This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
riday evening was very cruisy.
Fi: walked about 50 metres from where Roger dropped us off and camped beside the Ohau River pipe bridge. Our Medium party of six was away at about 8.00 am Saturday morning and walked at a good pace over farmland and then along a sidle track beside the Ohau River. We dropped into the Ohau River and walked to the base of Deception Spur. The weather was warm and sunny and there was a reasonable sort of trail up Deception Spur. However, the travel was slow due to us climbing quite a lot and there were a few flat bits and bumps on the spur too. At one point we stopped for a rest and had a good view looking north towards Mount Tawirikohukohu. By this stage it was becoming overcast. We had a very late lunch at about 3.00 pm at the top of Deception Spur. We were in the bush with no views at all. After lunch we wanted to follow a rather bent ridge south for a while and then drop into the head of the Mangahao River. The navigation went without a hitch but it was quite a slow process getting to the Mangahao River because of the bush-bashing that was required. We wandered up the upper minutes until we found a clear flat area in which to camp. Ruth cooked up a nice meal. It was commented on how the trip had gone completely to plan so far. There was a little bit of drizzle that evening before we hit the pit. Early in the night there were periods of light rain. The rain became
13-15 March 1998
heavy and more persistent towards morning with extremely strong north-westerlies. Ruth, who was sleeping on the outside edge of the fly, got very wet. In the morning it was agreed we would just pack up and head off towards Te Matawai Hut for breakfast. The river was up but not brown in colour. When we set off torches were practically required to see while we were still in the trees. After about twenty minutes we came to acreek that we had to cross. It was running dirty brown and very high. It was obvious from one look at it that there was no way we could cross it. The party explored up-stream for about ten minutes to see if there was an alternative way of crossing it up there but nothing could be found. It was decided that we would head downstream towards the Mangahao Dam roadend instead of waiting for what would have been several hours for the river to drop. (We were meant to come out at the Ohau roadend.) About ten minutes after setting out down the track we ran into the Club’s Fit party. After discussing the situation with us, the Fit party towards the Mangahao Dam road. end as well. The idea was to catch some hunters the Fits had seen and for at least one person to get a ride out and let Roger know we had come out at the wrong roadend. After about an hour of tramping down the Mangahao River track we came to a stream that was totally un-crossable. Andrew, who was in the Fit party, worked out a way to get across on some tree logs. The Medium party, with some difficulty, managed to get across the stream. The rain by this stage was easing off. We arrived at the Mangahao Hut at about 11.00 am. The remains of last night’s dinner were cooked up and shared around the Medium party. The hunters that the Fit party had intended to catch up with had had to come back to Mangahao Hut because the Barra Stream was uncrossable.
We set off from the hut at about 12.00 midday. By the time we got to the Barra Stream it had dropped and was not too hard to cross. From there on, it was a long walk down the Mangahao River track towards the dam roadend. The Fit party walked on ahead with the hunters. We only stopped at Harris Creek Hut for about quarter of an hour. The weather was improving and our raincoats could be put away. After a stop at the roadend we carried on walking down the road. Some party members were suffering from chaffing. We were just starting to climb the hill where the road leaves the us up. it was as just getting dark and we were very pleased to see the bus. Thanks Ruth for leading this rather different type of tramping trip. The people on it were: Ruth Parnell (leader), Peter Wills, Brent Hoy, John Hoffeins, Ken Pullen and Steve Hore.
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John Hoffeins