This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
(or Dads ‘’n’ Lads ‘n’ Mums ‘n’ Lasses), 27 - 29 March by Anne Mould Leaving Taihape at 4 pm, Friday 27 March, Elizabeth, Paul Booth and myself were to rendezvous with the Club’s truck at Kiwi Ranch at approximately 7.45 pm. Making good time to Waikanae we then proceeded over the Akatarawas to reach Kiwi Ranch in plenty of time. It was fun driving over this road and I looked forward to the return trip in daylight on Sunday. ; The truck duly picked us up at Kiwi Ranch ~- thank you Tony for coming down Marchant Road to collect us. Brian duly introduced us to the rest of the party - some familiar faces from other occasions with the Club ~ and we were off, over the Rimutakas - new country for me! Our proposed half hour walk by torchlight to Walls Whare finished up by us being taken right to the camping spot in the truck. I gather the road has recently been upgraded, so, no exercise until tomorrow! Camping sites were found, tent flies erected with great speed, water collected for a supper brew and breakfast and we all settled down for the night. Something scurried across our sleeping bags. Bettie
7.°
Jeanne thought it was a possum but I. didn’t like to tell her that I thought the offending animal was.a rat! I think she had a good nights sleep ...
As usual Brian was up first, boiling the billy to get us all. motivated. It didn’t take long and we were ready to depart by 8.30 am. I was very impressed with the Waiohine River in the morning light - but not quite tempted enough to test the waters. It was a beautiful morning - looking good for a days tramping. We crossed the swing bridge to head up the lower Waiohine track up above the true right of the river.
We stopped for a break at the junction to Cone Saddle and Totara Flats above the Makaka Creek. The lads and lasses had their photos taken at the signpost, just for the record. From there it was quite a steep pull before reaching the easier-grade along a ridge. Leslie, Anna and Casey were off like rockets - we thought about giving them bigger packs! Dropping down into Clem Creek, we had lunch in the sun in an ideal spot. Anne Smith quickly got the fire going for a brew and we all enjoyed ourselves lazing in the sunshine. Leaving the creek we continued on to Cone Saddle at 566m, a gentle pull - then it was downhill all the way past Cone Hut, to the Flats where we were to camp by the Tauherenikau River. Cone Hut is one of the original huts in the park, being built in 1946. It still has a dirt floor but has recently been renovated retaining the totara timber slabs on the exterior walls. Brian told me these had been obtained from a big totara tree that had fallen further on down the track. It was good to see the hut refurbished in its original state. There was plenty of space for all the flies at Cone Flat to be tucked away in sheltered spots, though Noel chose a fresh air spot for the small fly. We proceeded to get a good camp fire going, organized the bacon stew for the night and generally communed around the focal point - the fire, great stuff! I’‘d had a good freshen up in the river, but with the cool wind blowing wasn’t tempted to go for a swim. In fact my togs remained dry throughout the entire trip - maybe next summer. As darkness fell, people drifted off to their pits having dined very well on the bacon stew - where were you Rob? We’d left you a billy of peas and half a billy of tomatoes and macaroni. Perhaps he had gone off this fare and decided to defer coming in to meet up with us - I would have too if I’d known I was going to face a whole billy of peas and all that macaroni! Brian tested out his candle light which was a bit reluctant in the stiff breeze - but once it got going, it was just the job on a dark night. To bed, to dream of Liz on watch with her torch, constantly throwing rocks at possums which were devouring fruit loaves in Glennis’s pack. At 3.15 am the dream had turned into a reality and there was grey fur heading into Glennis’s pack! Liz sprang into action, hitting the possum repeatedly on the head with her torch as it burrowed into the pack for another helping of fruit loaf. The possum eventually realized it had overstayed its welcome and departed - utterly replete. Morning dawned with Liz feeling as if she’d had a hard night, but for those of us who had been oblivious to most. of the possum antics. = thoroughly refreshed. The fire lighters hada good fire going again. = breakfast over, we were on the track again by 8.30 am. We had a pleasant walk in the bush along the river, coming out on’ ‘to very nice grassy camping spots every now and again, until we paused for a break below Tutuwai Hut. This hut is set will back from the river up on a terrace overlooking extensive toetoe and grass flats - a perfect setting!
We stopped for lunch near Smiths Creek.. Once again a good brew from the fire, quality time over lunch and then we were off on our last leg of the journey. It was cool and windy by this time and we could see scotch mist on the tops, not an ideal day to be up there but for us down in the bush cover, very pleasant. Leaving the Tauherenikau River and following Smith’s Creek, the track took us up and down the various terraces above the true left of the creek. We regrouped again before climbing the last steepish part of the track to take us up through the scrub. The blue roof of Kiwi Ranch was visible as soon as we got a view over the other side. Farewelling the rest of the group, Liz, Paul and I dropped off the track past the pine trees to Kiwi Ranch ... Thank you Brian for organizing such an enjoyable weekend, and to the rest of the group, I look forward to catching up with you all again some other time in the Tararuas, which I’m really enjoying and getting to know. Those on the trip were: Brian Hunt (leader), Bruce, Glennis, Emma (13) and Ben (11) Warden, Noel and Kirsty (14) Thomas, Laurie, Shaun (11) and Casey (8) Gallagher, Warwick and Brendon (13) Frater, Ann and Leslie (8) Smith, Stephanie and Anna (9) Coote, Paul (15) and Elizabeth (16) Booth, Betty Jeanne Eydt and Anne Mould (scribe).