Baber Creek – Dick Creek

This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.

Mike Drake Arrived at Mangahao No 1 reservoir camp site approx 22:00. Quickly erected flies and hit the deck. Next day set off at 8:15 up the Puketurua track. At Baber Forks the group split, one party continuing up the track to Ngapuketurua then down to Harris Creek, the other party following the, original plan. This is the report of the latter expedition. Five of us continued up Baber Creek being super cautious in counting the number of side streams. The objective was the fifth branch on true left (branch: whose source is South of the 870m peak of Island Ridge). Up we plodded, the creek getting smaller. and smaller, various techniques being employed to negotiate the many obstacled creeks rock climbing, caving, boulder hopping (divingi), We finally ran out of creek and a compass bearing was taken (230° mago) to connect, on the other side of the saddle with the only true right branch of Dick Creek. After following this course for, a while a scree slope was encountered and up we scuttled, thinking that the saddle we were. looking for was near the summit of the Southern peako Alas this information proved to be faulty. A democratic decision was made to have lunch on the sunny scree slope. Murray was duly dispatched to:: find a suitable route while the troups attacked their lunch. To cut a long story short we went back down the scree, turned right, sent Murray up a tree (no, not for nutsi) to see if he could sge the way, After further discussion; a course of 230° (mag.) was again followed (which we had deviated from to go up the scree). A short while later the beginnings of a stream was found. Further on aio compass bearing on the direction of the stream confirmed that we were on the right track (creek). We arrived at the Harris Creek hut: at approx 15:30. The other party arriving approx 30 minutes later.after apparently having an equally good day. A: long discussion ensued as to the merits of a fly over a hut (ie should we be tough Kiwis or not): the "or not's" won at which point out we went to gather wood. Many cups of tea, rice, veg and. cheese, and stove made for a very pleasant evening, The next day, two parties were again formed. The masochistic party followed the river starting at Dick Creek; the other party followed the switch-back track. the river proved most enjoyable if a little cool in places. Although the river looked at normal level (and therefore according to the book, "walkable") the party shortly decided that swimming was an inevitability, Ken showing the way in true Kiwi style, the rest following a little more cautiously. We found that the best method of swimming with a: pack in this slow river was to keep waist belts fastened and swii upright. Two hours later we found ourselves back at the van, Thanks Murray for a very enjoyable tramp.