Sunny days and Snow

23-25 November 2007

Upper Tama Lake from WTMC Lodge

Trip Leader: Darren, Party: Myself, Marie S, Donna and several others

Yeah, so I found this trip report hidden in the drafts folder of my personal blog. Rather than just delete it, I thought I should move it here and possibly add some photos... Now to hunt out the photos and let the post speak for itself!

Went up to the tramping club lodge at Whakapapa for the weekend to do some tramping and we had a great time - mainly because we spent more time sitting around drinking than tramping, but thats not really the point...

After a long (6 hour) trip on a very uncomfortable bus, punctuated by a stop in Bulls for very average Chinese (wanted Kebab, but the queue was horrendous and we only had half an hour), (and a very cool sunset)

We arrived on the mountain to find warm conditions and the moon shining very brightly through the clouds, making all three mountains visible on our way up the start of the Bruce Rd. I really wished I had an SLR camera and tripod to get some images of how stunning it was, and I think this trip was the one that started me really thinking about getting one!

Saturday dawned clear with an early start (breakfast from 7, out the door to the bus by just after 8). We had stunning views to Taranaki all morning!

My group got dropped off behind the chateau and headed for the Tama Lakes, completely pummeling all DoC listed times in our casual stroll to the top lake.

The track in places felt like a highway with the number of people on it - a bit of a surprise given how good the weather was for a Tongariro Crossing! We wandered past Lower Tama Lake, where a school group or similar appeared to have set up camp on the shores
, and headed up to the shelter at Upper Tama. (There was a LOT of wind, and considering how hot it was everywhere else that day, we were totally grateful for it!
After a casual and leisurely lunch we wandered back down, past Taranaki Falls and on to the Chateau for a couple of beers each while waiting for the bus to go and pick up the others before collecting us on the way back through.
We got a lot of beer time in the wait... over 2 hours... If it hadn't clouded over and started getting cold and windy it would have been great! Eventually the bus came and we all crammed in for the trip back up to the top of the bruce, where we promptly queued for the shower, drank Raro for those of us who had no alcohol and waited for dinner.
During the wait for dinner we were treated to a fantastic sunset light show. Marvellous!!

Sunday dawned far too early... The light was shining full-force on our window at 6.45am, and the curtains were not very thick!!
Up for breakfast and more stunning views over Taranaki, a group of us decided to take a lazy wander up to the snow line. It started to get quite hot as we got further up, but we found snow in more than just patches at the bottom of the waterfall express. I had developed lumps on my archilles on Saturday and so was only in light sneakers so stayed in the chairlift area while the others went for a wander up to the waterfall.

After that, it was back down to the top of the bruce to the pub for some icecream, then back up to the lodge to clean up and chat...
Finally it was time to leave, and we stopped in levin for dinner on the way home.

Last of the summer sun

Easter (01-05 April) 2010

Sabine Valley, Nelson Lakes National Park

Team: Me, Mark, Karl, Craig, Mike, Barbara (with appearances by many other members of the club!)

Thursday

Thursday afternoon saw me finishing work early and wandering around the waterfront to meet my Dad, who had offered to drop Mark and I off at the ferry terminal for our sailing. Once sorted into the vans, we hung around for a while waiting to be loaded onto the ferry for the journey south.
Pretty much everyone in my group had brought their own dinner rather than buy on the ferry, and some of the food was pretty incredible! I had a Chicken Salad Sandwich and had brought half a banana cake (leftover from a leaving morning tea earlier in the week) to share, while Karl and Craig had fantastic looking bacon salad sandwiches! Yum! During the sailing, the ferry lost its computer service, and so for a while there was a massive queue for hot food because they couldnt serve anyone. Eventually they started letting people have the food for nothing since it was a dinner time sailing and a lot of people obviously had no other food with them!

Eventually we arrived in Picton and drove on to St Arnaud, our stop for the night. The campground there is lovely, and has HOT showers! (pay at the DoC office if not staying in the campsite already). It was actually quite warm considering how cold it had been at the road end a month earlier! I was prepared for it to be freezing, and instead we all actually commented on how warm we were, which was nice!
Friday

The other two club groups were heading off from St Arnaud directly, while we were heading around to Lake Rotoroa to start our tramp. Given that all the groups were ending up back at Rotoroa and we had two people willing to drive club vans, we took both vans around to the other lake on Friday morning to start our trip

There was another group on our water-taxi as well, who were walking in the D'Urville valley, so we dropped them off first at D'Urville Hut

Before heading over to Sabine Hut, where we would start from.

