This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Lloyd Wilkin and Don O’Brien, Ollie Stempa, Evelyn Wickham, and Lloyd Wilkin.
We motored in convoy to Poad Road, crossed the suspension bridge one car at a time, and parked at the Poad Farm. Our party lined up for the start but a check of numbers present revealed that someone was missing already! This was no way to start a successful tramp but before our
WI&MC April 1997
leader resorted to a roll call, he sounded his built-in loud hailer which produced a faint response which seemed to come from a little wooden structure over the carpark fence which was served by a stile. A few seconds later we had our full muster so over another stile we went, down a grassy bank, across a paddock, through a gate, and then followed a trail of poles around high terraces until we entered the bush canopy via yet another stile.
Immediately we located the first track junction - left to Ohau Hut and right to Waiopehu Hut. We went right. An hour or so of climbing brought us to the top of the hill and to the second track junction at a height of about 450m and which repeated the pair of hut signs we had seen down below.
But this time we turned left and descended steeply to Ohau Hut after the leader had counted heads once again. The rain had been falling steadily since the start of the tramp but it was accompanied by wind so the tramping conditions were reasonable although the track was getting greasy. The front runners turned in a good time on the descent because the tailenders arrived at Ohau Shelter to find the first group finishing off their lunch and getting itchy to move off once more to warm up. This they did after a further head count.
The old hut has lost half its roof and is neglected or abandoned, but on this day it was better than no hut at all as the rain continued its steady downpour. I doubt that anybody at lunch was perfectly dry - most of us looked half drowned, but were still smiling.
The track from the shelter back to Poad’s Farm was fairly level and easy and used up about an hour of time. The triangular course of this day tramp was not unlike the old trampers marathon, for the hill was of similar height to Mt Baker with a steady climb and a steep descent and the gorge track could be likened to the Orongorongo track. Missing this day, however, were the river crossings associated with the old marathon course. Thank goodness for that! Our thanks to Neil for suggesting and organising this tramp. At lunch other ideas for tramps in this area were talked over.
Watch this space!