You can see Diana's article here.
The club's trip to Karekare was featured in an article in the NZ Herald by Diana Clement.
You can see Diana's article here.
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Another great Waitakere tramp with a good turnout - people weren’t put off by the prospect of doing the RGB track ( commonly known as the Ruddy Gut Buster in the club.)
A lovely drive along Anawhata Road – unfortunately to the wrong car park for Chateau Mosquito. The troops were up for the challenge, and good naturedly piled back into the bus for the short extra journey to the entrance to the right track. We had three groups - a small, fit, fast and footloose group of three got round their circuit in record time (Jimmy assured us a fair amount of running took place!) The rest of us went more sedately, the medium lot did, among other tracks, Chateau Mosquito, Sisam, Long Road,Upper Kauri Lower Kauri – not to mention RGB, which is probably the best thing to do with it! An excellent track for aspiring commandoes! And all credit to the slower group that they managed it. The bush was lovely, especially the rata, and the large kauris, the birds were singing, kereru bombed round the trees and inquisitive tomtits were seen on the track. The stream crossings were very beautiful and some waterholes quite inviting. The only problem was the wasps – not as many as the week before but enough to sting Bill several times. And Dora, the Explorer looked as if she had been fighting with tigers by the time she got back to the bus with a huge tear in the back of her shorts (You guessed it – on the RGB track!) Memo: don’t forget to put your antihistamine pills and cream in your pack at this time of the year. Thanks to Brian for organising such a scenic trip. Thirty five people turned up for this trip and it was great to see quite a few new and newish people enjoying what was a great day out. It was a perfect day for the views – and what views they are from the lookout above Whites beach. Our group descended to the beach dodging the waves to get to the end of the beach and then up the “track” up to Anawhata road past the site of the former University of Auckland hut, which stood in a grand vantage spot for 70 years until it was burned down.
Down to Piha again via the Nikau grove and usual lunch spot by the stream then on to Mangaroa ridge Centennial Forbes etc back to the Piha road where the bus awaited us. Our party, medium fast, was me, Roger, Lindsay and “that goose” Sybil. No idea how many km we covered but it would have been quite a few on a hot and humid day. Back to the bus before 4 to wait for the other parties. Many thanks Garry for organising this great trip and to Ian for driving us back and forth- and to Whites beach for sharing it beauty with us. Only downside was the wasps! Heaps of them. Photos: The pretty blue toadstool, the fast and med fast group set out along N Piha beach (It was noted that the latter covered rather more ground than the fast group on this trip!) Lindsay and Roger at the site of the Auckland University hut. And other shots of the waves we dodged at Whites, the lookout overlooking Whites – a view you never tire of – and I seem to take the same shot every time I go there ! My family were a little surprised when I said that I was going to “accept the acceptance” of volunteer hut warden duties over the Christmas break. So it was an early family Christmas, early leave request from my employers and then off to Nelson on 21 December to a windy wet day. Trish from Nelson Lakes Shuttles took me to St Arnaud through some very nasty deluges of rain along the way. It wasn’t a promising start weather wise but that afternoon in St Arnaud the rain cleared and optimism returned.
There was one other volunteer besides myself and we were to spend two stints of four nights, five days in each of the Travers and Sabine valleys with one day off between valleys. The morning of 22nd December was an induction session where we were given our badges, keys, information on protecting the DOC estate, hut cleaning instructions and training to use VHF radios (which, with the spare battery feel like an extra 2 kgs to carry). The radio schedules were twice daily while on the track with the weather updates given each morning. After a substantial lunch, we set off – Simon to the Mt Robert Car Park and then tramping to Speargrass Hut and me, a walk around Lake Rotoiti to Lakehead Hut. Pre Christmas, neither valley had large numbers of trampers although Christmas night at Mt Travers Hut I had a muster of 22. The really wet weather held off until the last day when I arrived at Coldwater Hut wet through from the long grass on the flats. Our rest day and when I dropped off my radio at the DOC centre for a battery recharge, I was greatly surprised to learn that the only way out of St Arnaud by road was back to Nelson due to the stormy weather. It was difficult to believe as the weather in St Arnaud hadn’t been severe. The next day I was taken to Mt Robert Car Park in fine weather and Jake, the DOC officer, commented as we drove over the bridge how high the water was in the Buller River. On my way to Speargrass Hut I met trampers who had come down the Sabine Valley in atrocious conditions – reports of the track wash outs and in places no track just a river of water. By the time I was further up the valley conditions had settled down but there were two sections of track which had completely disappeared. It was obvious that the river level had been running between one and two metres higher than normal. Post Christmas, there were trampers out in numbers – most well equipped but some taking some foolish risks. It was so pleasing to see so many families out on the track. The youngest was a seven year old girl who, with her mother, had walked from Angelus Hut to Sabine Hut. As for my Hut Warden experience, I thoroughly enjoyed it (despite the toilet cleaning and Hut Ticket collecting duties) - meeting trampers, assisting them in whatever way I could at the same time being mindful of their safety. In some Huts I didn’t have my own bunk room so it was a great opportunity to chat with some very interesting people. |
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