After an obligatory group photo before departing on our walk, it was time to get moving! The weather was lovely and warm, and we knew we didnt have too far to go (only about 5.5 hours or so) and so we took our time, stopping regularly for breaks, including at a really awesome bridge over a really deep gorge. We were only about 40 minutes from the hut, but damn we all wanted to go for a swim!
The walk up valley progressed largely as expected. There was still a lot of visible tree-fall from the really heavy snow of two winters ago, and some of this was quite tricky to navigate. There was also a lot more up and down than was visible on the map!
We stopped for lunch in a lovely little spot with a view over the river, just beyond a small stream crossing, which was about the first time we had to get our feet wet. Soon after this, at a really narrow piece of track, my pack made a bid for freedom towards the bank, and nearly took me with it. Soon after this I wound up in so much pain I could barely walk - it appeared I had pinged something in my back! Bummer!
We knew that we were more than halfway though, and so decided to continue on, because in this case, the Devil we didnt know was more appealing than the devil we did, and a rest day was available the next day anyway. I had to continue carrying all my own gear though, as no-one had enough space in their packs to take anything off me! (the joys of being on day one of four!)
By the time I got to the hut, I had been "on the move" for the better part of seven hours, and never before have I been quite so grateful to find a hut with bottom bunk space available!

Dinner that night was a scrummy pasta with veges and tomato pesto, followed by what should have been instant pudding, but we didnt bring enough milk powder, so it still wasnt really edible - we contented ourselves with eating marshmallows instead! After such a long-seeming day, we were all in bed by 9pm, which was great!

Saturday

Saturday morning Barbara and I relaxed for a day of rest. Me for my back, Barbara because she was on holiday and didnt feel like going anywhere! The boys all headed off to Blue Lake Hut for a daywalk, although Karl came back within about half an hour because he was getting pain in the back of his foot.

So our lazy day consisted of not going much further from the hut than the toilet, except Karl, who spent most of the day getting in and chopping more firewood for whoever was there next. Thoughtful chap, that Karl, must remember to tell his parents that at some stage...
Other parties eventually started to trickle in, including our intrepid boys and the Medium group who had come over the saddle, all arriving about 4.30pm.
After some obligatory shots of dinner preparation, it was time to eat at about 6.30. Our group had vegetarian rice risotto, followed by an awesome camp cheesecake. There were NO leftovers...

Eventually it was off to bed, not too late in the end because everyone was fairly tired.

Sunday

After a slightly lazy start, we were off towards Sabine Hut again by about 8.30am, figuring it would be nice to get there for a late lunch since the weather was meant to turn nasty at some stage that day. It was cloudy, and miserable looking.
Our times were substantially better getting to anywhere on the way back to Sabine than they had been on the way out, mainly because we were stopping less often because the weather wasnt so nice!
In the end, we managed to make it back to Sabine Hut dry (having seen only some very light drizzle) and in time for a late lunch at about 2pm.
The other group werent far behind us, and once they arrived, most people headed down into the lake for a dip. It wasnt too cold, but the bottom of the lake was covered in some awful gunk that was spread everywhere when anyone stood on it. Needless to say, most of us didnt stay in there very long!
A lazy afternoon in the hut followed, with many games of 500 played before a fairly early dinner due to daylight savings having changed that morning (it got really dark, really quickly!). We had vegetable couscous, followed by chocolate biscuits for dessert, and yet again what looked like heaps of food dissapeared rather quickly!
The personal fight was to stay up until 9pm, since it was dark at about 6. Most people managed, but pretty much everyone was in bed by 9.30pm.

