History in action

28 December 2012

Hapuawhenua Viaduct, Old Coach Road, Ohakune

Team: Mark, Me

We decided to head to Ohakune for a couple of nights between Christmas with my extended family and a New Years visit by Marks parents. Our last chance to have some time to really relax and have a holiday that was just us, sans baby.

The only plan we made was to stay at the Top 10, where we have stayed before. Its a lovely place, and we recommend it to anyone. Other than that, we would do what the weather made us feel like doing, even if that was spending most of the day in bed.

The weather was indeed pretty rubbish for most of our time. It either rained or threatened to rain. After a "daytrip" to Taumarunui for lunch (tip: dont bother), the next day was forecast thundery showers in the afternoon, so we got up at a reasonable time and went for a walk up to the Hapuawhenua Viaduct in the morning. Its a track I saw in Wilderness Magazine ages ago (and I remember the bridge being talked about when I did the Overlander train trip all those years ago) and have wanted to do ever since.



There are options to be driven to the far end of the Old Coach Road track and mountain bike all the way back, but with my balance being a bit precarious, we opted to walk in and back instead after some consultation with the local i-site about the track.

After stopping in at the supermarket to buy the makings of bread rolls for lunch, we headed the couple of kms out of town, parked up and got started.

At 28 weeks pregnant, the climb up to the viaduct felt long and steep, but coming back I realised it really wasn't. The signs and I-site had indicated a return walk should take about 2 - 2.5 hours including a lunch stop, so we felt we did pretty well getting up to the viaduct in under 1.5 hours. The track is largely exposed, so with the muggy weather, the going was pretty warm and I seriously wished I had managed to find a better pair of shorts before we went away on holiday.

Thankfully Mark was carrying the bag, and there were regular information panels I could use as an excuse to stop at on the way up the hill. We decided to visit the old tunnel on the way home, figuring that if the weather did come in, we would rather have already had lunch before it did. The track up and around the hill is through some lovely bush, and is much more narrow as it is not the original Coach Road (which you can still see some of the old cobbles of as you are walking it). Eventually, it drops down under the current Main Trunk Line bridge before popping up next to the old bridge.



A massively long picnic table at the far end of the old viaduct makes a wonderful lunchspot, and the toilet was remarkably clean. We had ham and cheese rolls, fruit and a bottle of juice to share as lunch and debated whether to stay and wait for the Overlander to come through. We eventually decided not to, and started walking back, this time stopping in to walk in and back the old tunnel.




About 2 minutes after we passed the last spot where the main trunk line could be seen, the train went through. Oh well. After that, it was a nice walk back down the hill in increasing heat to the very warm car in the very full carpark. A stop at the supermarket for ice-creams later, and it was time for a hot shower and a nap to round out the afternoon.

I highly recommend that anyone visiting the Ohakune area either walks or mountain bikes the Old Coach Road trail. Its family-friendly, and really quite interesting.

Beacons and Bollocks

Mike over at Windy Hilltops has been recently talking a bit about the excessive selling the media has been doing lately of "Always carry a beacon".

Now, while I agree that if you can access one, they are a good thing to take with you on any trip, I am getting a bit tired of this new "tradition" that has appeared of publically berating people for not having one when 12 months ago they would have been credited with doing everything correct. Not everyone can afford to buy one, not everyone really needs one, and they are not always available for hire.

For example, we have this article in the Dominion Post:

Three Lower Hutt women missing in the Tararua Ranges have been found after spending two extra nights in the bush.

The Palmerston North Rescue helicopter located the 55 year-old woman and her two daughters aged 18 and 21 at 10am at the Island Forks bivouac.

They were airlifted back to Levin where the 18 year-old received medical treatment for a minor knee injury. The women were due back from an overnight tramp to the Waitewaewae Basin on Sunday, but took shelter at the bivouac after the daughter hurt her knee.

The injury and the high level of the river stopped the group from completing the tramp. Search Coordinator Constable Kevin Dalzell said police were notified by the woman's husband late Sunday evening when they did not arrive home.

