The Tramping Report

Company at Ranger Biv

Dayle Drummond offered to help us improve the tramping route to Ranger Biv. To say I was happy to accept his offer is a bit of an understatement.

It would take a full day just to tramp in there. We would then only have one day of the Labour Weekend holiday to work on the route before tramping out on the Monday. There was too much work for just the two of us to get through in a day. And having someone of Dayle's capability with us, meant we wouldn't feel we had to be looking after our helper all the time.

We drove up early Saturday and parked at the Andrews Shelter in the Waimak valley. The intentions book in the shelter showed five parties had headed for Ranger Biv in the previous couple of weeks. It's good to see more people going in to experience the place. But it also showed how important our task was in making it possible for people to have a chance of getting there.

We tramped up the Andrews Stream, over Casey Saddle and down to Casey hut. Casey was our lunch stop. Again there were numerous references to people planning trips up to Ranger.

Across the stream, in the bush, I heard my first shining cuckoo of the season. It's a special event for me every year the first time I hear that distinctive call.

A bit further on we left the track to cross the Poulter river to Fenwick stream. A solitary black fronted tern flew overhead catching insects on the wing.

Up in Fenwick stream 15 or so canada geese honked and flapped noisily into the air, forming into their v formation as they flew out into the main valley.

We caught one by surprise still on her eggs. She rose straight into the air, leaving her large half dozen unguarded.

A cairn at the start of the gorge marked the start of the deer trail up through the bush. We climbed quickly up the spur toward Ranger biv. The thick pole stand of beech at the top slowed us down a lot, but we still got to the biv in 3 hrs 20 from Casey hut.

Two hunters had got there ahead of us. They'd left their packs and gone off with their rifles.

We set to, preparing our campsite and put up the fly on a flat spot on the rib a short distance above the biv.

Rifle shots from high above echoed around the hills and signalled early success for the hunters.

When they got back, Craig and Mike, had a good chamois head with them. They also said they'd seen a good sized red deer stag. They didn't attempt a shot at that as the route up to Ranger, so far, wouldn't permit an easy carry out of a heavy load.

They were just a day too early. And it was going to give them a good reason to come back now.

In the morning the guys headed down to the Poulter. We got to work on sorting out the route down below the biv.

The first section we just marked with tape.

The forest floor here was covered with a deep carpet of 'advance growth' beech seedlings under tall mature trees. 'Advance growth' is where beech tree seedlings grow exceedling slowly and not much more than a metre tall for many years. Eventually a mature tree falls, opening the canopy and letting in the sunshine. Then growth is explosive, and they quickly become an almost impenetrable thicket.

The 'advance growth' section we worked through had a fairly good deer trail but it was only easy to follow uphill. Going down it was hard to stay on it and the lie of the land was a constant lure to drift off route.

The tape now makes it easy to stay on course through there.

Then we got in amongst the 'regen' (short for regeneration). This was where extensive areas of forest had been blown down years ago. The ground was still criss-crossed with stacks of tree trunks. Growing over the whole areas were exceedingly dense stands of tall thin poles of beech saplings, all trying to outgrow each other in a desperate race for survival.

The poles were too close to get through easily with a pack on.

This is where Dayle showed his class. With his energy and enthusiasm we were able to cover a lot of territory, establishing the best line. Where it was most difficult we marked it with our thin pieces of plastic tape.

Wildlife seen: NZ Falcon(surprise crk monday), kaka(ranger ridge monday), grey warblers(ranger ridge), kiwi (male & female - ranger biv sunday night), variable oystercatchers (riversdale monday), brown creepers(throughout), bellbirds (alarm call - owl? - ranger ridge - andrews),

muehlenbeckia in flower(poulter terrace monday),

Ranger Biv update

Honora and I went along to a meeting last Monday with DoC's Canterbury Conservator, Mike Cuddihy, and a group of his management staff for a discussion on Ranger Biv.

We were given a good hearing and were able to present our concerns fully. Then we heard and were able to question the department's rationale(s) for scheduling Ranger's removal.

Early on, Mike acknowledged the inaccuracy of the claims about Ranger's condition and were not justification for taking it out.

I then sought clarification of the claims Ranger needed to be removed because it was within the boundary of the north east Arthurs Pass 'no tramping facilities' zone. Discussion with Poma Palmer, who's responsible for the Arthurs Pass management plan, revealed this is not the case.

