Trip Images 2020

Enjoying munching good weekend

from MAKING TRACKS with Scroggin

A group of eccentric English mountaineers formed a society that specialised in climbing to the top of high peaks and setting up tables and chairs for lavish silver service banquets for which they changed into formal clothes to dine. The Wanganui Tramping Club doesn’t go quite that far but it does dedicate one weekend a year for its gourmet meal outing, usually with a theme.

In late August 2020,  the club chose Maketawa Hut in Egmont National Park for this feast and the theme was Mad Hatters. Venues are usually close to road ends as the flash food tends to be heavier. On this occasion the menu was:  Nuts, chippies, prawn cocktails, dhal chicken with rice, Asian salad, broccoli, ambrosia and pineapple lump fudge.

Hut fare will be a lot plainer for clubbies who venture into the hills in October with three weekend trips planned — to Whangaehu Hut. A high hut in Tongariro National Park; to Tutuwai Hut in Tararua Forest Park; and to an undecided location over Labour Weekend. A trip to South Wairarapa by the cycling group and five one day tramps round off a busy spring month.  

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

16 August 2020

17 trampers - Leader: Esther   

At the Station Cafe, National Park, after the event, people were asked "What surprised you?"

"I googled crampons. I had no idea. Even after putting them on backwards, I worked it all out with some great instructions. 

Furthermore there are left and right feet. Packs have a loop for carrying an ice axe!"

Perfectly clear vistas including Taranaki. Clear, calm conditions surprised the Scottish contingent. The NZ winter trip proved better than the summer day months ago!

"We saw a special place made more so by a blanket of snow." 

"I'd forgotten how hard the steps down from Ketetahi are at the end of a long day!"

One tramper carried sustaining coconut-rice drink. Aching leg muscles surfaced a day later. Five handfuls of epsom salts in a hot bath cured the condition. 

"Third time doing the Crossing It's great in all weathers but today was stunning." 

Paparoa Track

Friday 13 to Wednesday 18 March 2020

Scribe: Margie Campbell

March 13th: Barbara Francis and I left Takaka at 10.30am, arriving Blackball at 4.30pm via Tapawera and Murchison. There’s a good cafe just south of Tapawera at a junction – it’s an older two-storey structure on your left which you can’t miss as you drive a wee way out of this very small town.

14th: We walked around Blackball village and chatted to various locals. Had coffee at Blackball Inn – nice peeps and nice accommodation; slightly cheaper than The Blackball Hilton. Colin Luff, at the Kereru Gallery, was very pleasant and had a Wanganui connection. We drove through to Greymouth, 25km away, to top up our supplies for the trip. There is a ‘Store’ at Blackball BUT not a lot of stuff and wouldn’t rely on it to have what you want. It reminded me of that ‘Store’ in Raetihi actually. I do, however, recommend the Blackball Salami from shop of the same name across the street from ‘The Store’. We bought a pack of slices for $9 – two packs actually but only used one – probably about 24 slices in it I think. Was certainly enough for the two of us with our other food supplies. Anyway the ‘Original’ flavour salami is yummy and will continue to purchase online! Another local product that we enjoyed was Kawatiri coffee, freshly ground and roasted on the West Coast and also available to purchase online. This is served at The Blackball Inn & Cafe.

15th: Departure day! Paparoa Shuttles departed 8.45am from right next door to The Blackball Hilton (the driver also had a Wanganui connection!). It was a half hour drive up to the start of the track, Smoke-ho Car Park. It is a metal, winding road which appears to have been widened, with the top portion still to be done. Mmmmm.... not sure about Tramping Club vans tackling it but, well.....
We were on the track by 9.15am and in perfect tramping conditions. The track climbs steadily to Ces Clark Hut (16 bunks) which is 4-5 hours away; and a total of 10.3km. The track passes through podocarp and beech forest and moss-covered trees, although little birdsong was heard. The first section of the track is the historic Croesus Track. The track varies in condition – rocky in places and smoother on other sections. It follows high above Blackball Creek with several one-person swing bridges to cross. It took us five hours including morning tea and lunch stops plus a side trip to Garden Gully – worth a visit. Leave your pack on the track at the sign. There is a miner’s hut here from the 1930s. This would be a nice spot for lunch/morning tea, or perhaps at the lovely little stream nearby. There is a loo here. You could also visit a sawmill battery in this area but we didn’t.

