Mountains and rivers - the Richmond Ranges

I think this posting should simply start with a big PHEW. Did I once say that crossing the Tararua tops was the hardest thing I'd ever done? Ha, that was kindergarten play compared to tramping through the rugged Richmond ranges.

The track up the Pelorous River was beautiful, and the Emerald Pools were truly that. We ate our wild pork-kumara-apple pies with sandfly seasoning overlooking the pools. We shared Captain's Creek hut with George, a young American fisherman, and set off at 7.30 am the next morning in hot humid conditions towards Middy Hut and onwards via a demanding and rough sidle track to the old 6 bunk Roebuck Hut, courtesy of the Forest Service.

Next day we climbed steadily to Totara Saddle, and lunched at the hoon-damaged Browning Hut - sited too close to the road end - carrying on to Hacket Hut. We washed our hot sweaty bodies and our  sweat-drenched clothes in the river, and dried out in the heat of the sun. We guessed our son Sam and his partner Lorraine who were kindly coming to join us and had 7 hours travel would arive at 6.15 pm. By intuition, we walked down the track to meet them and amazingly there they were  - spooooky.

They carried in fresh supplies and made us a wonderful 3-course dinner with produce from their garden. We settled down for the night only to be kept awake by a mosquito army - they even bit us through our silk sleeping bag liners. I hate mosquitoes; we all hate mosquitoes. And in the morning lined up at the door was a whole battalion of sandflies to take their place...

Starveall Hut

At least a dozen river crossings filled the first part of our morning, then up we climbed to one of our favourite huts, Starveall Hut (1200 metres) in time for lunch and just beating a very heavy shower of rain. We continued on up to lonely little Slaty Hut through rain and cloud with glimpses of the stunning Pelorus headwaters spread out below us, enjoying the alpine garden, vegetable sheep and celmesias and hoping for better weather.

Lorraine, Sam and Rob heading for Old Man

We were lucky and a beautiful day dawned. We spent an amazing morning climbing up to Old Man in strange and wonderful atmospheric conditions.

Debby heading for Old Man



Far below us we could see Old Man hut in a sunny clearing, and I was kind of glad we weren't going all the way down there.
But then came the hard part, up scree slopes to Little Rintoul, gasping at the knife-edge, tortured terrain that lay ahead.

Sam helping Debby down Little Rintoul

Then over a tricky precipitous rocky ledge which somehow Sam managed to help me over - I swear I had my eyes shut but Rob seemed unaffected by the exposure. Carefully down loose rock  to a saddle 250 metres below where the others stopped to let me catch up and eat some lunch. 

On the descent to the saddle we were delighted to meet our first Te Araroa Trail walker, Tony Walton. He was coming up the scree slope with a friend and we had a brief chat before both parties felt we needed to press on. 

This part of the alpine crossing had been giving us bad dreams beforehand but we had done it and it wasn't so bad after all. It turned out worse was to come in the Wairoa River.

Lorraine and Debby on Rintoul

The big climb up Mount Rintoul was straightforward by comparison, and the downhill was fun, virtually running down loose gravelly scree almost to the bush edge, and on down to Rintoul hut. I was so glad to see that little haven after 10 hours of hard toil; I lay down on a bunk and listened to an unreal conversation between Lorraine and Sam who were saying what a fun day it had been. They weren't even tired. Oh to be young again.

There's no rest for the wicked. Next day we had to haul ourselves back on to the track and off we went congratulating ourselves that we had managed to get over the Rintouls without mishap. Ten minutes later further down the track Rob slipped on a rock and jarred his back! He went as white as a sheet and was in a great deal of pain, but insisted on carrying on. You can judge how bad it was - I even offered to carry the tent. Sam and Lorraine caught up to us in the mist of Purple Top, and still Rob soldiered on, clambering over big chunky rocks.

