This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
he usual long weekend scramble via The Interislander eventually saw 50- . plus members of Tongue & Meats on their way to Easter adventures in Marlborough. Our group of six was tramping in the Mount Richmond Range, and after an interesting taxi-van ride over terrain which would have made many 4x4 drivers reconsider, we were deposited within 3 kilometres of our actual park entrance. We set . up flys in clearings by the road and crawled into pits at 1:00ish. The cool, overcast evening gave way to light rain and later, low temperatures. By daylight the source of the low temperatures was evident as snow had fallen to quite low levels during the night.
DAY 1: Walked up the Goulter River, which became more attractive by the minute with its abundant birdlife, fastflowing, trout-laden (we thought), clear water, and an easy track which led us to Goulter Hut (a smart 6-bunk DOC hut in a large clearing on the river flats). We lunched in the sun and watched the other group slogging up to the bushline on the other side. Reluctantly packed and headed on for more of the same, lots more, until ~ we reached Mid Goulter Hut late in the afternoon. Met three trampers in the hut, the only other people besides our own clubbies we had seen all day. We enjoyed a feast of savoury mince and an early night after watching the huge Easter moon rise over the hills.
DAY 2: Awoke to a hard frost and ice on the inside of our flys, but a beautiful, clear Marlborough day. After waiting (some [| pitbound) for the sun to dry our flys, we headed off, originally for Lake Chalice Hut, an easy walk up the Goulter River. A slight change of plan saw us head up the track to Old Man Hut, another neat little ¢-bunk model in an interesting clearing several hundred metres below the bushline. As we set about pitching flys we watched the weather change and felt the temperature Pageé drop. First came rain, then hail; nearly 30 minutes of it. We were very thankful to be . dry in our flys, and speculated on the whereabouts of our fellow Club members. All was revealed as one by one they arrived in the dark, after a longish day and some foul weather conditions. Though slightly jaded they were as noisy and cheerful as ever. They had come over Mount Rintoul from Tarn Hut, over terrain which made our slog up look cruisy. .
DAY 3: Agrey, coldish day, but dry. We set off up Old Man to see what was on the other side of the world. We were treated to magnificent views as the weather lifted. At just over 1500 metres Old Man was well clear of the bushline, but still a very accessible alpine area. A brisk wind did not encourage lingering, however, and we found our way down to the junction of the Forks track where we had an early lunch with the other Mediums. Still in high spirits, the noise level discouraged the wildlife, but as things quietened were treated to several species of birds, including wekas and the rarely seen mountain parrot. The track to ‘no hut forks’ proved to be a challenge. We had little difficulty trackspotting as we followed the trail of slip slide marks left by the front party. It was steep and tedious, and rather than push on and be overtaken by darkness we stopped early and camped out along the track. Some resourceful bushcraft (which probably wouldn’t have gained Resource Management consent) and we had ourselves a cosy campsite complete with kitchen, furniture and campfire. It was a mellow, happy pious amounts of Mac Cheese were consumed, followed by Jo’s chocolate chippie log (complete with secret softening agent) dessert.
DAY 4: An easy walk out to Top Valley through beautiful beech forest which gradually gave way to lowland manuka and bush. The Top Valley Stream grew in size as did the signs of humans, and by lunchtime we had encountered boardwalks and day walkers in white Reeboks. We were just swinging our packs for the last lap after lunch when, with impeccable timing, the taxi arrived to whisk us off to Picton.
The trip was a success! Enough food and fuel, comfortable pace, moderate days, campsites where needed (even if we did build one ourselves), some challenging terrain, delightful birdlife, awesome scenery, but best of all was the good, keen bunch of fellow clubbies who MADE the trip.
Thanks to the punters: Ray Walker, Kelvin Smith, Mark Goodwin, Jan Goodwin, Brian Goodwin, and Marilyn Duffy (scribe).
Footnote:
Mount Richmond Forest Park has something for everyone. There are cruisy river walks, rugged tops, endless beech forest, forestry trails for mountain biking, rivers for tubing (watch the summer schedule), pools for fish- ‘ing, a lake (haven't seen it yet, owing to change of route, but pictured on the Park map), birdlife galore, and a photo opportunity at every corner. It is not ‘over-tramped’, has convenient, tidy huts and pleasant campsites, and offers many interesting routes and activities. Do consider a visit some time; access is not complicated, navigation, route-finding and trip-planning are relatively easy, and it is all within a few hours of Wellington.
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By Marilyn Duffy