Rocky Griffin yet again

The Rocky Creek - Griffin Creek circuit is a favourite for Honora and me and we keep going back.

Andrew was to be leading this one for the CTC. He'd said he really wanted to do Rocky - Griffin. But Honora was the only one to put her name down on his list. So he canned it.

But no matter. It now became Honora's trip and Jonathon and I decided to go along.

We spent the night at the club lodge before motoring over the pass. It was 9.30 when we started walking from the beehives at Taipo bridge.

Jonathon wasn't happy having boots full of water within 50 m of setting off. Honora and I were in sandals as usual so it was a non-issue for us.

The hour on our new track through the bush to Rocky went fast, though we did stop and clear a few windfallen trees as we went. At Rocky creek we took a long snack break in the bright sunshine.

Moving on, we seemed quite sluggish travelling up the bouldery creek bed. The plan was to have lunch at Rocky Creek hut, but Honora's union lunch break time of 12.30 arrived before we got there. Lunch was an outrageously long loaf too, and then we stopped again half an hour later when we reached the hut.

Going by the hut book more people seem to be travelling through Rocky Creek now. Honora and I both appreciate the kind words people write about our track maintenance efforts. It's certainly a different reaction from what we got from the old guard in the tramping club last year when we busted our gut trying to get things running positively there again.

Anyway, on we went. The stream bed past the hut narrowed till it was overhung by scrub. Then  a short muddy climb took us to the saddle. We crossed the ridge and pushed on down the gully toward Griffin Creek. This gully is quite overgrown but it's not difficult to travel through.

It was 5.30 pm when we reached the Griffin Creek hut. That time makes it 10 minutes slower than last May when we were travelling through snow!

There was a young hunter, Ben, from Kumara in residence, and a friendly weka strutting about outside. However there wasn't a lot of chatting in the hut this visit, so it was a fairly quiet evening and we were soon to bed.

The morning's first sun slanted across the dramatic face of the Razorback Ridge. This high range walls in the valley to the south. With its verdant podocarp bush covered steep flanks and gullies and mist curling around its upper slopes it looked like the fabled heights of Bali Ha'I from South Pacific. Jonathan heard its call and was soon out taking photos.

Ben's helicopter swooped in next to the hut and lifted him out. We headed off on foot.

Griffin Creek is a real pleasure to travel. The gravel, stones and boulders are varied and interesting colours. Of course it's nephrite country too, so it's fun trying to spot the low grade greenstone.

In less than an hour of crossing back and forth across the stream, the markers and cairns of the track signalled a change of pace. We stopped to fill water bottles. There wouldn't be any more water until we were virtually at the road.

There was a change too, from horizontal travel to vertical travel. The track climbs 300 m to Harringtons track on the Griffin Range ridgeline. The climb is quite steep and much use is made of tree roots and flax leaves for steadying handholds.

Near the ridgetop is a perfect rest spot with fantastic views. We stopped for lunch there. Brilliant red flowers of rata were all around us.

From the rusted rain barrel at the track junction the track drops 800 m to the road. Some of it is heavily overgrown but it's not hard to follow.

Honora and I had been thinking about recutting it. We weren't really looking forward to the work of doing it all ourselves, and I'd talked to some of the keen people in the Peninsula Tramping Club about it.

But now DoC have agreed to pick up its maintenance, and the PTC have decided to work on the track further along the ridge from the rain barrel. Good on them.

But the 1 km section from the bottom of the hill to the road, bypassing Pat Fitzgerald's farm, will always be ours. I'm proud we could so easily solve what had been for so long an unneccessary problem between the landowner and trampers.

Two hours from our lunch spot we were out and walking the road back to the Taipo. The road was very busy with traffic from the Hokitika Wild Foods festival.

Back at the Isuzu the bees were very active around their beehives. I've never been concerned about bees so never gave them a glance. But while I was getting changed Honora took off at a run, waving her clothes about. I wondered what the matter was, & soon learned. A bee flying past suddenly turned and made a rapid bee-line charge for my face, slamming into me right between the eyes. A few others also started hanging around a bit close. I trotted off too, brushing the sting sac out from the first suicide mission.

Jonathon and I thought a discrete withdrawal was called for, so we just threw everything in the back and moved the vehicle a bit further away so we could finish changing in peace.

On the drive home Honora was quite chuffed that we managed two refreshment stops, at Steve's in Arthurs Pass and then at the Kowai in Springfield. It was good we stopped at Springfield too as we bumped into Merv Meredith returning from a PTC trip to Goat Hill. Serendipitous meetings with people who share the love of the hills is a highlight for me on any trip.