Tarn Lake

We lunched at tiny Tarn hut, right next to the loveliest mountain tarn, surrounded by forest right to the water's edge. Rob said he could carry on, so we did, and late afternoon saw us arrive at Mid Wairoa Hut. Sam and Lorraine headed for a beautiful swimming hole which was one of the few redeeming features of this hut. The toilet door fell off as you pulled it open, and to get water you had to climb down a steep slippery bank to the river. To make matters worse Rob's back now seized completely and things looked grim for continuing. Thank goodness Sam had a great range of painkillers with him, without them I don't think Rob would have been able to move next day.

It rained torrentially that night, with incredible thunder and lightning, and next morning the river had turned into a turbid, raging, terrifying torrent. We were supposed to be walking up along the edge of it, crossing it many times on the way - well, we had to abandon that plan. We decided to try an escape route down the Wairoa River to the Wairoa road end, but after an hour of horrible slippery, narrow track with precipitous drop-offs and having to cling to a wire to get around a cliff face, we were stymied by a swollen side stream. So we had to turn around and go all the way back along this ghastly bit of track. I will never in my life go near that nasty river again. I hates it.

So at 11.00 am we had to retrace our steps to Tarn hut, hoping that the 8 people we had seen heading there the day before had moved on. Mercifully they had, and poor Rob collapsed on to a bunk, we gave him a massage and he was soon snoring in an exhausted sleep.

Lower Goulter Hut

A much easier day followed as we headed out to the Goulter River, hoping it would be crossable. It was, and we spent the afternoon lazing around in welcome sunshine, hoping that the weather would hold and we could re-cross the river next morning to complete our escape up the north bank of the Wairoa River to St Arnaud. I lay awake listening to heavy rain in the night, but it soon abated and we were able to continue.

We wasted a good hour trying to walk along the edge of the Wairoa River, but it cut into a cliff and once again we had to turn back. Rivers! So up into the pine forest we went, (thankfully Rob had obtained permission for us), finding our way along vehicle tracks and finally out on to SH63.

We contacted my brother Tom and his wife Heather who had kindly moved to Nelson just before we started our South Island leg and had offered to help us once again on our trail. They came to collect us - only Tom didn't see us - too difficult to explain - and to our horror he drove right past us! Luckily Heather was following behind in Sam's car, she did see us, and all was soon sorted out. We said our fond farewells to Sam and Lorraine - they had been excellent company, entertaining, physically and mentally helpful with a great can-do attitude, and always cheerful.

We headed to Tom and Heather's flash new home in Stoke for absolutely the best shower and cup of tea of our lives. And as usual with this wonderful couple, we were soon sitting down to a stunning dinner, which I have to tell you was home-caught and home-made gravlax salmon (soaked in vodka for 3 days) followed by sundried tomato and basil stuffed pork loin wrapped in bacon - am I making your mouth water? It was divine. And Tom opened a fine bottle of bubbly to celebrate our safe arrival.

Today Rob saw a dentist (broken filling fixed), a pharmacist (back pain now under control with pain killers and improving, buttock bruising fading).
We will decide in another day if we can continue our journey, just a day late, to the Travers-Sabine and over the Waiau Pass, meeting nephew-in-law Adi at West Sabine hut.

Apologies for the length of this posting, but it's been a while!

Notes:

Day 6: Havelock to Pelorus Bridge Campground.21 km
Day 7: Pelorus Bridge to Captain Creek Hut. 23 km
Day 8: Captain Creek to Roebuck Hut. 11.5 km
Day 9: Roebuck Hut to Hacket Hut. 13.7 km
Day 10: Hacket Hut to Slaty Hut. 10 km
Day 11: Slaty Hut to Rintoul Hut. 14.5 km
Day 12: Rintoul Hut to Mid Wairoa Hut. 14.5 km
Day 13: Mid Wairoa Hut back to Tarn Hut. 8.5 km
Day 14: Tarn Hut to Lower Goulter Hut. 9.3 km
Day 15: Lower Goulter Hut to Wairoa River Bridge and beyond. 28 km
Day 16, Day 17: Rest days, Nelson.