Arrival at the hut was, of course, a delight! A nice little hut sleeping 16 peeps but only seven of us in the ‘house’ for the night. This is an older hut; originally serving the original Croesus Track. The hut has been upgraded to Great Walks standard so is double-glazed with solar lighting and gas. The solar lighting extended to the front entrance (like a boot room) and scared the living daylights out of me as I quietly tried to get to the ablution block in the middle of the night – opened the door and a sensor light came on – wasn’t expecting that!! A further surprise was the meeting of the biggest possum I’ve ever seen on my way back from ablutions. Have to say it was a beauty, a real Coaster! It was a beautiful rich deep red/brown colour, huge. Wish I had my gun – LOL - reckon I could have got a nice hat and scarf out of it.
Lovely views from the deck and we spent a beautiful afternoon with blue skies and sunshine. As we supped our soup and munched our crackers we looked out over the Grey River Valley and Lake Brunner. We could also see the Alps, Mt Cook, Mt Rolleston and Mt Alexander, whilst weka moved cheekily around us. The DOC ranger visited during the afternoon (from Moonlight Tops Hut) but no ranger in residence at Ces Clark Hut.

16th: Ces Clark to Moonlight Tops Hut (20 bunks) which in the blurb they say is three hours/9.7km away. Left at 10am in misty conditions - looked very much like we were headed for rain so donned our wet weather gear. We walked through alpine scrub and tussock the whole way so a lovely contrast from bush of the previous day and managed to get glimpses of the Grey River Valley to the east and out to Barrytown and the Tasman Sea to the west. Underfoot loose roughly cut rock but undulating terrain with steady ups and downs, however, not as steep as the previous day. And it didn’t rain; quite cold though.
Arrived Moonlight Tops Hut at 1.30pm so it took us 3.5 hours. But of course it was not a race for us – we had nice food stops and took lots of photos and just enjoyed our surroundings. Unlike Ces Clark, the DOC ranger was in residence – walking around with sanitizer and using it. A helicopter flew in and dropped off some workers and they had to sleep outside on the deck – weren’t even allowed to sleep in the common area. Crikey, there’d be many a person out there that would grumble at those sorts of conditions! Wouldn’t blame them actually - it was 3C the next morning. A group of very rowdy bikers were in residence but all were very pleasant. BUT, my super-powered ear plugs reduced their noise to an undulating hum! Ranger talk at this hut in the evening.

17th: Moonlight Tops Hut to Pororari Hut. Again as per the blurb this is 5-7 hours and 19.1km. Whew, big day! Left the hut at 8.45am in very windy and cold conditions – 3C the workers told us and we believed them! We started the day walking through mountain tussock – undulating terrain. Other than the wind it was fine with clear blue skies so marvelous views. This was ‘escarpment’ day which we were very excited about. And walking the escarpment wasn’t anywhere near as scary as we thought it might have been. Magnificent views from both sides of the escarpment. We also saw evidence of the coal seams in the rock faces along this portion of the track and as I understand it the same as the Pike River coal.
We descended gradually into lower bush. DOC were working on this portion of the track and there was much evidence of the recent storm and slip damage, with safety fences along some of the bluffs. Absolutely essential for bikers! We had a couple of good food stops. Chatted to the workers and a couple of bikers stopped for a chinwag. Lovely bush and more birdlife as we descended. We were pleased to reach our destination – a few character-building ‘ups’ to the Pororari Hut, which is located in the perfect spot for the beautiful sunset we experienced that evening. Stunning!