"While the group had good clothing, shelter, a cellphone, and food, they did not have a personal locator beacon or a mountain radio which are crucial to take when you're out in the bush. There was no cellphone reception where the group was located and they would have had to climb some distance to get reception."

The older woman is an experienced tramper while her two daughters have limited tramping experience, he said. "It was a good call by the women to stay on the track under shelter until they were located."

The search covered a large area from the Waitohu Valley Road, through to Mount Thompson and the West Waitewaewae River, down to the Waitewaewae Hut and back up to High Point Mick.

(Bold emphasis mine)


I'm sorry, but calling a PLB "essential" in situations like this is a bit ludicrous. The women had found shelter, and appear to have been waiting out a drop in river levels before probably attempting to get themselves out. They had left what appears to be substantial information with someone who raised the alarm. The injury was "minor", and it does not sound like it had become a life-or-death situation yet, although they might have started running out of food. (In fact, a later article suggests just that).

In fact, in this situation, the "experienced" tramper (the Mum), was a former Search & Rescue member (according to articles). If she went out for a weekend with no beacon, but was still confident she would be found when something went wrong, then she seems to have done a lot right.

I have seen many situations recently where, yes, carrying and setting off a beacon was a good thing. And similarly situations where the person involved should have carried a beacon or similar - although in that case, the runner did a lot else wrong, like going a different route to intended, keeping going when lost, and taking no other emergency equipment. In fact, he was lucky to find a hut, which gave him knowledge of where he was again so he could get out.

Mark and I sat down and discussed the situation these women found themselves in and we agreed, if we had been in this situation and WERE carrying a beacon, we still most likely would not have set it off until it became VERY obvious we couldn't get ourselves out and / or we were completely out of food. But then I guess I wouldn't particularly be expecting SaR to be out the morning after I became overdue, especially if it was known I would be across a river that might have flooded in the rain we have had - so you then have the debate of "If SaR are likely to be looking for you, do you set the beacon you have off to tell them where you are, or do you opt to NOT set it off in the hopes they realise its not that urgent?"

For anyone who has read any of my back-stories, you'll recall a tramp we did where a beacon was set off for what was probably a similar injury to the one in this story (funnily, in the same river catchment, just much closer to the road). In re-hashing that trip and the situation, Mark and I concluded that if we were now leading it, we would probably not set off the beacon - something that was only done because it was the old 121.5 beacon, whose batteries were 10 years out of date, and the frequency was not being monitored soon, so may as well try - instead relying on the two people we had sent out to the road end to "raise the alarm" and let SaR then decide how they wanted to evacuate our punter - whether they thought they could walk her out, since we were only a couple of hours in from the road end, or if they would send in a helicopter anyway.

Yes, that would have meant a couple of hours extra waiting for the helicopter to arrive, or possibly 4 or more hours for a walk-in party. But (like the three ladies rescued this week), we were not in a life-or-death situation. Unlike the ladies, we had enough members of our party to spare two to walk out together and we didn't have a high river to cross. We had emergency shelter, and it was only soon after lunch on Saturday, so we still had the better part of two days food. We also knew that at least 6 other tramping club members would be coming through our location the next day - these are all things that a PLB cannot transmit to SaR.

With a modern beacon in hand, in the same situation, with the same kind of party, I would not activate it. Simply for the fact I believe that, other than life-or-death situations (where a beacon still might not get you a chopper fast enough) beacons should be used in situations where you cannot rescue yourself, and / or cannot walk out to get help in a reasonable amount of time.

Glam Tramping

02 - 04 November 2012

Queen Charlotte Track (Ship Cove - Endeavour Inlet)

Team: Mark, Me

Yes, this is the first post I have written here in a -VERY- long time and I am sorry! To be brutally honest, I've only done two tramps since January, what with going to Europe for six weeks and then coming home pregnant.

I decided I wanted to do something a little different for our 2nd wedding anniversary, and given the hellish time we had been having in the preceeding weeks, Mark took very little convincing, since it was something I was (for once) enthusiastic about.

