Tramping the Paparoas

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TRAMPING THE PAPAROAS Owen Cox The trip had a slow start. First Brian and With its stunted beech cover this section I had funded the toll lines between would be horrendous. Getting around the Rotorua and Wellington for the best part lake on the north side involved a couple of of a month and then Air Nelson left my deep wades. During one of these Alistair pack in a shed in Wellington airport. It managed to get his neck wet. Some cloud took three hours before we managed to get had come in so we were getting a little any real sense out of Air Nelson, their anxious about our next campsite as our Buller agent was as evasive as it is planned spot was on the tops south of possible to be and in the end we had to Lavoisier. talk to Nelson. As a result we lost half a day waiting while the pack caught us up. After some discussion, made worse by the We spent the first night at Buller horrible looking scrub on the climb back to Adventure Tours, by the road, instead of the ridge, it was decided that we would go at Bucklands Hut. Fortunately, we part way up, through the worst of the arranged an early ride to the start of the scrub. As it turned out it wasn't too bad track, saving a couple of hours walk. and we ended up camping early, just under the ridge at a brilliant spot that had The spur up onto Bucklands Peaks was been used before. By now the wekas were done without too much pain. A brief stop squawking and we had worked out that at the hut and then we continued on to the holes in soft ground, about 1 cm have lunch by some tarns at the top in across, that we had been seeing were perfect weather. From the top, we could made by wekas. The cloud added to the see the broken ridge stretching away to evening by elearing slowly. the south. Our aim was to get at least as far as Faraday as Brian and I had come Next morning we sidled around Lavoisier north along the range to Faraday on a and back onto the ridge. We struck some previous trip. We could see that the trip scrub bashing here, first Brian and I went covered some rough country and would be too high which Alistair seemed to enjoy, difficult in poor visibility. As the and then (to our delight) he went too high heavyweight on the trip my resolve to and we had to wait. From here the only sidle, rather than climb or abseil the problems were bands of stunted beech dodgey bits was strengthened by Alistair which we were soon out of as we climbed telling us that our "climbing" rope cost towards Euclid. Above Morgan tarn we him $15. After lunch we went along the had great views ofthe Alps with Cook and ridge and had an interesting half hour Tasman standing out directly in line with dropping through the bluffs on the south the Paparoas. We sidled from here around face of the Buckland peaks. The rest of under the bluffs on the coast side of the the day was spent travelling to a camp on ridge. This led to an impressive hanging the tops just south of the junction to basin under some huge cliffs. Needle. There were no tarns on this stretch so it was thirsty work, especially after the mornings climb. The campsite was also dry, so Brian and Alistair made a long trip down to fetch water. From this campsite the travel was good to Kelvin and the hanging valley at the head of Tailings Creek. Don Millwood was helicoptered out of Tailings Creek in 1987 after his mishap, and over lunch it was easy to see why he had such an epic. After lunch we dropped into the basin 150 m below to avoid a bluffed section of ridge. Bri ian Hunt

We lunched next to the basins after Spirits were flagging so a quick drink stop splashing in the lake. From here we was had before the last bit of the ridge, naively thought we could wander across which was up through some fiercesome the slabs to the next high point on the scrub. We spent a few minutes picking ridge. We soon found that the bluff below our route down into the head of the south the basin angled back to the ridge not far branch of Atbara Creek. Despite a steep from our lunch spot so our route had a big start the going was very open and we soon dogs leg. Still the views were worth it. arrived at the headwater flats where we Once we had regained the ridge it was camped. straight forward to our campsite in a swampy basin under Rutherford. Next morning we faced some scrub bashing before emerging onto the tussock From here we made good progress over in around an hour. Our intended route the Three Sisters. During a short sidle we over Einstein would have dropped us into startled a small weka that had taken the same band of scrub so we probably did refuge under a leatherwood. We knew not lose too much time through our Einstein, our next peak, had an almost detour. The climb over the ridge near vertical section of ridge on the south side Mendel was soon over and we then so we picked a route under it to the east dropped to the alpine lake in the cirque to from the map contours. The view from the the south. From here we climbed and north showed a broad bench on the north sidled back onto the ridge, which gave no east side which should have joined this problems until Curie. We knew Curie was other bench. We cockily dropped onto this badly bluffed to the south, so following the and stopped by a tarn for lunch. A quick route of the University party a few years reccee before lunch showed that the map before we dropped down the ridge to the was wrong, no broad bench - just a dirty west and then down through bluffs and great bluff. I guess that cartographers scrub into the creek under Faraday. Not have off days too. much blood was lost on this stretch despite a large scrape on Brian's thigh. Lunch was followed by a climb through We had a late lunch at the bottom. The some interesting steep bits. We then climb up was easier than expected and we dropped packs and climbed over the top arrived at the lake on Faraday before our and dropped down to the first steep pitch. normal stopping time. We spent the rest This was declared to be too dodgey with ofthe afternoon taking in the views. large packs so we had to backtrack to the bench and followed this back to the ridge. Despite the next morning being fine we decided not to push our luck with the weather. We had 6 fine days behind and having reached Faraday it was time to drop off the tops. First we climbed to the top for the views. The top gave us some great views and a few moments fun terrorising some of the local goats. The drop into the Nile River was through some very eaten out forest. We lunched in the river bed before following this down to the low-lying country nearer the coast. A quick climb out of the river took us through some logged forest. This involved the normal bash through the scrub, logs and lawyer that logging leaves behind. Here they had also left a few pines and eucalypts among the remaining natives. We were at the top end of the logging so missed the road. It was a relief to break out ofthis thicket and regain virgin forest. Bri ian Hunt

By now the time was getting on so we did By the time we hit the coast it was raining not waste much time once we hit a small steadily. A few quick enquiries and we creek heading south. When this turned up found Muriel and Bill's place at towards the main range we carried on by Woodpecker Bay. Iknew Muriel from her compass through increasingly swampy days in the Parawai Tramping Club and forest to the low saddle into the Fox river. had seen, in the FMC Bulletin, that they We dropped off one spur too early and had accommodation available for after some fun on mudstone slabs ended trampers. This turned out to be a up in a muddy little creek. Brian likened tramping style sleepout which we were it to tramping in a Wellington sewer, I'll thankful for. take his work for it - though I must check where his Thursday night runs take him. We ended the trip with a walk on the We arrived at the main Fox River around beach and a ride to Westport with Buller our normal camping time. As we raced Adventure Tours. Then it was into down the river to the Ball Room Overhang another small plane to Wellington, this the stars came out. We reached it just as time I loaded and unloaded my pack, and the light totally failed. We scratched then on to home. around in the dark lighting a fire and pitted out around this. The trip members were Alastair Booth, Brian Hunt and Owen Cox. Brian Hunt We woke to a grey: morning with light rain outside of the overhang. Alistair was the Brian Hunt source of some wonder as he finished off the last of a two and a half metre roll of tape patching his feet, he even had to cut some tape lengthwise to cover the problems. We set off down valley towards the road in rain that got steadily heavier. We paused to explore the caves half way down the limestone canyon. The torches were not very bright but the caves are not difficult and the limestone formations are quite something. Unfortunately, some cretins have written on the cave walls with candles and taken some stalactites in a few places. SB