Main Range (Kaitoke to Levin) Traverse

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MAIN RANGE (KAITOKE TO LEVIN) TRAVERSE. To fill in a few days after Christmas Tom 9 Strett and I arranged to do a Main Range, but at the last moment Strett was not able to come. Still, two is company, so away went Tom and I; by Service Car to Kaitoke and thence over to Tauwharenikau for lunch. We decided against going up the Winchcombe but to maintain interest we used the "vicissitudinal track" to the foot of Bull Mound. Admittedly it was easier going once we found the track. Next day was wet so we stopped at Kime. Saturday was misty but we were on familiar ground until after sidling the Tararua Peaks. We had heard that the chain was broken so we spent a miserable hour going around. Just after lunch, on Simpson, the mist lifted and we had fine views. That night was spent under canvas in the bush beyond Kahiwiroa just 40 minutes from the Anderson High Level Memorial Hut. Kime to camp took elevon hours. From Anderson on Sunday, after a second breakfast, we moved over Crawford, adding our names to the jar on top which dates back to '32. A wrong spur off Crawford wasted a couple of hours, but fortunately the mist cleared as we approached Nichols.. and Tom trlked me out of dropping down into the Park Forks. That night was spent out too, just after passing Butchers Knob after 13 hours 50 minutes travelling. Up without breakfast at 6a.m. and on to Pukematawai where, for a while, we exchanged shouts with Butch and Terry and later chatted quietly for a time. At Te Matawai we had breakfast and then pressed on to Ohau and the road where we camped out, 114 hours from our previous camp. We went to Levin on Tuesday the 11th., arriving at the station on a railway jigger. NOTES:" West Peak, over Crawford and on as far as the Puketoro Peaks is strenuous but not technically difficult from our side, being open tops or blazed track, but from there to Butchers Knob is really hard work. Is your deer track clearer than mine? Graeme Hall.