This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
The boisterous nor-wester hurried us on our way along a good trampers’ track towards the south with a view downwards to the left of the large basin containing the two dam sites of the WRC water reservoir. Beyond the waterworks, we could see on the opposite ridgetop the tri-blades of the ECNZ wind turbine (the windmill) which was to be our second target of the day. After a kilometre or so the ridgetop along which we tramped changed direction towards the west and at this point, ~ we left it and followed a 4WD track towards the south which descended until we reached a saddle standing between Long Gully/The Silver Stream to the south, and the Wellington reservoir to the north. For Clubbies with the R27 Wellington Topo map the grid reference of the
Lloyd Wilkin
saddle is R27/550869. From near this saddle we could view, down in Long Gully, an edifice consisting of a glass dome and ornamental towers which reportedly had been used as a movie set in a recent filming there. Margaret said that the structures had originated on buildings close to the Wellington waterfront. Beyond the saddle the track followed a ridge which changed direction from south to east to north-east, and-connected with.a—— much higher ridge which links Polhill with Hawkins Hill and on which the windmill is built. At the connecting ppoint, we had a glorious view of the Happy Valley landfill with the harbour entrance and Cook Strait beyond. Lunch was taken just short of the windmill, and a couple of passers-by stopped for a long chat with our party at lunch, following which we spent ten minutes at the windmill site (385m). From there, Dot led the party down a track through native bush to the upper dam via the eastern end so that we crossed over the top of the dam to gain the western side and so exit from there to the vehicles at Campbell Street — about 10 minutes away. The fifteen punters were: Judy Armstrong, Neil Carey, Dave Catchpole, Barry Cook, Ron Fayle, Heather Jones, Bev & Pete Lillico, Margaret McEwen, Don & Ben O’Brien, Carol Pearson, Diana Strang, Lloyd Wilkin, and our trip leader, Dot Catchpole, who kept us all on the right track all the way. Thanks Dot.
Footnote: The next day I looked over our route on the map and realised that at two points (the aforementioned saddle and the upper dam) we had crossed and recrossed the Wellington Faultline. Recently I read somewhere where experts reckon that at least 350 years have passed since it last moved and when it moves the next time, watch out! In his booklet “A Tramper’s Geology of the Tararuas:, G.R. Stevens of the New Zealand Geological Survey uses a diagram to trace this faultline through the Tararua mountains. It comes ashore from Cook Strait halfway between Karori Rock Light and Sinclair Head, passes up Long Gully, the two reservoir dams, Glenmore Street, Tinakori Road Hutt Road, Western Hutt Road, River Road, to Brown Owl near which the Akatarawa Fault splits off to the left and runs up the western Tararuas. At Brown Owl the Wellington Fault continues north-east to Kaitoke where the Tararua Fault splits off (again to the left) and runs up the Eastern Hutt, Hells Gate, Hector Forks, Isabelle and Girdlestone before rejoining the Wellington Fault in the Mangatainoka Valley. From Kaitoke the Wellington Fault runs up Farm Creek, Dobsons, Tauherenikau River (here it is joined by the fault on the Pakuratahi River which also heads north-east to go over Puffer Saddle and down Smith Creek to the linking point). From the Tauherenikau River the Wellington Fault runs through Cone Saddle, Totara Flats, Totara Creek, Pig Flat, Mountain House, Atiwhakatu Saddle, Mitre Flats, Cow Creek, Cattle Ridge, Ruapae Stream, and Mangatainoka River (where it is rejoined by the Tararua Faultline).
hys, John and I emerged, bleary-eyed from the bus at the Ketetahi roadend, and set off up the track to the Ketetahi Hut. It was a brilliant moonlit night, and the headlamps were put away as soon as we hit the bushline. We-could-seethe tights-of Turangi on the plains below and Lake Taupo glinting in the moonlight. Clouds of fog and steam billowed up from the hot springs, whisked away by the brisk wind on the higher slopes. The hut was a deserted icebox as we arrived in the small hours of the morning, and we were soon in our pits.
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Trip Reports