At the end of the hour and a half meeting Mike said he would put the removal of Ranger on hold until the circumstances of where it fitted with the management plan could be fully reviewed.

Obviously I'm very grateful for Mike giving us the opportunity to raise our concerns.

And of course this is not the end of it. I'm now committed to staying with it right through the review and then perhaps working with a maintenance agreement to ensure Ranger remains in good condition and a valuable shelter for trampers and hunters into the distant future.

Plea to DoC about Ranger

I sent an email to Bryan Jensen, Waimak Area Manager for DoC, about Ranger Biv. I've no idea if can do any good but I'm not the sort of person to give up without trying.

Hello Bryan

I was concerned to see reports Ranger Biv was included in the list of facilities to be removed from the eastern AP area by end October.

I know I'd seen Ranger Biv inaccurately listed as 'derelict' on a department list, but I'd passed on my concerns about this at a couple of "usergroup" meetings.

Based on that I believed it's status would be reviewed and corrected in due course as it appeared be a simple clerical error (confusing Ranger with Waterfall perhaps).

Separate but related to that, I'm also aware a number of people interested in Ranger have been discussing the possibility of joining an inspection/maintenance agreement covering that biv, similar to agreements reached on the West Coast. This was in recognition that Ranger was not covered for maintaining in the recent ROR round.

Sadly people interested in Ranger had been bypassed by the club/DoC discussions during the ROR so any concerns were never heard.

Are you able to negotiate at your level or if not could you please advise at which level this could be discussed.

Cheers

Frank

Getting to Ranger Biv

The route to Ranger Biv (Dampier L33 198 163) has been a bit challenging in recent years. It's been quite a battle to get there through the extensive patches of wind-throw and regen beech. It wasn't always that way of course. Before the big wind-throw event it used to take not much more than an hour to get up from Fenwick Stream.

When Honora & I had been up there we were always pressed for time, and never explored for a better way through.

We wanted to spend a couple of days clarifying the route up the spur from the Fenwick Stream gorge.

It was near 3.00 pm when we started up the Andrews. Our packs were heavy. Extra cold weather gear, the equipment we needed, and 4 day's food made for big loads.

At Halleluja Flat it was snowing lightly. By the time we crossed Casey Saddle it was dark. We got torches out at the end of the boardwalk.

We've tramped to Casey in the dark so many times now that it seems just the normal way to do it. We've gone there in the dark and rain too, but this was the first time in the dark while it was snowing.

Just as we emerged onto the flats near the hut there were a series of rifle shots.

When we got into the hut the explanation was that the guys had seen a cat and had decided to shoot it.

The guys were Ross, Keith & Paul from Fish & Game. They were up there for a few days doing a salmon survey in the Poulter.

Winna and Penny were there too, on a tramp.

It was great to arrive at a warm and friendly hut.

In the morning we walked up the Poulter and crossed to Fenwick Stream. There were half a dozen cattle grazing in the riverbed. I remembered seeing angry comments about them in the hut book. I've got to admit I'm more concerned about stoats.

The guys were already ahead of us in Fenwick Stream. They were cutting up a wild pig they'd shot the day before.

Up in the bush we spent the day linking up deer trails up the spur.

Where they existed, the deer trails were very well defined. But every so often they would fade when they came to a dense patch of regen through wind-throw or tangled coprosmas in soggy areas.

We called it a day when the sun went down behind the western mountains.

Just as we were about to cross the Poulter in the dark my maglight bulb died. I'm sure glad I always pack a spare light, plus spare bulbs for both lamps.

The next day there was a particularly hard frost when we set out.

The day went pretty much to the same routine.

Higher up, the spur runs into an easy angled face. The whole slope is covered entirely with an extensive stand of thin pole forest. The poles are solid enough and grow so densely it's difficult to walk through with a pack.

We followed a new deer trail sidling off high on the Fenwick Stream side. It went quite a long way off the spur, but eventually it turned up a rib. Higher up the rib flattened out and the deer trail faded again.

We spent quite a lot of time scouting all around the hillside but couldn't pick up a new one. The beech poles weren't as bad as earlier and I think we were maybe only 100m horizontal short of the ridge were the biv is. However time was against us exploring further.

