Search results by user ID 4933

Dundas Loop 20-22 June 2014

achim — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 04:56:25 GMT

A medium fit trip to the alpine Northern Tararuas

Costs: 25NZD transport, food share, hut tickets

Time: Leaving Friday 20 June, 5:30PM - Coming back Sunday 22 June, evening (same year)

A tentative schedule:

Friday:
2.5 h drive to Putara Rd.
1 h shopping/fastfood
2 h walking to Roaring Stag

Saturday:
7 h Dundas Hut via
Cattle Ridge
↑ 1400 m ↓ 600m

Sunday:
8 h walk back via Herepai
↑ 1000 m ↓ 1400m
2.5 h drive back

(Paul and Alyn did this as an overnight trip in 2012, can't be that hard...)

Interested? Please contact me (email).

DundasRidge.jpg

achim — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 04:49:00 GMT

as seen from Cattle Ridge close to Cattle Ridge Hut

Te Urewera Trip between Easter and ANZAC day 2014

achim — Tue, 27 May 2014 17:23:39 GMT

Mon, April 21st

We (Matt, Keith and Achim) started in the afternoon on Monday, trying to drive up as far north as possible. In one go we reach Pak'nSave for shopping in Napier. I (Achim) had three different tramps in mind (Waikareiti/Manuoha Loop, Whakatane/Waikare Loop and something at the Te Urewera Mainland Island / Tauranga river with access from further north) and we decided to settle on one of them once we were in the Urewera Ranges.

In the evening we drove up to the Waikare River Mouth campsite (at the Waikar*i* river!), that is about 20min off the SH 2. We pitched our tents on the free campsite and had a quick evening tea - expecting a long day tomorrow.

Tue, April 22nd

The campsite turned out to be a beautiful spot at the river mouth, it takes about a quarter of an hour by foot to the coast. Matt and I enjoyed the sweeping morning view of Hawkes bay.

Back on the road we did the final shopping in Waiora and drove off to Lake Waikaremoana, where we had a planning session in the visitor centre, we were quizzing around the staff on shuttle prices, track conditions and safe places for cars. After we got the numbers, we discarded the option of closing a potential gap in our tramping routes by hitch-hiking or shuttle - finally we decided to go the Whakatane-Waikare-Loop. There is no intentions book in/around the visitors centre, so we asked DOC to call Cécile - our emergency contact - from the land line to update our intentions. (I had some trouble spelling Mataatua properly!)

We reached Mataatua at 2PM. Makarei in the last house promised to take care of our car for the next days (a koha of 40NZD). We did a 2.5 hour walk along the Whakatane river, had fun with the walk-wire over one of the side streams and reached our destination well before darkness. We had Tawhiwhi hut for us. It features a big open fireplace and funny three storey bunk beds.

Later in the evening we had a chat with Sarah and ??? - they gave Matt a little big fright on entering the hut, as he bumped into two bright head torches and a gun. They were roaming around to hunt some possums in darkness.

Wednesday, April 23rd

The early morning fog hung in the trees magically, the tranquil Whakatane valley looked exactly like one of the plenty haunted and misty photos from the Te Urewera national park. We slept in and started late-sih. Once the sun broke through the mist the day started promising and - indeed - becomes quite warm!

We were walking up the Whakatane past Ngaheramai Hut, and meeting another couple doing hunting and chilling out. They seem to know everyone but also wanting to learn everything on them and dear trails. We were warned about some sections of the track after Hanamahihi Hut, as people left heaps of complaints in the hut books.

A fairly easy tramp brought us Hanamahihi Hut, which was a bit of a ***-hole in a beautiful spot. On the front porch we had a sunny lunch time here. After crossing the Whakatane via a swing bridge, we were climbing over a hill and we did good progress while listening to a number of roaring stags - sounds all in all like massive digestion problems.

After reaching the river again, the track sidles along the steep valley side and crosses several gnarly slips with tree fall and loose gravel. We had some great expectations on 40m slide and (hopefully) taking a plunge in the river. Progress was pretty slow. Less dangerous but more tedious were the flat bits, the track just vanished in lush high grass. We discovered one or the other hunters camp. One of them featured a quad-bike in a makeshift garage! At the end of the flats it was some effort to find the track again. At the 3rd flat, I became impatient and dropped into the river bed. Though the Whakatane river was well filled, but the banks were still wide, so we did more than 1.5 km in no time!

