NEW TARARUA ROUTE KAITOKE-MARCHANT-OMEGA TRACK

22 November 1921

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 124

'■'• Too hard " is tho cry wrung from the toiling tramper as he confronts the eccentricities of tho present track from Woodside to Mount Hector. He spends the morning climbing Mount Reeves (3000 ft), only to climb down again in the afternoon, and camp in the Tauherenikau. Then next day he must regain the lost altitude and more. A recent article in this paper- suggested that this hardship would be avoided if the ascent were made from the Kaitoke side of the range along the ridge leading from Mount Mar- j chant up to Omega, where the track is met which leads on to Alpha Hut and Hector. In fact, considerable work has already been done by the Tararua Tramping Club latween Kaitoke and the summit of Mouijk Marchant. The club has financed the cutting of a track nearly two miles long through the bush up to Dobson's Mistake. From there a new " blaze " leads to the top of Marchant. It remained to test the going along the bushy main range from Marchant to Omega. On Saturday and Sunday last a party went through from Otaki to Kaitoke, along this ridge, and found the route eaßy even in its present rough state. After a pleasant day on the track from the Otaki Forks to Alpha Hut, the party left the hut at 6 a.m. on Sunday, and reached Omega at 6.45. From then on they kept to the main ridge, and found cattle and game tracks numerous and very useful. Mount Marchant was reached at noon, and the new " blaze " was picked up. Two hours 45 minutes was tho time from Marchant to Phillip's, whence the party motored.down to catch the 5 p.m. train into town from the Upper Hutt. The Tararua Club and the newly-formed Victoria College Tramping Club were. represented by an equal number of members, the former by Misses M. ' Myers and I. Woodhouse, Messrs. J. Myers, S. A. Wiren, H. M'Cormick, Professor Boyd-Wilson; the I latter by Misses M. Mitcalfc, E. Adams, Messrs. K. Griffin, J. Tattersall, P. Ruston, J. Pope This trip proves beyond a doubt that a track, better graded and shorter than the present track, can be found along the Marchant ridge. Even a well-cut " blaze " through the stunted_ beech would enable parties unacquainted with the country to make a quick and pleasant descent from Omega to Kaitoke. The big drop into the Tauherenikau — and the climb out—would then easily be avoided. Water is found in swampy ground on the ridge and in creeks a couple of hundred feet down the gullies.