As sun dropped behind the hills, back down we went to Casey in the dark again.

The guys cooked a magificent chicken dinner for us, and followed it up with a very rich chocolate pudding.

Tuesday morning came too soon and we had to head out. We had lunch in the weak sunhine at the Andrews Biv, while the Fish & Game guy's helicopter shuttled their gear out overhead. The walk out down the Andrews was even nicer than usual and added to our sense of satisfaction of some good work done.

Harringtons track tidy up

In the darkness we arrived at the main highway at Mt White turnoff. The tail lights of the cars on the CTC trip turned for home. We turned toward Arthurs Pass. How satisfying it felt.

We decided to call into the Bealey for tea. Paddy and Rochelle came over. It was good to have a chance to say hi. Rochelle is not long back from a very hard trip to Cho Oyu in the Chinese Himalaya. She'd climbed higher than anyone in her party to 7500 m through heinous winds and cold.

After a meal we carried on to the Pass, to stay at the CMC's Kennedy Lodge. This is my preferred place to stay in the village, both for its ambiance and for the people you bump into there. This time it was young Luke, up for a climb and some quiet study time. He's at Canty U, studying and concerned about the oil depletion crisis of the coming generation. Peter Cleary arrived later for a climb on Rolle.

In the morning we drove over the Pass to Harringtons Creek (Otira K33 764 260).

We wanted to finish our new track bypassing the Fitzgerald farm. We had some work left over from May when Honora got a bad bang in the face from her loppers.

Quite a few big tree ferns parasitised by rata had come down in a storm. The tangle of rata vines makes them harder to clear with simple hand tools. That's how Honora got her bang in the mouth. But we cleared them all without problems this time.

That done we spent the rest of the day bringing the near kilometre of track up to a standard we're happy to put our names on. I hope people enjoy walking it more than going across the farm.

And I hope it encourages anyone else thinking of adopting a track. There's plenty to do out there and the best places are still unclaimed.

It was 5.00pm when we packed up and headed for home. On the way over we'd noticed that the Jacksons Tavern had reopened under new management so we thought we'd stop in there for tea.

A log fire was blazing and a cat was stretched out on the mat. We were a bit early for the kitchen to open. While we waited we took in the decor which extensively features the history of the area.

The menu is one to fit with the rustic style of the place and the ample servings leave you knowing that you've eaten. I'm sure it will be popular with the increasing numbers travelling the road to the Coast now.

I didn't get the sadness on this drive home. I'd had a satisfying weekend.

Rocky Creek (Work WE 6)

Honora suggested going to Rocky Creek for some more track work. I was keen as I reckon there's still another half dozen full weekends worth there.

The forecast was for rain easing off on Saturday. We'd spend the night cosy in Rocky Creek hut.

It was raining when we drove over the pass on Saturday morning. When I turned off the highway at the Taipo bridge I saw the gorse and himalayan honeysuckle was crowding tighter along the track. I wound in the side mirrors, but I forgot to lower the aerial so it got damaged. Then we had to get out and get changed in the rain. I suppose it's good to get the negative bits over with early in the trip.

The track to Rocky Creek starts a few hundred metres up the Taipo. The river was sliding along, muddy gray, and bigger than I'd seen it there before.

I expected the track up onto the high terrace to need a bit of work but it was in fairly good condition. There were only two serious windfalls to be cleared.

When we got down to Rocky Creek we instantly saw a change of plans was needed. It was still running quite high, crashing down through it's bouldery bed. There was no way we could get across and travel up to the hut.

We pitched the fly in the same spot we used on our first weekend in March last year and started working on the track back toward the terrace.

We widened it out to the full 2 metres and cleared all the sight lines. It was raining the whole time so it was wet work.

When darkness fell we packed it in and retired to the fly.

We'd set the camp up quite well and had a cosy evening in our snug shelter.

In the morning we learned we'd both woken during the night thinking about flash floods and debris flows. We were camped about 20 metres above the creek but stormy nights do do strange things to your imagination.

But it had cleared up overnight and we got stuck in on the track back across the high terrace. We actually worked pretty solidly and didn't pause until after 2.00 pm, way past our usual lunchtime.

