Ōtaki Gorge

Machine-read text (unproofread)

Read from the scans by software, so it contains mistakes. Typing it up properly would help blind readers: use Suggest an edit.

OTAKI GORGE Feb. 25/7th. We trucked to Otaki Forks Friday night getting a good nights sleep and were away at seven next morning up the Tram Tracks to Waitewaewae. As we crossed the Otaki before beginning the track we found that it was running fairly full and promised ourselves a fast trip for swimming. The track up the Tram tracks is somewhat overgrown with grass of assorted adjectival kinds. I managed to trip on one clump and in running to regain balance sent one of the sleepers to the Far Land in no uncertain way. For a few seconds I thought I was heading that way too. We picked up a party of our shooters who had preceeded us the night before and finally made the Arapito Stream where Laurie and the shooters regretfully saw us off promising to lay flowers as requested on our graves! We then headed down stream and so into the Otaki. We had a brief spell on a huge rock outcrop. Upstream leaping rapids cascaded into a pool so deep it shone a dull green. Overhead was blue sky with a few clouds and with our hearts high we rock-hopped off into the narrowing river bed. The water was about two feet higher than last year when I did the trip, the rapids correspondingly swifter and the pools showing a lair mid-stream current with a very obvious flow up-stream at the side. Our first swim was shatteringly cold and we speeded up a little to get warm again. The next was not nearly so startling. The first part of the gorge had to be sidled in the bush which was a pity. Graeme climbed down to get a close-up of the rapids that emptied into it, risking life and camera, and then we set off again. Lunch and a cuppa was very welcome on sunshiny rocks. The boys took off their wet shirts and laid them out to dry. One of the funniest things I have ever seen was when they were putting them on again. As Cyril explained the technique was to put them on slowly thus taking them by surprise! It was with consideraule regret that we repacked and began our rocky downstream tramp, climb and swim again. Having passed a couple of sizeable streams on the true left and checked vith the map we felt fairly confident that we had passed Aokaparangi Stream and were feeling elated at our fast progress. The temperature of the water was still not high enough to make swimming a really rleasureable task and the pools were deep and sluggish. We were not really surprised when Rod decided to continue a dry course on one side of the river while we took the quicker one on the other side by swimming a pool. We continued on the opposite side for some distance until we came to the next pool. Both sides offered oasily negotiable routes although ours only entailed wading while Rod's included a few yards of swim. We waded while Dave went back to see how Rod was making out. He found him in difficulties and immediately grabbed hin and towed him to the rock bank which he reached just as I joined him. We floated Rod's pack down to Cyril then Dave and I "chaired" him out to the shingle bank. A cuppa, a rub down and dry clothes revived Rod enough for us to look for a suitable place to camp. We sidled down for a while then roped across just above some rapids as Rod did not feel capable of swimming the pools. The other side was easy sidling and we made good progress till once more faced by a pool where we linked arms for the shallow but swift crossing. A few yards further on we found to our dismay a large creek vhich could only have been Aokaparangi. The realisation was more dampening than the water. However we pressed on until we were once more faced by long, deep gorge pools.

Rod declined the invitation to swim so we cut up the bluff climbing from tree base to tree base until we found a small shelf where we decided to camp the night. With water in a valley to the left about a hundred yards off as the crow flies, hopes of stew were really high. Rod and Dave managed to get three billies back to camp through a horrible jungle of supplc-jack and the meal was a great succcss. We held a war council and decided to climb further up the spur to prospect (a) The possibility of climbing out via McIntosh and West Peak or (b) to drop down a spur that came out at Penn Creek Junction. The possibility of sidling the bluffs above the gorge was almost nil in view of the thick junglc. From up the ridge next day I climbed a tree, counted the"bumps" to where the snow grass started, and decided since we were about a third or less of the way up we would adopt a modified schedule (b). We dropped off the ridge to where according to the map Penn Creek should be. It was not. We found an unmapped, unnamed stream which was almost one long waterfall, but which finally emptied us out into the Otaki just above the wire across the river upstream from Penn Crcek. The boys suggest we call it Butch's Mistake I such nice boys too! We now had some hopes of catching the truck provided it had waited about three hours. We unfortunately lost time by several times losing the track along the true right bank with the result that although we nissed the truck we got to the Cottage, tired by still whole, ahead of the rescue volunteers. Changed and with a good meal inside - on the house - and fortified by the cheerfulness of our "rescuers" Laurie Neilson, Den Collings, Mike Redington, Ron Fokerd and Athol Geddes, we were all soon well asleep. The walk out on the Monday was hot, to put it mildly, although Den, Graeme and I got considerable pleasure out of watching silly trampers catching and passing each other in a grim race with something or other. We had a lift from the Mill to Otaki where we had several sorts of refreshment, tried to ring Wellington, and finally caught the Napier Express home. Anyone reading this will notice that I have mentioned very little about the view and scenery in the Gorge. This is understandable on this trip as we were not really interested in it from about Saturday 3p.m. on,, but up to that time we had fully appreciated the deep pools and swift rapids, the bush pressing down to the rocky valls of the river. Ve passed a very large slip on the right after which we reached Aokaparangi Stream. From this we had a magnificent view of the Tararua Peaks which Graeme duly recorded by camera. Actually we did not really enter the true gorge part of the river which is between Aokaparangi Stream and Penn Creek and in parts from Penn to the Forks. Better luck next year! Special thanks must go to those who stayed behind on Sunday. le could not have caten nearly so well without them! Members of the trip were:- Graeme Hall, Cyril Jacquard, Dave Lowe, Rod Milne, Marie Marshall (Leader). M.M.