Winter tramping started at Queens Birthday Weekend.
The temperature plummetted and drizzle turned to snow late Sunday. By morning the sky cleared to a hard frost and a sparkling day.
Honora had four pairs of gloves with her. Two was enough for me but I would've been happier if I'd taken my downie along.
Sure I like warm days but there are a lot of things about tramping that change for the better with Autumn:
The change of season usually happens during our Stewart Island trip in April.
Driving south the poplars before the Rangitata bridge are usually still green and with all their leaves. Coming back two weeks later they've usually changed colour.
This year was a bit different. They still looked greenish but two thirds of the leaves had been blown away by strong nor'westers.
But the days seem a lot shorter than they did only a few weeks ago.
Here's an idea for tramping when the days get shorter:
Try it out. It's better to start out on a trip that has a reasonable track leading to a hut that you've got a pretty good idea will have spare bunks.
Honora and I are just back from 8 days tramping in Stewart Island. We've spent so much time down there now I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get blase about seeing kiwi wandering around in daytime.
I don't think so.
Aside from the wildlife we're pretty satisfied with some of the tramping stuff we got done this time. I'll get all the details and other pics up here from tomorrow.
Dreams don't come easy.
Honora and Janet Macnab were 54 days into Fiordland, after leaving the south coast just before Xmas 1994. For a 32 day stretch they saw no track or other people. Two days after this Janet's badly infected leg meant an emergency evacuation, and the end of the dream.
Honora told the story of their incredible journey in a presentation at the Christchurch Tramping Club the other night.
In '94 Janet had asked me to join her on a South-North traverse of the Southern Alps. I couldn't take 6 months off work and said no. That was such a stupid thing to do. When Honora was asked she didn't need to think about it.
Janet planned right from the start to do it complete. That meant going through the centre of Fiordland. Very few have got through there.
Honora and Janet faced up to the steep and jumbled terrain, the heinous scrub, the atrocious weather, the horrendous loads, the scanty route information and got to within a week or so of reaching the Milford Track.
A year later they both went back to the Glaisnock Wilderness to complete that short section. Janet fell and died while climbing steep slopes to a pass out of Taheke Creek.
This email came around on the Christchurch Tramping Club mailing list:
Southland Tramping Club
PO Box 41
Invercargill
The Routeburn Classic Adventure Run has been granted a four year concession and will be held in the second week in May each year. This year it will be held on Saturday the 13th of May with the 14th being used in the case poor weather forces postponement from the original date.
Runners like walkers enjoy this amazing track and this is their one chance during the year to run it. The running community is very excited and grateful for. We would like to hear from any walkers or clubs that would like to be involved in the marshalling of the event. This would give your club members the chance to get on the track while having your food, hut fees subsidised by the management for the event. Please contact me if there are any members interested. It is always a lot of fun and we would enjoy having those who truly enjoy the outdoors and keen to share their enthusiasm with the runners.
Sincerely,
Evan McWhirter
EMAIL: evan@goodtimesevents.net
WEB: www.goodtimesevents.net
PHONE: 027 420 4313
I've got to admit I'm not personally interested in these runs myself, but I recognise that a lot of people are (good mate Trevor Scott is going down to marshall on this one). But I also know there are people who would be happier if DoC didn't permit them.
A friend of Honora's, and mine, Simon Johnson opposed the initial concession for the run over the Routeburn. On his website, Soft DoC, Simon has documented the rather loose procedure DoC followed in issuing the concession for the first running of this race. I can't fault his case, even if I still don't have an opinion one way or another on the merits of the run.
However, even though Simon wasn't able to convince DoC not to issue the concession, he still gained far more than those who brought rancour and division to the Christchurch Tramping Club in their attempt to end its support for the Avalanche Peak Challenge.
Sadly that rancour and unpleasantness is still being played out in the CTC two years later.
I guess, unlike Simon, some people are not just in it for the love of tramping.
Murray Cullen told the Coroner that if there had been a marked route leading to Mt Aicken in Arthurs Pass then Elizabeth Thomson would not have died.
See this article from the Christchurch Press in Stuff News:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/0,2106,3605104a6009,00.html
Of course this puts DoC on the back foot. But let's be fair. There are reasons DoC hasn't marked the route on Mt Aicken. The same reasons apply to why the route is not marked on Mt Cassidy, where another visiting tramper died. The same reasons apply to the lack of marking that resulted in the death of a local tramper who went down the wrong scree from Avalanche Peak to the Crow valley. I would even go back to the death of young Nigel Popplewell in the Otehake, only a short distance from a perfectly useable swingbridge.
There are so many examples.
However it's difficult to pull them all together because in each case there's an attempt to put the blame on the unfortunate victim. So we tend to just see them all as one-offs.
I've been collecting information on every back-country 'incident' I've seen reported in the media for the past fifteen years. I'm identifying some clear patterns.
A lot of people get off course on popular routes because of a lack of marking. Some of them die.