When we got back to our fly we found it had been ransacked by a weka. We hadn't seen any in Rocky Creek previously, so it was good to know there were still some about. Fortunately for us our misdemeanant weka hadn't made off with anything other than an empty sardine can so there was no real harm done.

One thing I took care of was to remove the old permolats that led poor Merv Meredith's party from the Peninsula TC astray. They'd followed them up the hill till they petered out and then bush-bashed across the top of the big slip. Now markers clearly show the route goes out into the creek.

We cooked up lunch out in the creek bed, shifting position continuously as the narrow beam of sunlight moved across the stones.

After that we packed up and walked out.

Back on the road we drove down to the Harringtons track at Griffin Creek. We wanted to clear some windfalls that had come down on the track we cut in April last year. However while working on them Honora's loppers flipped out of her grasp and banged her in the mouth, knocking one of her incisors out of its socket. Honora is very stoic but it was time to go.

Avoca hut maintenance

When Honora & I went over Jordan Saddle to check out Echo Col, we looked forward to another night at Avoca hut. It's one of my favourite places in the hills.

However it was a sad experience to see it's continuing slow deterioration.

I've gotta admit I'm almost reluctant to say anything. A few years ago I wrote some comments in the hut book trying to prompt some action and pride of ownership from CUTC members. The principal reaction was insults and obscenities (of course they didn't necessarily come from the CUTC). Luckily I've got a thick skin so here goes again.

A good thing that did happen a bit later is the CUTC reclaimed the hut from DoC. The government had taken it over years before under the pretense they would look after it. Of course DoC did nothing in their time, probably hoping it would deteriorate so much they could declare it a HAZARD and demolish it.

Anyway back under CUTC care it benefited from the energy and enthusiasm of Fred de Zwart and a few others. A high point was the famous crazy scheme where they carried a new rain barrel over Jordan Saddle. Next there was another burst of enthusiasm for repainting the hut. However that didn't go much beyond a few neon and pastel shades being splashed over the interior joinery and trim.

Now not much seems happening again and the deterioration is continuing.

I'm not sure why the fall-off in action. I hope it's not because they've been listening to smarmy assurances of help from DoC. DoC staff are trained to make all the right PR noises but it's rare for these to manifest as useful activity.

I know Jim Henderson went in a year or so ago and trimmed some surrounding vegetation. That's fine but Honora and I had been managing as much after walking over from the Waimak for a weekend's track maintenance. That's easy stuff. However the main thing Jim did was to rip out the wood stove, which makes the place pretty miserable in the cold half of the year now (it's a narrow East-West valley with a very high range to the North).

The problem for the CUTC in looking after Avoca themselves is the lack of continuity in membership in the club. Also the people involved might not be strong on the practical skills.

I wonder if it might be a solution to do a membership drive among Polytech students. Having a few carpenters, painters, quantity surveyors, civil engineers, outdoor leadership students, etc in the club might be a big help. It might also be worth looking at how they can encourage people to stay in the club after they've graduated.

Whatever, the hut does need a full exterior repaint, guttering fixed, broken window replaced, door latches, new stove and various internal improvements. Honora and I are prepared to do all the surrounding track work maintenance.

Harringtons(Griffin Crk)Track

We got up early and drove over Arthurs Pass to Harrington Creek, near Wainihinihi. We were on another track project weekend.

Farmer Patrick Fitzgerald had been getting a bit unhappy about trampers and hunters climbing over his fences and trapsing across his paddocks to get to the track to Griffin Creek, which started at the back of his place. Honora learned this when she went to talk to him about the best way to get to the track. Unfortunately she found herself on the receiving end of all the things he'd been storing up for the people who didn't ask. It was a bit unfair.

Anyway, we're trying to encourage more people to tramp the Rocky-Griffin Creeks circuit, which would make his problem worse. So we decided we'd cut a track on the other side of his fence-line. Then no-one would need to cross his paddocks and everyone would be happy (maybe everyone except Dave Henson, but that's another blog).

We parked at the lay-by just east of Harrington Creek and walked to the section of old closed highway on the west side of the creek. This old bit of roadway is now part of the farm. Where it reaches the fenceline alongside the creek, there's a very old Forest Service sign which announces access to Griffin Creek. A car was parked there.