Monday

Another lazy, nothing day. No one really felt like doing anything, so we sat around the hut and played cards, and cleaned up. Barbara and Mike went with Clintons group on an earlier water taxi so that the vans were evenly packed, and the rest of us waited for our pickup with Pauls group after lunch.
The weather turned cold as soon as we got to St Arnaud, and only half the showers actually had hot water in them, which sucked (I got a cold one!). From there, after a short stop at the shop to get cake and coffee, it was straight back to Picton and into the queue for the ferry. Dinner was a greasy and great Chicken burger and fries, HUGE.

Easter

Yay! Heading away now for a four day weekend tramping for Easter. We are off to the Nelson Lakes National Park.
Should be great! Photos and write up to come next week!
I am so excited :)

Feeling HOT HOT HOT!!

February 26-28 2010

Lake Chalice, Mt Richmond Forest Park, Staircase Road End

Team: Me, Karl, Ian, Olivia, Valentina

Photos are a little different this time, they are low-res versions uploaded directly, as I have yet to post any shots to flickr to have links... This might be remedied later, but for now, we'll see!

Friday night saw an unusual start to a tramp for me - catching the bus along the Old Hutt Road to walk over the bridge to the ferry terminal. After a few nervous moments, waiting for everyone to arrive, we were all there and checked in. Dinner was had on the ferry, and I have to say that the Lasagne wasnt actually too bad, although I wish I had brought dinner stuff like Olivia did - that looked fantastic!

We then collected a rental and drove off into the dark, heading for a campsite at a much easier to find road end. It was fairly cold overnight, and most people didnt sleep particularly well I gathered, and we were all glad for some hot water at breakfast time!

Once the tent had gotten some sunshine, and our condensation-damp sleeping bags had spent some time in the sunshine drying off, we packed up and headed back down the road in search of our actual road end. It was a nightmare to get to, and I am VERY glad we didnt do it in the middle of the night (plus there was nowhere suitable to camp AT the road end anyway!)

From there it was down the hill (and a steep b*&ch of a hill it was!) to the hut for lunch. After a suitable rest period of about an hour, we packed up day packs and headed off around the lake, which was estimated to take about an hour. The lake was very low, and it was very hot, so we were immensely grateful to find that at the far end of the lake it is entirely possible to get down from the track to a small beach-like area where we paddled our feet, and sank in the mud. It was so refreshing no one really wanted to leave, but it was also SO hot, and there was no shade, so we were all feeling the heat a bit!

We headed around the far side of the lake, already having decided that perhaps walking up a spur and on to the tops in this weather was a bit foolhardy, as we were all feeling rather tired from the heat. This was a great decision, as once we got to where the spur we were planning to follow went, we discovered it was bluffs at the track level, and so would have been a tad tough to get up!

Eventually we got back to the hut. Well, it felt like eventually, as the heat made everything seem like it took a lot longer than normal! In fact, we had only taken just over three hours to get around the lake, which was about on DoC time of 2.5 hours, plus our half hour lounging about in the lake!.

The rest of the afternoon was given over to rest. Pretty much everyone had a nap, although I decided not to as I didnt think I would wake up in time to get dinner going if I did! Plus I was feeling dehydrated, so I figured sitting around reading and re-hydrating was possibly more important than napping!

Soon enough it was time to start dinner, which was a bacon risotto followed by apple crumble. It went down a treat, and all of a sudden it was 9.30pm and everyone was getting ready for bed! I think because the hut stayed fairly light for ages, being in a nice sized clearing and with good weather, we must not have started dinner quite as early as previous trips. The cards didnt even come out before people headed to bed!

Sunday morning we were up slightly earlier than Saturday, as we were unsure how long it would take to get back up to the road end, and drive back to Picton. Our aim was to get to Picton by just on 1pm (at the latest) to allow us time for lunch before our ferry. Out of the hut at just on 8am, we were at the road end by just after 9am.

Even with a stop at the lookout, and cruising our way down the nasty road, then stopping at the actual road turn-off, we were still in Picton at just after 11am! We split up and all headed off to have lunch wherever we felt like it, planning to come back to the car at 12.15pm.

While at lunch, I got a text from Jackie (our weekend contact) telling us that there was a Tsunami warning, but the ferries didnt seem to be affected. This was good news, we guessed.

We also decided to see about getting on the 1.10pm ferry instead of the 2.25pm one, which we managed, and that was great, as the ferries were being diverted away from Tory Channel and out past Ship Cove instead, adding an hour each way. So we got home at about 5pm, which was nice for a change for a South Island trip - still enough time to go home and unpack before collapsing in to bed...

