From the banks of the O-to-ko

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From the banks of the O-to-ko Hugh Middleton Marks Flat is neither particularly From the road bridge over the Paringa remote nor particularly accessible. River we made our way up the Otoko Valley But it is a very pretty place and not and over Lower Otoko Pass to Marks Flat. too well known. Surrounded by some The uppper Otoko is quite open and most of New Zealand's most spectacular attractive but the weather was threatenalpine scenery it is a perennial ing so we did not linger. The pass favourite with Tongue and Meats. itself is not difficult in summer but Many aspire to climb 2665m Mt Hooker, navigation on the south side would be a which rises some 1700m directly above. considerable problem without foreknowledge (In winter it must cast a giant shadow). and good visibility - the best routes Others are content just to pick their are far from obvious. way through the hills and to feast on airdrop luxuries in such places. One A beautiful day, cut short by a thundercouple (not Tongue and Meats) even storm at around 4 p.m. was spent chose to be married there. exploring Marks Flat and Kea Cliffs and just lazing about. Although we had Last Christmas was no exception. seen none but airborne meat hunters in Eight of us set out with the primary the Otoko, here two other parties objective of visiting Marks Flat and totalling 13 were campedo Fortunately experiencing the Hooker region for the place was big enough for us all ourselves. It lies between Paringa in (and the keas as well). We didn't even Westland and Lake Ohau in Otago. see their smoke. Unfortunately this Currently designated unoccupied crown was our fifth night and supplies were land, officialdom has scarcely running low, so on New Year's Eve we bothered to manage it, let alone develop crossed the Solution Range to Toe Toe it. Fortunately those scourges of wild Flat in the Landsborough and our first places - milling, mining and tourism airdrop. seem to have passed it by. What little damage has been done can be attributed New Year's Day was blazing hot. The to meat hunters and deerstalkers, tramp- Landsborough was forded without differs and climbers - plus, of course, iculty at the north end of Creswick deer and other noxious animals. Indeed Flat and we wandered on downstream, the whole Hooker - Landsborough area is wasting time looking for the track refreshingly undeveloped. Long may it shown on maps and mentioned in Moir's remain so - sandwiched between the Guidebook. There was no need - river relatively highly developed Westland, bank travel is good all the way if you Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring National Parks, don't mind boulder hopping. Blisters State Highway 6 and the Main Divide. and the heat slowed the party down so

The party - Alan Parish, Hugh Middleton, Mark Pickering, Chris Brownie, Kathy Hindmarsh, Ian McLean, Warren Thorburn, Mike Hollis(photo) much that we spent the next two days emerge onto the Wills flats in the at Larsen Creek while the victims early afternoon after plodding up the rested. Some of us climbed up onto Park Board track from the Gates of the tops to reconnoitre a route to Haast bridge. After a swim we stagg- Upper Studholme Pass, our intended route ed on up the valley but stopped at the - but low cloud, rain and the debilitated hut to wait for the slow ones to catch state of some caused us to head down up. This they duly did around evening, river instead. Harper Bluff was so we stopped there for the night. traversed in about 1x hours, but further on Strutt Bluff looked far more for- Early next morning three set off on bidding. Besides, the river is easily what was to be a fast trip over the forded above Strutt Bluff so we crossed. Main Divide into the Hunter and then Down stream the return crossing caused back to the Wills via Wilson Pass. some anxiety but was managed without a Three more were too distressed to move rope. A rather dull four to five hour while those somewhere in between - Chris trudge across some of the largest river and I, spent a beautiful day exploring flats in the Southern Alps brought us the frozen tarns on top of the Bealey to the Burke airstrip in the Haast Range, filming seagulls and admiring Valley and our second airdrop. Chris the view (which extended from Aspiring couldn' 't have been too fussed about to Cook - both 100 km distant but in more preserved food though for me opposite directions). The intended trip chased a tiny bunny about, eventually to the Hunter was aborted when one of capturing it by throwing a jersey the party developed knee trouble, but over it and pouncing. The wretched Mike and Mark (or was it Mark and Mike?) thing was duly skinned, cooked and made a long day's journey to Wilson Pass eaten. and back instead. Not much fun hanging about in this The next two days were heavily overcast sandfly and tourist infested spot and it rained intermittently so nothing though, so after some debate of Burke of note was done (although it is reliabversus Wills, we set off on a round ly reported that certain club officials trip through the Wills. Another blazing were seen descending an overhanging hot day on top of the previous day's rock on a single rope, and Mark displayed exertions and we were glad indeed to considerable talent as a butler). Then,

Mount Hooker after snowfall/ Warren Thorburn on our final day, the clouds lifted and Those on the trip were Chris Brownie, the sun shone once more. Most of the Kathy Hindmarsh, Mike Hollis, Ian party traversed the Bealey Range back McLean, Hugh Middleton, Alan Parish to the road while the others retraced (leader), Mark Pickering and Warren their steps down the Wills gorge. Thorburn. 26 December 1977 - 9 January 1978