Wet weekends - no worries for Tramping Club

November 27th, 2011
[by Ian Miller]

The prospect of a trip being cancelled is more than many trampers can bear - they are even more determined to get into the hills when the only alterative offered is a wet weekend at home.

Standing in the rain to eat lunch or struggling through waist deep water as you cross a rain-swollen mountain creek might not be your idea of a relaxing weekend but it sure beats hanging about the house wondering if you might be less bored if you did the ironing.

A recent Motueka Tramping Club expedition was over Labour Weekend of the 22nd to 24th of October, which turned out to be one of those particularly wet spring weekends. Even when the rain stopped the vegetation continued to drip for hours, the streams were swollen and difficult to cross and there were 53 very wet fallen trees across the track that had to be clambered through.

Lunch on the first day was spent standing in rain due to a lack of shelter and somewhere dry to sit.

This rain-sodden route was from Anatoki to the Waingaro Forks Hut over the west side of, at the time, a less than Golden Bay. It was a hard three-day trip wading swollen streams (at one stage up to the waist of the shortest tramper), negotiating slippery tracks, slogging through deep mud and scrambling through saturated wind thrown trees, all while wearing wet boots and increasingly damp clothes.

One group spent a night under a small tarpaulin held up with walking poles. Fortunately the rain had stopped and it was a relatively warm night followed by a wonderfully vigorous dawn chorus. Sleeping rough turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable although one tramper later admitted that sleep was a rare commodity that night.

The track skirts the relatively new Lake Stanley and several big rock falls, all the legacy of the 1929 Murchison earthquake which formed the lake itself when the Stanley River was completely blocked by landslides.

Running through beautiful remote country, the track is tough going. With so many obstacles along the way, the Anatoki to Waigaro Forks track is really only suitable for determined trampers in search of adventure. It now seems to be used mainly by wild pigs, judging by the large areas of dug up mess they have made. Once, and if, the wind-thrown trees get cleaned up, the track will be very doable.

Two groups started the trip at opposite ends of the track, Anatoki and Kill Devil, so they could swap car keys along the way. The six trampers were led by Mike Tooker and every one of them enjoyed their adventure but all arrived home on the Monday totally bushed!

A long tailed cuckoo watching
trampers stomp past below.

The next trip was on the weekend of the 11th to the 13th of November when Peter Alspach lead a team of five over Kiwi Saddle to Mt Patriarch. The party left Motueka on Friday afternoon and walked in the light of the full moon to Kings Hut for the first night.

On track into the hut, they walked through flowering clematis and wineberry, and while crossing the Wangapeka swing bridge they saw Blue Ducks with ducklings busy in the river below.

Saturday was mostly spent sheltering from rain, after a walk through dripping bush to the Kiwi Saddle Hut. On Sunday the sun finally broke through as predicted and the group walked in fine weather up to the Arthur Range ridge, spotting a Long Tailed Cuckoo and a squadron of Kaka on the way.

Some of the group climbed Patriarch (1701m) but they all reassembled later for lunch at the top of Gibbs Track where they watched a pair of Brown Creeper fossicking about. On the way down the track a Morepork quietly watched their progress from up high on a nearby tree.

Finally, they all waded across the fast flowing Wangapeka River, scrambled up the steep opposite bank with "Lucky Bob" Bassford finding himself a wasps' nest and getting stung for his efforts.

This trip was another of those partly wet spring ventures but the scenery, the birds and company made for a very enjoyable trip. Definitely more fun, even in the wet, than housework!

Jenny Miller sets up her bivy along the Anatoki to Waingaro track.	A wonderfully clear D.O.C. sign at an intersection along the way.
Trees drowned in 1929 still stand in Lake Stanley formed when landslides blocked off the Stanley River when the Murchison earthquake struck.	Eddie Mackay secures the dolls-house size Lake Stanley Forks Hut

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