18th: Woohoo! 16k downhill to the carpark at Punakaiki they say. Four or five hours they say. Yeah well, mostly downhill with a few little ups (of course). We chugged along leaving Pororari at 9.30am and arriving at the carpark at 2.30pm, so yep five hours for us but that of course includes the usual: decent food stops and time of course to take the pics and admire our surroundings. More alpine tussock and then into the bush of beech, rata, matai, rimu etc. We also started to see ferns and orchids and fungi plus moss- covered trees, logs, rocks – very enchanting and quite different to the first day in the bush. A few bridges to cross over rocky rivers/streams and we came across some enormous rocks/boulders and of course as we descended we started to see limestone cliffs etc as we followed the upper Pororari River. A delightful waterfall along the way – sun in just the right place to make it sparkle. We started to notice more birdlife and even saw a black fantail. This is where you’ll see the damage caused by Gita (2018), Ita (2014) and Fehi (2018). And the nikaus made their presence felt. Easy walking but still a long day. The bikers exit on a different track. Walkers exit on the Pororari River Loop Track, which is beautiful.
Now, you’re at the carpark where, if you are using the Paparoa shuttle, is where you will be picked up. And if you’re like us you’ll get there early (shuttle pick up was 4pm for us) and so you’ll have time to go to the Punakaiki Tavern (which I would guesstimate is about 200m from the carpark). Here you can purchase the mandatory ice cream, take a loo stop and perhaps purchase a beer if you’re that way inclined. The lady there was very pleasant and didn’t mind that we were just using the loo and buying an ice cream.
It’s about an hour’s drive back to Blackball (we went via Greymouth to drop off a biker), with only three of us in the shuttle. All in all a fab four days. The diversity of the landscape makes for a very interesting tramp – each day provides its own charm and beauty. And we certainly feel blessed to have been able to do this Great Walk in the three weeks window between opening on 1st March and the closure due to the Corona Virus

Other info/observations re our trip that may be useful:

• Blackball Salami has some container type units at $140 per night (brand new), located at the back of the shop. She indicated to us that perhaps the price was a bit high and that they might reduce.

• The Blackball Inn - $45.00 pp twin. Spoke to the people here and saw the rooms – the rooms are very nice and the owners are very pleasant. Understand they used to own The Formerly Blackball Hilton. Menu looks good with a reasonable choice. We had Bangers (from Blackball Salami shop) & Mash which was very tasty, however, a few too many onions for our taste buds.

• The Formerly Blackball Hilton – we stayed here - found our room a bit small but were able to change. The tariff includes continental breakfast and their evening menu was very good and reasonably priced. We were there on our return and it was Steak Special Night at $15.

• There is also a place called Jailhouse B&B. We didn’t go and look at this and don’t know the prices.

• A little shop near the Blackball Salami shop does food (among other things) and does what appear to be nice ‘takeaway’ meals for $10. It’s called ENJOY – find on Facebook.

• On the track: care needs to be taken as you walk. This track is designed for biking too, so given that it was still very new at the time of our trip, one needs to watch the roughly cut rockiness underfoot on a lot of it. It would be easy to roll an ankle or fall if not paying attention to foot placement.

• Watch out for bikers....... and bikers did outnumber trampers whilst we were on the track. It is also two-way traffic. With just the two of us we’d be walking in silence most of the time (believe it or not!) just enjoying the peacefulness and ambience and getting lost in our own thoughts when all of a sudden you’d hear ‘something’ behind you – no call out, no bell. Wasn’t really a big deal except that I’d just about jump out of my skin and that’s not easy with a pack on your back. So just be conscious of this if you’re in a bigger group and there’s lots of chatter. The track itself is narrow so it’s single file really.

• Overall not a difficult tramp – us two old biddies certainly had the strength, stamina and fitness. My only comment would be that due to the terrain being newly formed it is a bit hard on the feet if you’ve got any quirky foot issues. Otherwise ‘almost easy peasy’.