Roll on Friday night and a ferry sailing for the first time since January. It was reasonably calm and quite quiet. The only bad thing was I went to get dinner too early and wound up with less options, but at least I found something to eat! The ferry ran a little late, and by the time we had collected our bags and walked to the Mercure (oddly actually about the cheapest place in town that offered private rooms), their front door was locked as reception was closed. Thankfully the staff hadn't left yet, so they let us in and got us checked in.



Saturday morning, and unusually for a tramping trip, we dressed in "normal" clothes so we could head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It was ok, but we were both left wishing there was something more akin to a McDonalds in town to get a second breakfast at. We headed back up to our room to get changed and finish packing before checking out and walking the two minutes to our water taxi.

A bit over an hour later, after a water taxi ride that more accurately impersonated an extended rollercoaster, we are delivered to Ship Cove in damp, breezy conditions. Leaving our overnight gear on the boat to be delivered to the nights accommodation seems almost sinful, but so good at the same time. We figure there is no point in rushing out of Ship Cove, so take our time using the toilets and making sure my pack is well adjusted before starting the grunt up the hill.



Once we got to the top of that first climb (Lookout Point), things got markedly easier. Apart from moving very slowly down some wet clay-based steep bits, we made really good time all the way to Tawa Saddle, including having stopped for lunch. We were in and out of raincoats all day till Tawa Saddle when it started really raining, and turned southerly with a vengeance.



Cnoc Na Lear guesthouse was further along Endeavour Inlet than we had expected, and so getting to it seemed to take a *really* long time, especially since I had started to get sore / tired hips coming down from the saddle. But we made it, our hosts were wonderfully welcoming and the room was immaculately presented. I threw myself straight in a nice warm shower before getting dressed again and lying down on the bed for a nap. We had opted to have dinner provided, and it was lovely - both the food, and because it meant we didn't have to cook (but there were 4 hotplates, a toaster, jug and microwave in the room, so you could cook if you wanted). The owners cat came to visit several times, and earned the nickname "unimpressed cat" when we put it back outside, as it sat there staring at us for a while.

After an evening wander down to the wharf, we had an early night. It was amazing how dark it was. I guess thats what happens when there are no street lights. I know its something I'm used to from tramping, but it was so surreal to experience when staying in a hotel-like setting!



In the morning, we had a relaxed breakfast, paid our hosts, packed up and went for a cruisy wander around to Furneaux Lodge for a drink before our scheduled pick-up. We had planned originally to walk around to Punga Cove, but the afternoon pick-up risked us missing our ferry home, so we settled for a morning pick-up instead, deciding to see if we could get on an earlier ferry.

 

The walk was just what I needed to ease the muscles from the day before, and it was lovely walking in the sunshine with close to no breeze. Sitting on the deck of the restaurant at Furneaux with a nice glass of OJ was a treat too. Once back at the guest house, we changed back into town clothes, and our wonderful host put our packs on his 4x4 to take down to the wharf for us. Our water taxi was a little late, but at least conditions were smooth this time!



We made it to Picton with just enough time to ring the Bluebridge and ask whether we were likely to be able to get on to their earlier ferry. Thankfully we could, and even better, the shuttle over to it was due to arrive at the water taxi berth within about 5 minutes. Just on an hour later, we were on the ferry, heading home (and I have vowed to do everything I can to avoid the Santa Regina in the future. The vibrations, for over 3 hours! I wound up having to put my head on Marks knee and sleep to fend of the migraine-strength headache that was trying to arrive).

So, final thoughts on "glam tramping"? I love it. Seriously. And I think Mark quite enjoyed carrying a lot less stuff than normal too. Now to find some money and persuade him that the Milford Track as a guided walk IS a good idea. I'm working on that one for about our 5th wedding anniversary, when perhaps our new adventurer is old enough to stay with its grandparents for a week.