That was the opportunity to train Matt and Keith up for river crossings, at each crossing a bit more - till disaster stroke. At the bent just 300 m from the bridge over the Waikare (here with E at the end), I made a bad judgement and we crossed the river at the bottom section of a rapid instead of wading or swimming through calm but deep pool on top of it. The water turned out to be waist deep, we didn't train the caterpillar to turn around and also Matt and Keith had no idea how to swim with backpacks. - More than half way across I got knocked off my feet and swam back to the shore, while Keith and Matt thought it would be a good idea to take refuge at the logs inside the river a little bit more downstream... (The water flows beneath the logs and tends to drag people into submerged branches, me shouting out that they should swim past the logs were unheard. - Ok, always give the full set of instructions beforehand.)

No good idea, it took me a while talking to get them out of this situation: Keith being in an awkward position hugging a log and Matt ending up with the foot stuck under the roots. (Furthermore, the PLB was with Matt in his backpack. It is advisable to have the PLB in a pocket or on the belt to have it REALLY handy in case of emergency, one might decide to abandon the backpack - typically without the chance of unpacking it.)

Once we were out of the water (quite wet, shaken in confidence), we changed clothes and bush bashed up steeply till we found the track again. The bridge over the Waikare was reached soon. A final climb over the hill should bring us to the hut, dusk was setting in. And again, at another clearing we lost the track and I wasn't able to find it in the darkness. Using my (very basic) GPS bought us finally back to the track and into the Waikare Junction Hut.

The hut was welcoming us with a lit candle in the window and a radio transmitting static, so we knew some other occupants were not far away. We settle in one half of the hut and soon the other half is full of three generations male Maoris, they came by horse, had more dogs than they could count for hunting. Initially a bit reserved, but later quite friendly and chatty. They told us about a Dutch exchange student coming to one of the Maori settlements out there, who went out into the bush with them some years ago. The contrast must have been overwhelming for that kid.

Thursday, April 24th

We got up at 7AM, not too early (would be damn cold for the river) and not too late (assuming this is the most difficult day). Without many deliberations we started the 3 km river bash up the Waikare river from the confluence with Whakatane till the valley widens - after yesterday's ordeal it was surprisingly easy! From there we found track markers for sidling tracks. Progress was surprisingly good, we made it in roughly 3.5 hours to the former Waikare Whenua hut site next to the swing bridge in the middle of nowhere. Short after dropping down into the creek Keith is celebrating the 50th river crossing, we all had fun bashing up Motumuka Stream (indeed, one can't miss the distinct Te Kumete stream fork in order turn sharp left.) The creek was just beautiful (Ivan would have loved it!), there were two canyon-like sections which we bypassed using marked tracks. After the 100 and so-and-so-th creek crossing (Keith gave up counting just before the hut.) we reached Takurua Hut - finally a hut which was used more frequently for tramping than hunting.

One note on the vegetation of the Te Ureweras: It is a lush green rainforest with a much thicker fern cover on the ground than I've seen it before. Whenever we stopped, we've heard birds singing and coming closer. The forest makes a much more untouched impression than the normal Tararua forest.

After a good lunch time, we faced the biggest uphill on this trip: 360m (oh, what an easy tramp!) - and also the highest point on our tramp: Te Wharau with 666m (nearly disappointing, but beautiful with groups of tall trees without much bush, these places remind me of Europe). The track was hidden under a dense fern cover and on the way down we had trouble to find the right way from time to time. But finally, we made it back to Tawhiwhi Hut - just an hour before sunset, this evening Keith's knees were crushed.

Friday, April 25th

Our way back starts with a short sprint back to Mataatua and picking up the car, it was well guarded, thanks! We continue the way on the SH38 towards Rotorua - completing this SH becomes another achievement on this weekend. Driving along the wiggly and sometimes narrow road is nearly as beautiful as tramping, the bridges are shared with the horses - The surface is slippery, so hitting the ditch seems to be a kiwi habit (I was told).

We made an hour long stop in the hot pools in Waiotapu - we and our sore legs loved it! The SH5 to Taupo was blocked anyway (we've seen the totally destroyed truck on a long truck) - unfortunately the cleanup wasn't finished when we were on the road again. So we had to take the detour, which offered some more excitement with more slippery backcountry roads - sharing the road with trucks, buses, campervans... having another near miss - this time with traffic on the other side. Anyway, after that we drove non-stop and without any incidents to Otaki in no time. There we got a Subway and someone was distracted by a beautiful waitress.

I think, I need to get back to the Ureweras in summer for a bit longer, as driving there and back was entertaining as well as tiring - 2 days driving (thanks, Keith) and 3 days tramping is not bad for a short Urewera Tramp. - We loved it, got wet and we had no rain!

Re: That funny type of fun...

achim — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:55:35 GMT

This report was written by Verena Engel for Bush Craft 2014 in Otaki Forks/Tararua Ranges, 12th and 13th of April 2014. Participants were Achim, Brendan, Cécile, Dom, Ivan, Meridith, Rob, Vanessa and Verena.