DoC isn't to blame however. DoC can only do what it's funded for. And there are some people arguing against DoC being funded to do this work.
I've even heard some old crusties in the Christchurch Tramping Club complaining about the route DoC marked to Avalanche Peak from the Arthurs Pass village. And this is despite them knowing that people had gone off route and died there before it was done.
A walk over Broken Hill is straight-forward open country tramping with the pluses of easy access, moderate height gain and great views. However it has a couple of optional extras that make it into a superlative day trip that should satisfy the most discerning keen tramper.
Drive west out of Christchurch on SH73 over Porters Pass, and park just before the turnoff to Craigieburn ski field.
 Post-glacial landscapes toned in shades of blue and gold |
Be prepared to be gob-smacked by the view out over lakes Pearson and Grasmere to the north. They're worth the walk by themselves.
The ridge travels on around in a great flat arc to the summit of Broken Hill.
Bryce Williamson was the leader of this Christchurch Tramping Club trip. He suggested nestling down in the big tussocks, out of the breeze, to have our lunch.
We were a friendly chatty group of eight.
 Bryce, Joanne, Honora, Adrian, Stephen, Caroline & Bruce |
The whole team decided to take the extra 1.5km walk along the ridge to check the view from the nameless 1578m summit. Bryce had reccomended it and he was absolutely right.
It's true if you've climbed Broken Hill but haven't gone on to 1578, you've missed half the benefit.
The views from 1578 are a genuine 360 degree panorama. You can even plainly see the Broken River Hut way below, and the historic old coal mining relic area down in the Broken River gorge.
After a long spell spent fully taking in the views all round we returned back along the ridge to Broken Hill. Bryce talked about options for a more interesting return journey.
We followed the crest of a spur due west from the summit of Broken Hill. At the end it dropped steeply and Bryce explored for the start of a scree that would let us into the valley below.
 It was a steep and dusty scree-run down off Broken Hill |
The scree was a bit steepish at first, and some of the team were new to the experience so we all started down cautiously.
However once we could see all the way to the stream, most couldn't resist the chance for a good scree run and bounded down in clouds of dust.
The usual course from here is to travel down stream a short distance and climb to a low saddle to rejoin the route of the morning back to the cars. However we decided on another add-on.
We continued on down the picturesque stream. It twisted and turned as it ran through a deep cut gorgy valley clothed in shading beech forest.
The forest finally ended and as we emerged we had our first casualty. Bryce had paused to check everyone was together, and unfortunately just happened to stop right next to a wasp nest. The first he knew was when a squadron of wasps launched a simultaneous attack. The restrained gentlemanly cry of alarm he uttered was most commendable, considering he received 8-10 stings before getting clear.
From here we only had a pleasant flat 3 km walk along the farm track through attractive regenerating native vegetation. The highlight of the scene was above us on our left, a long hill rimmed with a continuous craggy cliff of Tertiary limestone. What a spectacular scene that makes.
When we arrived at the road we only had left a short walk of a few hundred metres to the cars.
What a great day.
Well, the 1 March meeting with DoC for outdoor recreation groups was a bit of a mixed bag and had only a few pluses for tramping in it.
But there was quite a bit else that was worth knowing.
The quick pluses:
DoC's Canterbury Conservancy has just been through a big restructuring excercise combining the old Waimakariri Area and most of the old North Canterbury into a new super Waimak Area. It must have been a very unsettling period for staff.
The new Waimak Area will be based at a big new office in Rangiora - good news for Rangiora trampers.
A new Area called Mahaanui includes Banks Peninsula and coastal regions. I'm not clear on the boundary of Mahaanui but it seems to be loosely centred on the Statutory Acknowledgement for Te Tai o Mahaanui (Selwyn-Banks Peninsula Coastal Area) under the Ngai Tahu Deed of Settlement, and its hinterland.
The new Waimak Area has a new manager, Kingsley Timpson, with Ronan Grew continuing to look after assets. Bryan Jensen moves to town as area manager for Mahaanui and Dave Milward picks up the assets role there. Dave now has Packhorse Hut as his only hut to look after.
In general business, a few people were interested in whether the Conservancy received extra funding when they acquired extra land to look after through Tenure Review. Apparantly they are given extra funds but the money is not tied. Some people seemed concerned that this money could be diverted for other that what it was granted for.
The two northern Areas reported on what was happening in their patch (no one came from Raukapuka, Twizel or Aoraki/Mt Cook):
Waimakariri Area
Ronan Grew said he'd been focusing on 'huts and structure maintenance' since the December meeting. We weren't given much detail except for the work on the Wharfedale hut. From what was said there it sounded mostly basic maintenance and remedial work but nothing to mitigate any problems from the removal of the nearby Townshend hut.
The burnt down Hawdon Hut won't be replaced in a hurry. It'll be next year before it's started and it's expected to cost $290,000. Lesley Shand sought assurance the new hut wouldn't sleep more trampers than the original.