Blue Range Hut

4-5 August 2012
Party: Myself, David, Sandra, Kath, Michael
Kiriwhakapapa Road, Tararua Forest Park

An early start at the railway station as we were sharing a van with others was mitigated by a lot of fun on the drive over the hill. And as an added bonus for a winter weekend, we didn’t camp out Friday night. Amanda and her group missioned off up the track ahead of us while we finished getting sorted and locked up.

This tramp was a little different for me. I was six weeks pregnant and completely unsure how my body was going to cope. While classed as an easy tramp, and only involving one nights worth of gear and food, I was still nervous and had considered pulling out, if not for the fact I had had a full trip list my first Wednesday back at club after our trip to Europe and my week at Photography Camp.

I probably should have listened to my gut. The climb to Blue Range hut is neither long nor steep, but it took forever. Thankfully we had good weather, because the walk I was expecting to take about 2 hours instead took 4 – although I wasn’t the only person taking it slow, thankfully. I was super puffed and simply not really up for the strain.

Arriving at the hut it was cold. This place gets no sunshine in winter. There was basically no dry wood and it had rained recently, so it took a very long time to get the fire going and heating the hut with any impact. David had bought along a travel coffee grinder and percolator and spent hours and hours in the afternoon making coffee. Most of us chilled out on the bunks in every warm item we had (thankfully we arrived dry, so didn’t have to also dry clothes), hoping no-one else turned up, as we were already 5 people in a 4 bunk hut – thankfully, we remained the only people for the night.

   

I spent my afternoon lying on the bunk, worrying, as I had started bleeding. Thankfully this turned out to be nothing once we got back to town, but the guys both took some of the weight out of my pack for the trip home and one of the girls gave me her walking poles to reduce my impact on the way down the hill. We started late in the morning and were caught not long before the carpark by members of Amanda’s party, and after changing into non-sweaty clothes, headed home.

A Full Crossing

November 13, 2011

Rimutaka Rail Trail - Kaitoke to Cross Creek

Team - Mark, David, Snaiet, David, Myself

We hit the ultimate in weather - enough sunshine to be lovely, and enough cloud to not overheat. Seriously, how did we pull this off when we set the date so many weeks in advance?

A good crew of 5 arrived within 5 minutes of the allotted time at the Kaitoke carpark, and we were off pretty quickly. We cruised our way up the hill, with the odd complaint of the ride feeling like hard work, and a few slightly sore bums (mainly mine). Mark and I had done this half of the ride before, when we had been really keen to get across to Cross Creek, but hadn't arranged transport back (and weren't keen on riding back up to Summit from the other side).



We arrived at Summit just nicely at lunchtime, where we chilled out for half an hour or so, watching other walkers and cyclists go past. Many went through the tunnel and straight back (which Mark and I hadn't done last time as we had no torch). Riding through, even with a torch, was an interesting experience as it was a LOOOOOOOOONG tunnel.



The ride down into Siberia Gully was... interesting. A bit technically challenging if you were to ride it, and difficult to keep your footing and hold of your bike if you walked (which I did). Very steep! And then the ride from there down to Cross Creek was markedly steeper than the ride up to Summit, enough to make me a bit uncomfortable at times - I spent a lot of time on the brakes. (yes, I'm a scaredy cat!)



A quick detour to the old rail yards near the end and we all made it, with only a small fall or two going into Siberia, and had a good half an hour to spare before our shuttle collected us to return to Kaitoke. A good day, and one I'm somewhat surprised to have not gotten around to repeating (although, that said, it was probably more interesting on the Wellington side than the other)

There and back again to see how long we can take

21-22 January 2012


Field Hut, Otaki Forks road end, Tararua Forest Park

Team: Me, Clinton (co-lead), Mark, Jo, Anita, Maarten, Maren, Debbie, Shannon

Originally scheduled to be a 3-day weekend Southern Crossing trip, things went a little differently, which wasn't overly surprising given that it was my first attempt at a Southern Crossing, and it took about 6 attempts to get the Jumbo-Holdsworth completed after similarly many years of wanting to!

