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Opawe - Fairbrothers Roadend ANZAC Weekend - Sunday/Monday 24 - 25 April 1994 By Lindsay Cuthbertson
This tramping trip had been on my list for some time, ever since a year or two before, when Sue and I had come in from the easter side at Kumeti on a day excursion and walked up to Mt Maharahara. I particularly wanted to visit and stay a night at the little visited Keretaki Hut. Ileft Wellington about am on the Sunday morning, drove to Ashhurst, and then 22 km further up the interesting -Pohangina Valley East Road. A “heritage trail’ pamphlet
is available about this valley and the familiar green signposts marking the sites, appear frequently. A stile and sign mark the start of a poled route across the farmland to the forest park boundary. Several other vehicles were parked here and another vehicle came in as I prepared to depart. All appeared to belong to hunters. From the stile, Opawe Hut (derelict) is visible, uphill about a half hour walk away. The poled route takes one direct to it. The bush and track commence immediately behind the hut. I lunched here in the lovely morning sunshine. .
The bush track (sometimes muddy) climbs steeply. There are some great old rata trees. I reached a track junction shown on the map at 1.00 pm, the start of the leatherwood at 155 pm, and Mt Maharahara (1095 metres) at 222 pm. A feature of this area is the huge expanse of leatherwood, which, without the wide cut track would be almost impenetrable. Mt Maharahara is a superb viewpoint. From here I could also see Keretaki Hut whichlooks enticingly close, but would take a further 3 hours tramping to reach. I saw fresh deer sign several times on the track.
Although there are no open tops, the views are magnificentas one continues up and down along the leatherwood “corridor”. Matanginui Trig, a red barrel about 30 metres off the track, is another good viewpoint. About 15 minutes past here, there is a well signposted junction which informed me that the still-visible Keretaki Hut was tv2 hours off. I found that I took longer to cover the ground than the older signposts suggested. It was now very pleasant tramping in the afternoon sunshine. The track soondrops steeply to the deeply cut Oruakeretaki Stream. It is a very impressive area. About 10 minutes rough travel downstream brings one to a sign indicating the steep ridge track to Keretaki Hut.
I reached the little used Keretaki Hut (Sea-Mac Motel says the sign above the door) at 5.20 pm. The hut is painted blue andis in an exposed location but well wired down. Although a standard 6 bunk hut, it is in beautiful condition with hot/cold running water inside, the water presumably heated by the old style full-size kitchen-type range, complete with oven. There was a large supply of ~ dry chainsawed firewood, and I soon had the hut cosy and my evening meal cooking on the range. There was an ample supply of cutlery, billies, utensils, books etc, all spotlessly clean.
I had not firmly decided on my route for the following day. The possibilities were to either go back the same way as I had come, or go out on the eastem side, either via the Oruakeretaki Stream to Fairbrothers Roadend, or by another stream to the Loveday Roadend. However, the wind came up during the night and by moming the hut was shaking the rain was pouring down, and the weather prospects did not look good. I decided to go Out by the shortest route down the Oruakeretaki Stream to Fairbrothers Roadend. The stream travel is very rough, but enjoyable, with typical small gorge problems requiring care to negotiate. About 3 hours brought me to the roadend where the local farmer was kind enough to take me the 5 - 6 km to the main road about 17 km north of Woodville. I hitch-hiked in two rides back to Ashhurst and from here a taxi-ride brought me back to my vehicle - the taxi managing to slide off the road on a gravel section which was 4 little exciting.
lrecommend this trip to Club members. Eventhough the two roadends are on different sides of the range, the distance between is not much more than an hour's drive, so that a small party with two cars could easily organise the trip. A fast party could doit as a day trip only. |would be happy to offer to lead such a tramp if sufficient members are interested!