From here people usually just climbed the fence and walked the 800 m across farm paddocks, climbing other fences along the way, to the start of the Griffin Creek track.

I know there are a rare few who've pushed through the gorse and walked up the log and boulder strewn creekbed. Perhaps these are the ones Freud described as 'anal retentives' (people whose lives are characterised by the unnatural pleasure they get from complying with rules - probably from domineering fathers). Whatever... it's hard to criticise people for using common sense here.

So we wanted to make sure people preferred using our track rather than walk across an open field of grass. That meant we had to meet a fairly high standard in making it convenient, direct and easy to walk on, as well as enjoyable and satisfying.

At the start there was thick gorse and blackberry along the fence-line. We got stuck into this right away. It wasn't very pleasant work as we didn't have the best gloves or tools for dealing with the stuff. But eventually we were through and could take a look at the rest of the route.

Beyond here was the bush proper. We looked forward to getting into that. It's not that we preferred chopping into native vegetation than noxious weeds. It's just that we knew it would need a lot of thought and planning to sort out, metre by metre, the best line for this brand-new track. It was going to be a lot more interesting.

We walked the whole 800 metres a few times, forcing and crawling our way through in places, just to establish the general line. On the general line we identified 15 separate zones which each had its own particular problem to deal with as we came to it.

• The first zone was the gorse and blackberry along the fence.
• Next was an open section - a freebie.
• The third zone was a grove of tall intertwined coprosma shrubs and tree ferns blocking the way along the fence. Taller forest commenced away to the left here so the track needed to swing left in the coprosma toward it.
• The taller forest zone had more tree ferns, hanging branches, large obstructing trunks and broken ground to lay the track through.
• Fifth was the exit from the taller forest through tangles of supplejack.
• Next was a choke point between a corner of the fence and the terrace edge.
• Beyond this was a very thick stand of tree ferns.
• The eighth zone was an easier stretch through tall open forest with clear ground. This needed to swing round toward the river.
• The nineth was to locate an easy exit zone into the creekbed.
• The creekbed zone had a flood channel blocked by logs and smaller vegetation.
• The eleventh was to locate the best exit out of the creekbed onto the terrace.
• Twelth was to create an opening through the dense growth of the forest margin.
• The next zone was a lengthy stretch through tall mixed forest with many tree ferns. This section had to bring the track to a convenient place to climb onto a higher terrace.
• The fourteenth was locating a critical 3 metre climb up the vertical terrace edge.
• From the top was a lengthy zone thickly covered with tree ferns.
• The final zone was joining the new track to the existing one and blocking off the original exit toward the farmland.

We worked until 7.00 pm, getting as far as the exit down the bank into a dry sandy-bottomed flood channel.

Then we headed back to Arthurs Pass to spend the night at the tramping club lodge. On the way we stopped at the DoC office to see who's car it was parked at Harrington (I'd noticed the stub of a DoC intentions form on the dashboard). We were glad to see it was Michael Ostash's vehicle. We hoped we'd be able to catch up with him when he came out.

At the club lodge Honora got the pot-bellied stove going to make the place a bit more comfortable, and then we went for tea at the Chalet. When we got back I dragged an easy chair in front of the fire and settled down for some reading. I remembered that being Simon's favourite spot all those years ago.

It was raining at the pass in the morning, but the forecast was for the showers to ease off at mid-day. When we got back to Harrington it was pouring down, but by the time we'd changed into our work gear it had eased off.

We walked along our completed section of track - it looked really good - and set to work. Later in the morning we moved up to the junction with the Griffin Crk track to work backwards from there. It was lucky we did as we hadn't been there long when Michael appeared. We had quite a long chat. He was able to tell us some of the background to the Griffin Creek hut's famous decor, craftworks and other improvements.

The sun came out as Michael headed off, and the weather was very pleasant for the rest of the day. We finished cutting the track then did a couple of walk throughs nailing up red permolat markers. At the carpark I put up a couple of DoC triangles to make the 'anal retentives' feel ok about walking on it.

It was 6.00 pm when we headed away. I think we both felt pretty good about what we'd achieved. I still feel amazed how easy it is to make a worthwhile difference.

On the way home we stopped at Paddy's for a meal. Norm and Enid Hardie called in too so that made for another pleasant encounter.

We were home at 10.00 pm, mission accomplished.