Happy campers in the upper Waiohine

By Richard, 01 March 2007

February 2005 

‘Twas a hot February night in the Atiwhakatu as Eric, Pete and I headed towards Jumbo Hut.  We were sweating like greasy hogs, and didn’t envy Ben and all the others who were booked in for the Holdsworth-Jumbo race the next day.  The black-hole effect that seems to hang round the Tararuas on a Friday night occurred, and time and space warped then spat us out at Jumbo hut in exactly the time it always takes.  It’s funny, no matter how hard you go, it always seems to be 2 hr 55 to Jumbo.  Had a quick sleep, and were up at 5am and heading for Mcgregor spur in the mist.  A bit nicer than when Malcolm and the Professor joined us in December when we had about half a foot of snow on Angle Knob and a few cm at the hut.  I tagged Mcgregor biv for the eighth time, and braced myself for the spur.  We had about 40 trips on the spur between us, but somehow in trying to avoid the swampy bits by heading out on the south side we went out on the north side and swung back to hit the spur at the spot height 1000 having avoided all the swampy bits.  It’s about outcomes.  Could have been some of the disturbance from the Friday night black hole, or maybe it is part of the thrill of Mcgregor spur where you never walk in the same place twice.  We slid down to Dorset Fx for a drink, and the river was as low as I have ever seen it.  Morning tea was at Park Fx in the sun, and then we headed on up the Park which was gorgeous travel, not nearly as slippery as it is further up.  We crashed up a spur to the hut (hitting the ridge 10mins before it), and surprised a hunter who had flown in and then slept in.  He emerged from the hut blinking, nearly nude and flabby pasty white.  We had lunch in the sun and then shot up Carkeek Ridge.  It was hot work in the sun, and our objective was to bivvy down in the top of the Waiohine, so we didn’t bother going all the way to Carkeek, instead we decided to drop down a stream near .1315.  We saw some blaze orange down in the bush, and with 5 other hunters somewhere we decided to head a bit further up and crash down a scrubby rib.  Make a bit of noise you see?  The leatherwood turned vertical and we monkeyed down just like Westland, and then presto some nice open beech forest and some grassy river flats.  We elected to bivvy where we came out by an old NZFS survey line under a pleasant beech copse.  Dinner was a special affair, Nachos with mince and sour cream, and New York Cheese Cake with youghurt.  Not as much food as our December trip, but it was still hard to get to sleep with that much food to process.  The 5am start helped, and we were in pit before the stars arrived by 9.15pm.

Sunday dawned fineish but a bit grey, and we headed up a stream just opposite our bivvy site.  Lots of tangled coprosma lower down and quite slippery rocks made for slow going, but the bush wasn’t much better.  Once it started to climb it opened up a bit though was hemmed in by thick scrub.  Pretty much a perfect boulder staircase (just a wee bit greasy) took us high into the scrub band, before a large slip made travel even faster.  From there it was a brief leatherwood tussle, a Spaniard mince, and a carpet grass scramble to Tarn Ridge, near the old hut site.  We headed past Basil's resting place for morning tea at Tarn Ridge, and then had a drink in the now very hot sun at Dorset Ridge.  After lunch in Dorset Creek it was a long hot slog up to Cairn Peak, and then we headed out via Baldy, completing a most excellent trip.

Eric Duggan

Peter Rowe

Richard Davies - scribe