Wanganui - Speculation Range - Adams - Lambert

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WANGANUI = SPECULATION RA. = ADAMS = LAMBERT 12 - 21 APRIL 1974 It was Paul Green, it was; said it was time I did a good trip - a Hunt trip. Ten days of it in Westland gorges and sub-alpine scrub, grassy tops and shimmering ice falls. Get away from the reports and committees for a while; I could keep him company at the tail end - the Heines were coming too no sweat, no worry, Brian would have it all organised. The plan was really quite modest Wanganui = Specualtion Range Adams Flat I col to Lambert - Lord - Blue Lookout I Upper Wanganui - Smyth Range = County - Waitaha and out = involving only eight 12 hour days; and Brian had allowed nine full days for the trip hadn't he?

The prospect of reaching this relatively untouched region as part of a Hunt super-trip certainly appealed, SO Good Friday saw us all motoring through the Broken River basin in perfect weather en route for Harihari. A pleasant two hour boulder hop up the true left of the Wanganui saw the team - Brian Hunt, Kevin Thompson, Owen Cox, Chris Kinzett, Neil Woodrow, Ian Bunckenburg, Paul Green, Jan and Arnold Heine and myself = to a good camp just above the junction with the Hot Springs River. Saturday dawned calm and clear, by 7 a.m. we were climbing into the Speculation by a good, steep Forest Service blaze which led up on to the ridge between the Wanganui and Hot Springs River, gorged far below. Several hours later we shrugged off the last of the scrub and reached the northern terminal point (4550) of the Range. The Lord Range was now covered in murk and a Nor-Wester fast approaching. The going along the Range was something of a thrash; scrub-filled saddles and plenty of tussock covered boulder fields. By 4 p.m. the Nor' Wester was really upon us and since we were still 30 minutes short of Speculation Hill (5150) and the route off to Adams Flat an unknown quantity, we reluctantly decided to drop off to the west into Speculation Creek, a tributary of the Hot Springs, where high tussock basins and river terraces offered a prospect of good shelter for what was looking like developing into a big blow. A steep but straight forward descent (except for a few spills on wet snowgrass faces - PVC parkas really move) brought us to an interesting camp on a river terrace at 3800. The young guns immediately chose the smoothest, mossiest campsite which promptly got flooded out in the early hours next morning! We all crawled into out storm pitched tents and flys as the rain got heavier and waited for the worst. Brian rendered us his repertoire of songs as he and Kevin trenched the tents in the darkness (punctuated by a few flashes of lightening) and the rain poured down. A bedraggled Neil, Ian and Kevin abandoned their tent in the early hours and crawled in with the rest ofus. Our billy gauge indicated that at least 12 (and probably nearly 15) inches of rain fell in about ten hours. At dawn, Speculation Creek was flowing black from all the sediment from the eroding tops. The wind dropped and the rain continued all day. It was going to be "touch and go"as to whether my "A.P. Harper bedroll" would last many more days of this. Monday brought a slight clearance and we all rushed off in different directions to explore our surroundings. Brian and Ian found a better route back on to Speculation Hill, Owen, Neil, Chris and Kevin worked along the ridge dividing Avalon and Speculation Creeks while Arnold, Jan, Paul and Les climbed into the extensive upper basins of the southern branch of Avalon Creek. A straight forward route led up a scree gully to a 5400' col on the Wilberg Range. Through gaps in the mist, the Wilbert (the northern branch of the Poerua) could be seen far below - not an easy route on the Wilberg side confirming that Upper Hot Springs Creek is not an easy place to reach. During the night the wind turned to the South and the temperature dropped markedly. We were off at dawn in the big push for Adams Flat. As we climbed the 1400' to Speculation Hill, the weather deteriorated until we were facing a moderate southerly on top. Misty peaks stood out around the Adams icefall and Garden of Eden as we inched around the badly eroded face at the head of Boulderpool Creek and dropped down a good tussock ridge towards the top of the Eblis gorge in the Adams. Just above scrubline, the route veered towards Boulderpool Creek down a ridge covered in tall Dracophyllum traversii scrub - large enough to comfortably travel under. Adams