Updates on the club meeting today (25.02.2014)

achim — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 17:02:20 GMT

I found this in a facebook page, might be of interest to club people:

Come and celebrate the last Tuesday before Uni starts with a bonfire at Makara Beach!! The majority will be meeting at the Hunter Carpark at uni at 5:30pm and heading off to the beach. The usual meeting will also be at 7:30pm at the Welsh Dragon Bar then we will go to Makara at 8:15ish (instead of Tacos). If you have a vehicle, please bring it we may be pushed for spaces.

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Makara+Beach/@-41.2085902,174.6968573,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d38b3bff9e799fb:0x500ef6143a33040

Re: Trip this Weekend: Carkeek

achim — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 01:24:57 GMT

I'm replacing the Carkeek trip with a Waiopehu/Ohau expedition...

Leaving on Friday at 6PM from Hunter car park, we drive up to Poads Road End/Levin and walk in to Waiopehu hut or Te Matawai (depends on how people feel...)

And on Saturday we might have a short expedition to Arete (for the view!) and get back via Ohau river and North Ohau Hut (I'd love to hut-bag that!).

Return will be on Saturday, 6PM .

If you are interested, please contact me, phone: o 21 o 4994 o 2.

Cheers, Achim

Trip this Weekend: Carkeek

achim — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 07:12:40 GMT

Ok, here comes the weekend thing:

The trip to Carkeek will be pretty much a copy of my last Carkeek weekend, we will do a maintenance trip to one of "our" huts. - But this time, we can take advantage of cleaned mattresses (thanks, Beth and Francis), clean walls, a big frying pan and heaps of firewood (thanks to all)... AND the track & marking has improved a lot (thanks, Kieran)! That will make the tramp easier!

In deed, Carkeek hut is in the very middle of the Tararuas, depending on the fitness, one needs 6 to 12 hours to get there.

On Friday (24.1.2014, leave at 5:30PM from Hunter Car Park), we will walk in from Holdsworth Lodge to Jumbo hut (that will safe us an uphill-slog on Saturday).

On Saturday we tramp to McGregor and drop (nearly literally) down into the Waiohine river. As we go we do some work on the track. For a change we splash along the river till we reach Park Forks. Then we climb up the Carkeek ridge, till we arrive at the very hut!

On Sunday we do the same backwards and finally rolling down the hill and along the Atiwhakatu river... Fish and Chips on the way back!!!

Recommended for medium (sore legs on Monday, but happy) or fitter people (no problem...)

Re: gear shed shopping

achim — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:45:04 GMT

There are 5 club T-shirts left:

2 W Small
2 M eXtra Large
1 M Small

20 NZD each!

Re: Dec 1st trip?

achim — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 04:30:00 GMT

Hi there!

Some notes from my Sunday afternoon walk in the Tauherenikau Valley.

Beginners mistake: Take your map out of your trousers' pockets when crossing a river. It might get wet or float away... mine got wet and wasn't laminated or in a plastic bag.

Good walking: Some more gavel came down the slips passing the lower track at Smith Creek SW of the Shelter. That provides good footing, the track is now easier than ever (let's see how long it stays like that).

Allaway Dickson Hut Place: I made my way from Smith Creek along the block XVI track, turned left just after Kotukutuku Stream and bashed my way up straight North towards the nowadays Block XVI track (a good short cut) - very walkable bush. I looked at all sorts of clearings, nothing appealed to me as a former hut site e.g. less stones on the ground, trees of similar age, a gap in the canopy (younger trees), a chimney foundation - if it was made of stone or concrete. On the way down I kept more to the East (that is prolonging the bearing of the upper track, as the 'creators' of these blocks would have done), picked up a minor spur and finally stumbled across a roughly rectangular sunny patch with a fern tree in the middle and not much else but 3m high thin trees of the same age. I didn't find any stone foundations, just a bump of clay.

Significance to the club: This hut was built by VUWTC, finished 1949 and finally demolished in 1972 - read more here - well and a good excuse to get out into a beautiful valley on a sunny Sunday.

Now at home, I re-read the paragraph of a hut site description in the Tararua Footprints (1996) I'm pretty sure, I found the spot, as I crossed the small stream at the foot of the minor spur and the only bright spot I could make out in the otherwise shady and moist environment. The site must have been cut regularly till the re-routing of the Block XVI track.

So, these are the coordinates from my GPS:
(yes, I have a cheating device and use it - to read it out at home and find out how stupid I was when navigating without compass.)

NZTM 2000 Grid Reference NTopo50 PB33 940 564 or E1794042 N5456393

(WGS84) for the geo cachers: S41° 01' 14.1" E175° 18' 23.3"

A (suspected) location for Allaway Dickson Hut

achim — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 04:24:00 GMT