Navigating the Blue Range

October 12-14 2007

Tararua Forest Park, Kiriwhakapapa Road End

Team: Ray (Leader), Jackie, Jane, Corwin 1 other (aplogies, I have forgotten names from then!), Me



Starting in the usual way, with the group meeting at the railway station at 5.30, we proceeded over the hill and stopped for my first dinner at the great kebab shop in Carterton. The Kiriwhakapapa road end was reached with no great drama (which was great given we were in the crapper old bus!), and beds were constructed in the shelter.

Saturday dawned clear and quite warm, and we wandered along the track towards Mihimihi, looking for a spur heading off the side where we would leave the track and start bush bashing. It was surprisingly obvious and easy to find! The plan from there was to head up the ridge to Te Mata, a small peak, then down and on to the track and on down to Cow Creek.

The navigation was something we only did because we wanted to, as it turned out that the ridge was an old track of some sort, and was clearly marked every couple dozen meters with pink markers of various types. Hence, Te Mata was reached without too much ado and lunch was had.



The track from Te Mata down to the river and Cow Creek Hut is steep and nasty, and I have vowed never to do it again. Once at the bottom, there was a bit of track that had washed away in a slip and a short river sidle was required, before we reached the bridge that marked we had arrived at the hut.

Cow Creek Hut is lovely, and if there was an easier way to get there, I would definitely go again! 6 bunks, old forest service style with a wonderful potbelly that we stoked up before all taking a nap before dinner. Sleep was early for everyone, since the was no table to sit around and play cards and the weather was packing in.

In the morning we headed back out, straight up and over the hill towards the road end. The short sidle in the river had turned into a well beyond knee deep mission due to overnight rain, which had also made the track slippery in many places.



While the others all headed off to Blue Range hut for a visit, I kept plodding along, worried that if I didnt I would be entirely left behind. The track down from Blue Range is also very steep, and VERY suddenly flattens out. I was caught about 10 minutes from the end of the track, and was very glad to get home!

A Monumental Achievement

Yep, I'm finally getting around to writing up older trips. Its about time some of these were written up!
20-23 October 2007

Tararua Forest Park, Holdsworth Road End

Group: Me (leader), Emma, Emily, Rita (assessor / supervisor)

After a hectic Friday spent packing and shifting, before then unpacking, grocery shopping and packing again to go away, I slept really well, and somehow managed to be nicely organised just in time for people to arrive at my new flat on Saturday morning to share a ride to the road end.
The purpose of the tramp was to complete my Gold Young New Zealanders Challenge of the Duke of Edinburghs Award, and therefore we needed to spend 4 days tramping, exploring both the valleys and tops of the range.

My previous attempt at a Gold DoE tramp had been cancelled about 5 days out, as we had planned to complete the round-the-mountain tramp at Ruapehu, but a Lahar had come through and washed away a major bridge, leaving a very acidic river blocking our path and cutting the available track in half, meaning the walk was never going to be long enough.

Rough Plan:
Day One: Holdsworth Road end - Jumbo Hut via Powell Hut
Day Two: Jumbo Hut to Mitre Flats Hut
Day Three: Day walk to Mitre
Day Four: Mitre Flats - Holdsworth Road end

Saturday
Even though it was late October and the weather had been fairly mild for the previous few weeks, there was an almighty storm going on over the tops on Saturday morning, so we decided to head along the valley to Atiwhakatu hut, and then from there to Jumbo Hut for the night, and see where we felt like going on Sunday. It is a very pretty valley, with some cool bridges and the walk in was fairly easy, apart from one massive slip that had obviously re-slipped since the track had last been cut through.

It was quite mild weather wise with just a nice breeze. At Atiwhakatu hut, we met a couple of runners who had tried to get to Jumbo and had had to turn around because the weather was too bad, with lots of wind-driven hail, and a bit of snow as well. We stuck with our decision to head up the hill to Jumbo Hut on the theory that the hut was only just above the bushline, so chances were, we could still make it. Worst case scenario was that we would have to turn around and come back to Atiwhakatu, which although not pleasant, was at least there!