Flat is a wild, rarely visited place. The remnants of the Adams ice-fall dominate the head of the flats while the river drops into the aptly named Eblis gorge below. The flats are about one mile long and only 2500' in altitude, being covered mainly in scrub as a consequence. The steep hillsides were also covered in this tall scrub (about 25' high) but above mountain ceder (Kaikawaka) formed a definite belt of emergent trees and imparted considerable interest to the otherwise drab landscape. We set up a well sheltered camp, in the rain, beside Athene stream and settled in for the inevitably clearance which had to come if we were going to continue the trip. It was clear, anyhow, that we had no chance to get through to the Waitaha in time. The clearance didn't come; Wednesday was nearly continual rain - now back to the N.W. but we kept the chill at bay with a roaring fire and plenty of brews with heaps of white sugar to keep up the strength and spirits of the young lads. The leader was given some elementary instruction in differentiating Hoberia from Dracephyllum firewood. The flats were explored and a good ford of the Adams found where it is braided at the top of the flats. The agonizing decision (quite democratic, of course, after Brian had spent half the night chatting up the troops in the outlying tent!) was made in the cold drizzly pre dawn to "give it a go" or we' 11 be here till Christmas. The Adams was crossed without too much difficulty and the steep 1200' climb commenced up a bouldery creek to reach our objective two hanging valleys, the uppermost having a col leading to the Lambert. The first (and possibly only) party to cross from the Lord and Lambert could find no way out of this hanging valley down to Adams Flat, since the stream degenerates into waterfalls. However, the boulder creek slide is the obvious route when one has the advantage of viewing the flats from Speculation Hill - which the 1934 C.M.C. party didn't have! Despite the occasional near miss with rock projectiles, the top was reached with a good omen our first sunshine in about four days. The striking peaks above the Adams all slowly revealed themselves Kensington (8025'), Hulka (7675) and Farrar (7980) and prospects became quite warm and even exciting. Unfortunately the sidle into the lower hanging valley was anything but pleasant. Characteristic of the region is a belt of most frustrating vegetation above the woody scrub yet below the true snowgrass. About 500' wide it seemed to consist mainly of three species I Chionochloa conspicoa (a small toi-toi), mountain flax and a large Spaniard (Aciphylla) = all growing on or around old boulders concealing large holes, somethimes choked with Spaniard. We were all feeling pretty frazzled by the time we reached the stream, and consequently proposed to call this unnamed stream Aciphylla creek since these accursed plants were the dominate feature of its vegetation in its lower reaches. Then to dampen our spirits even further, it began to rain again. There was little point in these conditions of making for the col to the Lambert, SO we climed steeply to the north side of the upper hanging valley and sidled at 5000' above the Éblis gorge - along the general retreat route of the 1934 CMC party. A couple of hours saw the worst behind us and, as we worked over the final spur, the mist cleared and a remarkable series of basins and tarns were revealed about 800' below us. The weather was definitely clearing and the basins were too inviting to leave without gracing them with a W.T. & M.C. fly camp. The uppermost basin was the most sheltered and offered spectacular views of the ridge above us (between the Adams and Lambert), as well as a view out down the lower Wanganui to Harihari and the country around Harihari. Furthermore, the basin was something of a field museum for all manner of geomerphic pheremera associated with the end of the last glaciation (over 10,000 years ago) in New Zealand. Because of the easier topography, and consequent stability of the basins, the imprint of the glaciers and their climate was strikingly apparent. We camped on an old terminal moraine which the ice had flowed around the north and south ends, leaving a clear tongue on medial moraine 100' lower where the two ice streams had met on the lower basin level. Behind us a perfectly shaped, stable fans sloped down into the basin; the terminal moraine and slopes of the basin were rippled with "solifluction lobes" small terracettes (like sheep tracks) which had been perfectly preserved for