollingwoodKaramea - Heaphy TrackRolling River, WangapekaMurchison, New ZealandLewis passArthurs PassRakaia RiverLake Clearwater, New ZealandLake Ohau, New ZealandWanaka, New ZealandArrowtown, New ZealandTe Anau, New ZealandTuatapere, New ZealandTe Waewae Bay
 | walk4kiwis |  | A long walk to Save the Kiwis |  | Murchison, New Zealand |
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Jan 20 2010, 06:38 PM
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Murchison, New Zealand
The next day, my 2 other walking companion’s for this leg arrived via the Karamea Express bus from Westport after an early morning flight from Auckland. Pete Soole ( a neighbour from Auckland) and his brother Phil (who lives in Brisbane) foolishly offered to come along on this leg back in the early days I was putting this trek together. After loading up with food etc and a final cuppa with my hosts, Bill ran us to the end of the track and away we sallied.
The first day was just a 3 and ½ hour one through to the Belltown hut. The West Coast has had one of their wettest ever January’s and, boy, does it show! Huge tracts of the track washed away and detours hacked through the bush and over ridges to bypass the washouts.
All things considered we made pretty good time and I even arrived with dry feet!! There were 2 others in the hut when we arrived. Richard, a young very fit lad from Sheffield UK was hard out doing 1000K,s of tracks in NZ over 2 months. He had done most of the tracks I will be doing over the next few weeks, so was a great source of information. Mind you, we learnt the next day, we were going to take almost double the times that he had done! Day 2 was up and over the Little (why it is called little I have no idea, because it sure aint) Wanganui Saddle. This is 1100 metres high and we started off at about 180. It was a pretty tough section, up over tree roots and scrambling over boulders, at times at about a 1 in 2 gradient. I was not really mentally prepared for this and have to confess to being very pleased when we got to the saddle about 5 hours later. While sitting there enjoying the view (which was spectacular to say the least) Pete digs into the bottom of his pack and pulls out a 1 kilo slab of fruit cake. It was Phil’s birthday and Pete had lugged this thing up 1100 meters of steep and slippery slopes. How is that for brotherly love!!
From there it was down hill to our next stop, the Taipo hut. 5 other people there, all good sorts and all heading the way we had just come, so there was much comparing of notes on what to expect the next day. Pete was flat out trying to get rid of the remaining birthday cake, which really wasn’t all that difficult. We had a relatively easy walk on day 3 although quite long, about 10 hours from go to whoa. We crossed over the Wangapeka Saddle at 1000 meters, but the track was in far better condition and we started off at about 630, so the height gain was nowhere near as great. One of the most interesting things we passed on this section was an area of several acres of large, dead beech trees buried some 4-5 meters deep in river shingle.
It would seem that at sometime in eons gone by, there had been a massive slip off the mountain side which buried these half way up their trunks and over the years they died off and there is this almost skeletal looking view across the valley. Our stopover that night was Stone hut which has a pair of whio (blue duck) in residence on the river, 50 meters from the hut door. It was fantastic, standing on the rivers edge, just on dark, listening to that wonderful whistle the drake makes. To the best of my knowledge, no other duck in the world whistles, so it really is pretty special. Sharing the hut with us that night was a couple from Nelson (Chrissie and Graham), who had over the years tramped over most of the Kahurangi Park and several other places all over the South Island. I love running into these sort of people, I could listen to them for hours.
Day 4 saw off to the end of the Wangapeka Track via the second oldest hut in the Kahurangi National park. Cecil King’s hut was built by Cecil King (surprise,surprise) in 1935 when he was gold prospecting in the Wangapeka River, as were several hundred other chaps during the Great Depression. After the gold run out, Cecil kept on returning to his hut regularly almost to his dying day. He would always welcome passing trampers with a cup of tea and a chat. It is a lovely slab built abode, all hand cut from 1 large red beech tree. Cecil’s ashes are now scattered around the clearing in which the hut stands. What a glorious final resting place! We were fortunate enough yo have use of the DoC house at the track end for our final night in the valley before heading up to Granity Pass on the slopes of Mt Owen on Sunday. I had arranged a food drop to be taken in there a couple of weeks earlier in which I had included a bottle of wonderful Nelson Sauvignon Blanc. Grief, did it taste great!!