We left Wellington early on a Saturday, to an interesting weather report, and one punter down at short notice. We spent a while trying to repack Clintons gear at the road end, to see if he could leave any behind, failed and started walking. It was hot and muggy and we knew we had a solid slog up the hill ahead of us to get to our target for the night - Kime Hut.



Jo and I quickly fell to the back, finding both the climb and the heat strenuous. After a while, we gave most of the others their head and I left Clinton in charge of them while Mark, Jo and I wandered up at our own pace to meet them at Field Hut.


Recognising my weakness, and unwilling to drag the rest of the party down, I decided to tell the others that I was not continuing on the crossing, and would instead return to Otaki Forks the next day before collecting them on Monday afternoon at the Kaitoke end. Given Marks lack of excitement over the trip, I assumed he would want to join me (which he did), and after a good discussion sitting around at Field Hut in the sunshine, Anita and Jo also decided to stay.

 

We shuffled some gear around to ensure those heading off had essentials such as first aid kits, cooking gear and food, plus the locator beacon and then saw them off. Thank goodness for a group that included no-one new to tramping, because Clinton realised about 35 minutes further along that he couldn't make it either, and so 5 of us stayed at Field Hut that Saturday night.



There is nothing quite like chilling out in the sunshine at a tramping hut. The peace, the excuse to do absolutely nothing, its all fantastic. We shared the hut with about 6 others, which meant that there was enough body warmth to not need to light the fire. Dinner was great, we threw everything we had into it to avoid carrying it out, and gave the leftovers to one of the blokes in the other party.



Sunday morning we woke wrapped in misty fog, with the wind gusts throwing occasional shots of rain at the hut. A great morning for a long sleep-in. Up late by club standards (we ate breakfast about 8.30am), we dallied in the hut until lunchtime so that we could be back at the road end as close to 5.30pm as possible for our pick up.

 

The walk back down was hard in its own way - the bottom half of it a lot like coming down from Powell Hut, smooth and reasonably steep, it seemed easier to run, which we didn't want to do. We all got down in good time, and with about an hour to spare before Pete was due to return to collect us, so we turned left before the bridge and went in to Parawai Lodge, so we could have a brew and sit down to a couple of games of cards while we waited.

As soon as we got there, it poured with rain. Seriously bucketed down. It had started trying to rain on our last bit of the walk (we had studiously ignored it, heads down, follow the track, get to shelter), but wow, that was some epic rain!

 

Pete was waiting at the carpark when we wandered out at 5.30pm, and we were all home in good time. On Monday I took the van back out to Kaitoke to collect the others, who had made it all the way across without any issues, and who had seen snow at Alpha hut that morning.

Thwarted Effort

17 December 2011
Party: Mark, Myself, Paul A (leader), Karl, Nic, Jose
Turere Lodge (meant to be Paua Hut), Orongorongo Valley, Wainuiomata

Coming so close to the end of the year, this trip was unsurprisingly late to be properly organised, with emails going out on Friday morning to confirm Saturday’s planned departure – “regardless of the weather”. The weather had been awful, and was forecast to remain so for the entire weekend, but we were intrepid proper trampers, so tramping we would go, regardless of the weather.

I don’t recall the weather being massively abhorrent while we were walking, but we got to the bridge at the Orongorongo River to discover a nasty, brown, fast-flowing and VERY high river in front of us. That had our destination on the other side of it.

A quick conflab was held and the easy decision made – no way were we going to try and cross that river and get the hour-or-so down the valley to the hut. Instead, we opted to trudge up the valley a short distance and head for the newly opened Turere Lodge for a lunch break before heading back to the van and home.

We found Turere Lodge booked by a set of Ranger Units, with the units tramping in over the course of the day, so only a couple of leaders were in residence when we got there. They obligingly let us look around (Turere is a locked, bookable hut normally) and allowed us to warm up in front of their fire while we ate, which was a huge improvement over the intended plan to eat out on the deck.

Given Karl had his traditional multiple-kg bag of lollies with him, we ate what we could and gave a pile to the leaders to lighten his pack before heading back along the track towards the carpark.
Good practice at carrying an overnight bag again after a while away from tramping, even if we only got halfway to where we had wanted to be. And a good team to have an unusual day with!