thousands of years since they were formed when a glacier filled the whole basin. Everywhere snowgrass covered the features, with no sign of any glacial activity for probably 100,000 years. To watch the sun set and rise on the Garden of Eden peaks in conditions like this was balm to our withered spirits. On a clear, sunny Friday morning, Brian, Paul, Les, Arnold and Jan climbed to a col leading back to "Aciphylla Creek' while the others the route to scrubline on the ridge our route to the Wanganui. At the col the mist began to close in, obscuring the icy bulk OTIEE Mt. Lambert; Arnold, Jan and Paul decided to work back to the camp, visiting another notch on the ridge on the way. Brian and I dropped off into the head of Aciphylla creek' by way of a little ice field which gave us a 40 minute step cutting diversion. The col was a gentle boulderfield at 5300' giving what looked like a steep but direct route to the Lambert. Even here we could also smell sulphor. The entire Lord Valley up to Strahen Pass was clear but, never at hand, the mist was covering the slopes ofMt. Stoddart down to just above the Lambert ice fall. The Lord and Lambert dropped away into an impressive slit gorge below the towering Herde cliffs nastly scrub bashing country which I was secretly happy not to be descending into. We avoided the ice field on our return by an enjoyable direct rock climb to the top of the ridge now in thicker mist with a brisk nor' wester pushing it along. A different route down through the bluffs had a few interesting moments until the mist cleared showing Paul maintaining a lone vigil at a lone tent at the camp the other Arabs had quietly folded their tents and melted into the late afternoon mist. After Paul and I had calmed Brian with a cup of tea, we all warmed to the prospect of a night in such perfect surroundings, without Brian having to nursemaid the "varsity twins". After a night of rain from the N.W. we left at first light in cooler temperatures with promise of another southerly. Several more small basins and the ridge began to drop markedly; the same aciphylla boulderfield association gave the same tricky travelling until we reached the scrub line and - LO! A real N.Z. Forest Service cut track! This track dropped steeply for 1700' to the junction of the Lambert and Adams, reached after several hours oft tripping and slithering = conditions which must have been trying for the others in the gloom of the previous evening. Fifteen minutes upstream a very necessary swing-bridge crossed at the mouth of the Lambert Gorge and we were soon reunited with the others at the new Forest Service hut. The southerly front had passed and the afternoon was spent in a pleasant stroll down the true right of the Wanganui to camp just below Herde River, opposite our first campsite of eight days earlier. Everywhere there was evidence of a large flood in the Wanganui, = fresh silt was piled up to six feet deep, after covering old mossy boulders. Below the hot springs junction I estimated that the river must have been 20' in flood - an awesome sight, no doubt, for a river of this size. On Sunday morning we wandered out to the road in perfect south-easterly conditions with a prospect of many days of settled weather on the coast. Once over the divide on the return flight we were back into the teeth ofthe southerlies; the pleasant hospitality of a few hours earlier in the near legendary "Southland" just a pleasant memory. Swaying back into the Rongotai in the teeth of a gale force southerly was really just the final insult to a good trip curtailed by incessant bad weather. All of us will have our own particular memories of the good companionship the way knives and watches were thrown away with gay abandon; the monstrous meals that I was too weak to refuse; Brian, by candleight, charting tomorrow's course far into the small hours; the brutal military discipline particularly involving keeping one's spoon and bowl on one's person at all times; as sleepless Brian playing Patience, worrying about the future welfare ofa a worthless lot like us; arch conservationist Arnold Heine uprooting all the tussock around the camp just for his sleeping comfort; lan taking portrait photographs in pouring rain at 1/500 sec. and F.2.8.; Kevin shooting nine chamois on the run, two with one bullet!; Chris and Owen burning the milk in their only cooking effort I these, and many more, will be my memories of a most enjoyable, super-organised trip which, as a non club member, I am grateful to have been invited on. Les Molloy.