It was a bloody good grunt up from the Wangapeka Valley up to the Granity Pass hut for sure! 9 kilometers and a time of 6 hours gives you an idea of what it was like. But, as usual when you reach the top of a tough climb and look around you, you know it was worth every gram of sweat. The views were fantastic. Out over Tasman Bay to the Marlborough Sounds, across to Mt Arthur and towards the huge limestone escarpments and formations that make this part of NZ so special. The Granity Pass hut is only months old and a real credit to DoC. Wonderfully situated, well insulated and views to die for.
It sits at an altitude of 1220 meters, over 1 kilometer higher than we were the night before. Our plan was to spend 2 nights up here but 4 young lads turned up later that evening and after a while we decided that maybe we would move on next day. (Grumpy old buggers that we are ) I think this day’s tramp was the best of the trips. We had to climb up to 1550 meters, cross through a saddle,drop down into the next valley and pick up a track which would take us down the Fyfe river to the Owen River and out to civilization. Again, the weather treated us greatly and the views went on forever. Beautiful open tops, the last of the brilliant yellow and red mountain flowers and peanut butter on vitawheat biscuits for lunch!! What more could a chap want. This particular part of the trip also required a lot of map reading and navigating. The new GPS proved its worth for sure. Wonderful machine, but only as a back up. I think one would be very foolish to leave the maps and compass at home. It took us a while to find the start of the track we were looking for, but find it we did and arrived at the Branch Creek hut about 3.30pm.
I was sure we would have this hut to ourselves, but when we arrived we discovered the bedding, food etc. for 2 other people. These turned out to be Jason and Thomas, a pair of hunters who had been there for a week or so shooting goats and deer on contract to DoC. Two nicer guys you could never meet. Both great company and a source of all sorts of information. Jason had been hunting for years and Thomas was his "apprentice". They certainly changed my idea on what professional hunters are like nowadays. Jason holds a degree in mathematics, but just lives for and loves the great outdoors. They treated us to a feed of venison steaks that evening and packed us off the following morning with cold meat for lunch. Jason and Thomas, if you read this, thanks heaps for your hospitality and generosity, it was a privilege to meet you both. We asked them what the track out was like and their reply was unprintable. The information on the track sheet stated a time of 6-8 hours, but when 2 pro hunters tell you it is a rough track you decide it would be a good idea to give yourself a tad longer!! We were gone at first light and are so glad we gave ourselves the extra time. Most of the track markers have long gone, and there are massive windfalls everywhere. Couple this with over 30 river crossings, knee deep mud, stinging nettle at just the right height to get the bare skin between your gaiters and shorts, bush lawyer waiting to strangle you every few meters and you have some idea of what it was like. It took us 9 hours to cover the 14 k’s out to the road end. We only had to wait 15-20 minutes before Stefan picked us up as arranged and took us into Murchison were we luxuriated in a long hot shower, quaffed a few cold Monteiths and dined on something other than dehyds!
We were all covered in various cuts and bruises but nothing serious and all left with a wonderful feeling of achievement, having yomped over some 100 odd k’s of tracks and open country. Some of it was easy, some of it steep and some of it bloody tough going . But we did it and are still smiling and are still friends. We were so lucky with the weather, as some of the places we came through would have been hell if it was bucketing down.
Pete and Phil, thanks heaps for your company and support. I truly enjoyed having you along and hope we get to get out again sometime.
Now, I am off to partake in another couple of cold beers, fill myself up on fatty food again and start mentally preparing myself for the next stage which we start on the Friday the 23rd across the Waiau Pass and down to the Lewis Pass. Tomorrow will be spent doing the washing, patching up the odd tear and rip, scraping off half a kilo of mud from each boot and other exciting chores.
Take care and stay happy. Will be in touch again next week. Cheers.
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