Covert Ops Black Tie Lunch at the Waihohonu Hilton

Waihohonu Hut Daywalk, Desert Road.
Lodge weekend, 01 October 2011

Team: Myself, Mark, Colin, Nathaniel


Friday night, 5.30pm, Wellington Railway Station. Perfect. We have infiltrated a party of climbers heading for “The Lodge”. This lodge will be a perfect base for our weekend operation. We hope this lodge will prove as comfortable as it sounds, even if it traffic reports indicate we might be in for a long drive.

Friday night, 6.30pm, Upper Hutt. A detour to pick up another member of the climbing party. The interlopers still haven’t been roused out of the van, it appears there may be space enough that they continue not to notice us.

Friday Night, 8pm, Levin. The climbers have all disappeared into a den of iniquity calling itself “Noodle Canteen”. To continue avoiding notice we split in half and head for alternative eating establishments, ensuring we are back ahead of the climbers so we don’t get left behind.

Saturday, 7am. After a short nights sleep due to a late arrival, some generous soul is cooking breakfast already. We quickly demolish some food, do a spot of cleaning up and inch our way down the crusty ice to the van, where the climbers are waiting for us to drop them off. It appears we have been noticed.

Saturday, 10am. After a successful mutiny against the climbers in Whakapapa Village, we gained control of the van in a bloodless coup and have arrived at a carpark in the middle of nowhere, somewhere alongside the “Desert Road”. We have been reliably informed that our mission will see us walking in to a “Waihohonu Hut”, and that it should not be a long time before our destination is in sight.



Saturday, 11.30am. We appear to be lost. Colin has visited several “huts” in the past, and is adamant that this is not a “hut” and that the spacious lodge with running hot water we have instead found is the mysterious Waihohonu Hilton. With this in mind, we change clothes to something more suited to the location and settle in to demolish our lunch as if we are just here minding our own business.



Saturday, 1.30pm. We are starting to doubt our directions. We have consumed two courses of food and seen only a pair of Australian trampers. Perhaps our quarry is at the historic hut? We know we are running out of time, as we should be leaving the hut already if we are to make rendezvous with C at M, but we decide that since we are here, we should continue and make a thorough investigation, to ensure we have not stopped a hut too early.



Saturday, 1.45pm. There is no one at the historic hut either. We are perplexed. So we capture our smallest member and string him up instead, just to prove that we have achieved something with our day. To ease his feelings and our confusion, we return to the new hut for a spot of dessert, deciding we can now run late for our rendezvous as we were given spurious information in the first place.





Saturday, 2.30pm. After taking our time to ensure that the change to daylight savings the other weekend was not the cause of our mission failure, we change back out of our dress clothes and leave the Hilton as swiftly as we arrived. The trip back makes us aware of the fact that there is actually a height above MSL difference between the carpark and the Hilton – are we sure we are going the right way? We don’t remember feeling like we were climbing to get there, but we are definitely dropping now.

Saturday, 4pm. The van is in sight again. Luckily the climbers didn’t manage to trace us here and claim it back. We roar (gently) off onto the Desert Road again, back around the mountain to the Mangatepopo Carpark, where our next rendezvous point is.

Saturday, 5pm. There are more people at the rendezvous than there should have been. This makes us a little worried, but we collect them all anyway as they all appear to fit, before dumping one out at the next junction as we return to the lodge too late for a beer at the pub, and after Happy Hour has finished. Thankfully dinner appears to be not far away – not that us interlopers need any after a relaxing three hours having lunch on a mission that was only successful in that it caused no further injury to Colin and included tasty food.

Sunday, 10am. The climbers have invited us to join them at the Tokaanu Hot Pools. We gratefully accept, as it’s a perfect excuse to escape the boarders vs skiers debate that appears to be ongoing at the “lodge”.

Sunday, 12.30pm, Waiouru. The debate has found us again. Save us all. We escape as quickly as is politely possible and continue the drive back to Wellington.