Seaward Kaikouras

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Seaward Kaikouras Jeff Connell On the Friday night of Labour Weekend an hour, a short gorge section was 1978 ten Tongue and Meats took the reached that was known to be impassable. Rail Ferry to Picton, en route to the Two crossings in a strong current but Seaward Kaikouras. On arrival at a good bottom took us onto the true Picton we adorned the footpath outside right and a sidle track through bush the Rental Car office while several past the gorge section. parties of Hutt Valleys, Alpine Club types and others crammed into their The sidle track emerged 200 yards up rental vans and jerked off. Fortunatethe south branch of the Hapuku which ly they were all headed for the Inland forks in two above the gorge. At this Kaikouras. Finally our rental van point the party split in two as the emerged out of the misty rain and we last part of the sidle track became clambered aboard. From Picton to the obscure. Paul Aubrey, Trevor and the Kaikoura coast our van reverberated with two Daves crossed the south branch and groans of derision as the strongest took a spur directly up Mt Stace, a station on the van's radio was running knob which separates the north branch an all night phone-in joke session. of the Hapuku from Stace Stream, a None of the jokes heard warrant repettributary of the south branch. The ition in these pages. remainder, Paul Richardson, Tony, Warren, Jeff,Dan and Bruce descended At the road end, the rain had stopped to the forks and headed up the north but a gusty southerly was whipping branch. The tentative plan was for the tents as we erected them in the the whole party of 10 to camp somevan's headlights. By morning, the wind where on Mt Stace, and the north had dropped but it was still necessary branch curled around to a point where to light the primuses inside the van an easy slope led onto a saddle between for the morning brew. The sky was Stace and a spur onto the range. But clear above, but a thick bank of cloud events forced this plan to be abandoned, blew among the peaks of the range and the north branch party had the easier looming to the east so that only the time of it. lower summits were clear. Our objective, Mt Manakau, was hidden behind subsidiary peaks. Travel up the north branch was a mixture of boulder hopping and scree sidling. Although the north branch took After a relatively leisurely breakfast us from 1500 feet to only 2000 feet, the and a short drive along the road, we bush rapidly thinned out and alpine shouldered packs and loped up the bed plants soon appeared in the riverbed. of the Hapuku River. While some picked Celmisias, alpine hebes and the Kaikoura their way along the true right bank in senecio were in evidence at this low an endeavour to keep dry feet, the level. Hebe raoulii and hebe hulkeana remainder had several wet crossings in were in flowerbud, and seedling Marla thigh deep torrent swollen from borough daisies (pachystegia insignis) recent rain and snow melt. After were common.

At around 10 a.m. the cloud obscured soon joined us and we set off south the foothills, and it began to rain. along the range heading for Manakau, Near lunchtime an obvious campsite at several kilometres away. The route the margin of a bush remnant was reached, ran up to a hump, across a level and we stopped for a brew. The rain stretch of ridge and then onto the increased and a temporary fly was draped final slope of Manakau. No difficultacross some overhanging branches. As ies of any serious order were encountthe temperature noticeably dropped, we ered and the few treacherous looking decided to put up the tent, and it was gendarmes were sidled on the west. not long before five bodies were warming The conditions were ideal apart from their sleeping bags while the sixth the brisk remnants of the southerly alternately scratched around under the which blew snow plumes into our faces. fly, hovered over the fire and picked We all trooped up to the summit one by his nose. one, waved to our imagined friends in Wellington (which would have been Meanwhile, the Mt Stace party was vaguely visible but for the bulk of Mt struggling upwards in a rising wind Te Ao Whekere to the north) and then and rain turning to snow. Clearly, sat in the snow on the lee side, to the high camp was not on and after crossgaze again at Tapuaenuku and its ing over Mt Stace they dropped into the satellites, by this time probably north branch from the saddle, relieved swarming with Hutt Valleys like ants to be out of the bad weather. on a sugar lump. The sky was clear apart from a few clouds to the south east. We shared the remaining water, took photographs and tried to keep our It had already been snowing for some time feet warm. when the Mt Stace party arrived at the campsite to an hilarious welcome from The descent was uneventful although the the hedonists in the tent. Various wind was freshening. The new snow lower threats were thrown back and forth but down had largely melted and the lower the only aggressive move came from one part of Surveyor Spur revealed itself as Mt Stacer who donated the snow off his an alpine garden about to commence pack towards the moral improvement of flowering. The celmisias were so thick those in their pits. that it was impossible to avoid walking on them. The place must look stunning It was not long before the remaining in summer. tents were up and the whole party of ten was in the pit watching the snowflakes We reached the campsite at 5 p.m. after swirling against the dark sides of the an exhilarating 10 hour day. We had valley. Towards evening the snow became ascended from 2000 feet to 8562 feet intermittent and the evening meal of and covered a horizontal distance of macaroni cheese, stew, vegetables, jelly some 12 kilometres there and back. and drinks could be enjoyed in the open After a veritable gourmet meal of air. macaroni cheese, fish and vegetables we sat around waiting for the crowning Sunday morning dawned clear and cold. glory - instant pud and stewed apples. Paul Richardson and Tony were off early But someone's water container was conand headed up the scree slope down which taminated and the first mouthful of pud the Mt Stace party had come the day before. tasted like kerosene. Few progressed Gradually, everyone surmounted the beyond that point. Our dessert was mental block of wet sox and frozen boots later observed adorning a fallen tree, and headed for the sun. From the saddle, looking like a vast mocha mutant the route ran up Surveyor Spur which liverwort about to reproduce itself leads onto the main range of the Seaward and embark on a campaign of world dom- Kaikouras. Drifts of fresh, dry snow in ination. tussock soon turned to hard, older snow that gave ideal crampon conditions. The next morning was spent lazing about The party soon regrouped on a rocky outas the walk out was only a few hours ctop travel, and we were booked for the 8p.m. crop, from which there was a clear view ferry. A chamois was spotted on the east over Mt Stace to the Hapuku riverbed, opposite cliff and as Paul Aubrey the Kaikoura peninsula and the coastline, climbed up toward it brandishing a roll on which a choppy southerly swell was of bog paper, it wisely took off across breaking soundlessly. Higher up the spur what seemed to be a ledge-less crumbling a greater panorama unfolded with Mt face, before disappearing into a patch Uwerau to the south, the sea in the of scrub. Then the wind began to rise east, a leading spur off the range to and before long an ominous grey cloud the north and Mt Manakau dominating the began to advance up the valley toward western aspect looking like a huge us while another cloud descended from upturned oceangoing yacht. the tops to complete the pincer movement. We broke camp in heavy rain, While Paul Aubrey tiptoed up the spur and headed off downstream. in his gumboots, the rest of us sidled across a series of snow basins to a At this point, further reportage becomes saddle on the main range. There, we pointless. Those on the trip were: stopped to eat, gazing westwards down Paul Aubrey, Paul Richardson, Tony the well-named Fidget Stream to the Gazley, Warren Thorburn, Trevor Bissell, muddy Clarence running in front of the Jeff Connell, Bruce Murdoch, Dan Wilson, spires of the Inland Kaikouras. Paul Dave Wills and Dave Cook.