The climb was steep, nasty and slow. And very soon, surrounded by snow / hail / ice. Which was kind of cool, as none of us had tramped in snow before. Everyone was very tired, but got a bit of a second wind when we got to the bushline and started getting pounded by gale-force-wind driven hail! OUCH!!

Later in the evening, the weather settled somewhat, and we got a bit of a view over the rest of the range, which looked rather nasty, and gave us a fair indication that wherever we were going the next day, it definitely involved going back DOWN the hills!


Sunday
Sunday dawned fine but cold, and a lot of the ice from overnight had melted. There was still enough around for a snowball fight though!

We decided to head down the old track that would bring us out closer to Mitre Flats, rather than head back down the Rain gauge track again. It was actually a really lovely piece of track, still well enough formed and marked, and we were at the bottom before we knew it!

Right near the bottom of this track is a really great-looking campsite that I keep meaning to go back to. Its a nice sized clearing, with a fire pit already built and easy access to the river. We stopped here for a while for lunch, and everyone started looking a bit tired, which was worrying.


We continued on up the valley, eventually reaching the bridge thats as far up valley as the track goes. Its probably the longest and slowest bridge we crossed all weekend. There are a couple of fingers and toes, turned-round-backwards moments on the track before here, which were fun.

From here, the track goes UP to the junction with the track to Baldy and across Pinnacle Ridge. At the track junction, we sat down for food and a discussion. Everyone was shattered, and we had at least another 3 hours to go at current pace before we got to Mitre Flats Hut, from where we would have to come all the way back through where we were. There was also a technical bit coming up that had seen many experienced parties get lost for hours at a time, going around in circles. So the decision was made to return to Atiwhakatu Hut for the night, and go from there up one of the spur tracks to Powell Hut for Monday night. This way we were closer to the road end in case the exhaustion got worse in anyone, and we knew what was coming with regards to tracks, distances and times.

It was a fairly straight-forward tramp back to Atiwhakatu, although it took quite a while, and after crossing an unbridged stream between the two Jumbo Hut tracks, I managed to put my hand in a patch of stinging nettle. This meant a brief stop was required to dig out antihistamine cream, and at every small bit of flowing water I could get to, I was dunking my hand to try and cool it, as it felt like I was wearing a very tight balloon glove and my hand was effectively useless. All up rather unpleasant. But at least we got one laugh out of it - when I pulled my hand away from the nettle and realised what I had done, I yelled "Ow, it burns, it burns!" in what was apparently quite a comical tone. I couldn't not laugh at the imitations over the next 36 hours... :)


Monday
A short day distance wise, but it still took us the better part of 6 hours, from Atiwhakatu Hut via Mountain House to Powell Hut because we were all SO sore and tired! The weather clagged in on us as well as we went, and eventually we were walking in quite thick mist. We stopped at Mountain House for a pre-lunch snack, which wound up being soup. And Damn that was the best cup of soup I have ever had.

It at least wasnt windy on us! It cleared a little in the afternoon, so we spent some time exploring the close surrounds of the hut, which neither Emily or Emma had been to before, and then tucked in to some really quite average backcountry cuisine dinners. We had two flavours, and so everyone had some of each. This was great because only about the first 3 or 4 mouthfulls of each actually tasted any good!

Thankfully most of us still had hot chocolates and the like around, as the huts gas heater was broken, and with only four of us in the hut for the night, it did NOT get very warm at all! (Most of us had dinner sitting in our sleeping bags at the table)

Tuesday
Tuesday morning we got a text telling us that a southerly front with wicked winds was due to come through soon. Given at least two party members had spent most of the night awake becaus they thought the wind was going to blow the hut down the hill, we figured anything that was worse than we had now was worth getting out ahead of. So we bolted down breakfast, threw our raincoats on (it was hosing down) and bolted out the door fairly early.

By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, it had dried out and warmed up (a little at least), which was lovely, but would have been nice to have had that weather on our way down! The track down was much the same as always, although this was before the recent re-build of the lower part of the gentle annie, so there were lots of steps that had fallen away. But the road, car and fish n chips were just a short walk away, so we pounded down the hill with our much lighter packs, ending back at the carpark by Noon.