The fire investigation showed the fire started from hot ashes from the wood stove being disposed of down beside the hut. To remove this risk in the future Ronan has been developing a new mechanism to help people dispose of ashes safely.
Someone mentioned the lack of a wood stove in the Avoca Hut now. From what DoC staffer, Jim Henderson, wrote in the hut book I'd understood he decided the wood stove should go and heaved it out himself. However Ronan described a different sequence of events that didn't involve Jim. He said there had since been discussions with the CUTC about a replacement stove. I asked whether the CUTC would be required to pay for this but Ronan didn't answer that one.
In another strange item Ronan complained the CMC had done quite a bit of maintenance work on their own Park-Morpeth Hut. I say 'strange' because as he talked Ronan seemed to be displaying signs of anger about it. I was uncomfortable about this and concerned we were seeing an inappropriately emotional response. I realise, for various reasons, Waimak Area is a long way behind on its work schedule and I hope what we saw here wasn't a sign of Ronan feeling pressured by this. If that's where it's coming from I hope the department takes seriously its responsibility as an employer and ensures its staff work in an environment where it's understood there's no expectation for them to achieve more than is provided for.
As it was we actually got more of a work report on what the CMC had done than had been achieved by DoC in the Waimak area. Apparently they stripped out Park-Morpeth hut and installed new platform bunks and a new sink bench etc. And I'm sure most people present were quite impressed and appreciative of the CMC's effort.
After that I felt almost apologetic in mentioning the roof on Big Tops hut. I did say I was prepared to go in and repair it myself if there was a chance of it slipping down the list. However Ronan was confident his team could do it.
While the discussion about Park-Morpeth was going on Lesley Shand raised her concern about Temple Basin Ski Area. Apparently this still operates outside of any formal agreement with DoC. This must create all sorts of difficulties for both sides, and even worse for the public who just have to hope that in the absence of any framework their environmental, safety, access and other concerns are able to get the attention they need.
Another thing Lesley was concerned about was the state of the track to the newish Nina Hut and the rapid depletion of dead wood for the wood stove. Her coments about the track weren't picked up but there was an extended discussion on the types of heating and cooking fuel used in DoC huts in other parts of the country.
Mahaanui Area
There are only two bridges left to complete on the Little River Rail Trail.
DoC are to formally pick up responsibility for the track from Packhorse around the Kaituna side of Mt Bradley to the Mt Herbert Shelter. I don't know if this will make much practical difference as Ben and Colin Faulkner have long established a high standard on this track of theirs.
The meeting wound up with a cup of tea and a chat at about 10.00 pm.
Tomorrow night is the quarterly meeting that DoC's Canterbury Conservancy hosts for "recreational user groups".
These meetings are often quite interesting and it's a shame a wider range of outdoor people don't get a chance to attend. As it is there are usually only representatives from half a dozen or so of the local tramping clubs.
Of course the total membership of all the clubs represented on a good night would be less than 1% of the people who enjoy tramping and otherwise recreating on DoC administered land in Canterbury. And, among the clubs I know anything about, info from these meetings seldom reaches more than 1% of the membership.
Now the problem with that is DoC could see these meetings as fulfilling its obligation to consult with the outdoor community.
Well, sadly, and partly because of the declining significance of clubs in outdoor recreation, they can't ever meet that important need with such a restrictive type of meeting.
Ronan Grew, who's responsible for managing DoC's huts etc in Waimak area, has told Simon Lewis he will have the Big Tops Hut roof repaired some time in March.
I'm glad to hear that. I've seen Ronan as someone that can be trusted to follow through. If he says it'll be done I expect he'll make sure it does happen.
Actually this sheet tearing loose on the roof of Big Tops Hut reminded me of something Ray Forsyth told me. Ray was in charge of hut building for the old Forest Service in that area and, with generosity that was typical of him, gave me access to his work books from those years.
Ray had tramped into the Koropuku and selected the site for the Big Tops hut and was then involved in its building in March 1964. The hut kit that was dropped in included a fireplace and chimney. However Ray decided to build the hut without the fireplace as he believed strong wind would be a problem in the area and likely to cause damage to the chimney.
Now I've no idea what Ray saw that alerted him to that possibility. The weather was fine on his trips in there so maybe he recognised it from the vegetation or valley angle. I've no doubt he was right though.
I wonder how that sort of instinctive, yet sound, judgement would fit in with how DoC works.
Ray was one of the finest of the golden years of the NZ Forest Service and his feeling for the back country was an inseperable part of him. He and others like him, are sorely missed in NZ's hills.
Francis Spufford: I May Be Some Time : Ice and the English Imagination
Why are some people driven to put themselves into uncomfortable and dangerous places? (*****)
Rebecca Solnit: Wanderlust : A History of Walking
Wonder why you wander? Take a walk through the history of walking for its own sake (*****)
Hugh A. Robertson: The Hand Guide to the Birds of New Zealand
If you want to carry a NZ bird identifying book in your pack make it this one. (*****)
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