The Eight Days of Christmas Flat

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THE EIGHT DAYS OF CHRISTMAS FLAT otherwise known as THERE AND BACK AGAIN or "UP A PEAR TREE WITHOUT A PARTRIDGE" Harry Smith On the first day to Christmas Flat aretotraveluptheKarangaruaValleyto be if we didn't have twelve-day packs; The West Coast gave to me its head, then traverse over Mt Howitt with these on our backs every slight A raging nor' westerly and The Gladiator to Douglas Pass, uphill rise in the track takes on the feel betweentheheadsofthelandsborough of a Himalayan mountain. To make and Douglas Rivers. After spending a matters worse the weather is hot and he Karangarua road bridge, few days exploring this spectacular humid and we are pouring with sweat. Westland, December 27, 1993: area, we intend to travel down the (Okay, okay.lknowlmentionedaraging onthenorthernsideofthebridge, family Landsborough River and come out via nor' westerly above. That didn't actually groups and tourists are making final Zora Canyon, Mueller Pass, and the arrive until that night. But this is a trip preparations for their trips on the Mahitahi. report, after all, and you can't let a few Copland Track. On the southern side, a inconvenient facts stand in the way ofa separate group of trampers are We are a mixed group of Wellington good story!) anxiously testing pack weights before TrampingandMountaineeringCluband setting off on a tramp into somewhat Christchurch Tramping Club members. We arrive at Cassel Flat Hut late in the rougher country. This groupisourselves, From the Tongue and Meats are Harry afternoon, to be promptly attacked by and as we make last-minute decisions Smith and John Rhodes; from the CTC hordesofvoraciousmosquitoes, forcing about what to take and what to leave are Steve Berry, Steve Brasch, and Sue US to keep the hut door shut. The pot behind, Ican'thelpt thinking that maybe Napier Grant Wheaton, our leader, is a belly stove soon turns the place into a the Copland Track and the Welcome member of both. sauna. That night the wind gets up and Flat hot springs would be a more itbeginstor rain heavily (See?ltold lyou.) pleasant option. I quickly banish such Eventually all our preparations are Having lured US sufficiently far into the thoughts. Ahead is wilderness country complete and we are on our way. The hills to make immediate retreat to the real tramping in an area I have first day's walki is an easy stroll of a few nearest pub more difficult, the weather wantedtovisitforalongtime. Ourp plans hours to Cassel Flat. Or at least it would is now preparing to do its worst. Cassel Flat Hut Harry Smith TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING awayt thehillside, leavinganear- -vertical scar, forty metres across. Sue, who has been reading a mountaineering book clledTouchingtheVoid, immediately christens the yawning gulf ahead ofus "The Void". To cross "The Void" at the level of the trackisimpossible,sol wehauld ourselves upthehillsidet throughthel bushuntilt the angle eases off slightly. Then Sue, who has instructed in rock climbing, ambles across unconcernedly, oblivious to the plunging hundred-metre drop to the left. Grant, John, and Harry, after some hesitation, carefully pick their way after her. Thet two Steves showmorecaution, makingtl theirwayfurther upandaround the slumped top of the washout. The next problem the terrain throws at US is a set of side streams, gushing down steep, slippery rock gutters, and swollen by the rain. We carefully pick ourwayacrossthese: oneat atime, until we come to one raging torrent that seems completely uncrossable. Water is surging down a deep, rocky cleft at our feet, like a huge hydroslide. We havetofindsomewhere elset to cross SO we grovel up and down through the sopping scrub until we find a crossing pointi in apool at the base of a waterfall. We grovel back to the track, proceed a fewl hundred yards more, and come to another uncrossable torrent. The gorge, Karangarua River Harry Smith This oneis reallymean; torrentsofwater are thundering over a waterfall and surging over the usual crossing point On the second day to Shangri La: a beautiful spot, remote, below. Sprays of water fill the air, like ChristmasFlat surrounded by mountains, difficult to the stern plumes of a gigantic jetboat The West Coast gave to me access from all directions. Above Once more we grovel up and down Two waterfalls Horace-Walker Hut, a large glacial through the scrub, looking for And a raging nor' westerly meltlake at the snout of the Douglas somewhere to cross, but this time Glacier has for the last decade or SO without success. A few hundred yards The next morning it is still raining. We blocked direct access up the Douglas upstream, the torrent descends from waitaroundmostofthemorning. hoping Valley. The last Tongue and Meat trip rugged bluffs. Not far downstream, it itwill clear. The weather, unfortunately, that went this way got around this drops off into the main Karangarua hasotherp plans. Eventuallywepackup, obstacle by swimming the lake at the River. There is no way past. Lame Duck and set off up Cassel Flat in the rain. base of the surrounding cliffs. Brrrrrrr! Hut is only half an hour up valley, but it Across the river, a major tributary mayaswellbed onanother planet. There emergesoutofanevil-looking slitgorge. Aroundthenext corner, thel Karangarua is no way that we are going to get there This is the Douglas River, the head- itself tumbles down a major gorge. The this day. waters ofwhich we are planningto visit. track avoids this by climbing up onto a Travel through the gorge is impossible; prominent shoulder on the true left, Instead we do some more grovelling to avoid it, the route out of thel Douglas then sidling across very steep, bush- aroundinthepouring rain, tryingto find goes to the mere expedient of climbing covered slopes above the gorge and somewhere to camp. The track is like a over a mountain range into the next below a line of bluffs, before regaining hippopotamus wallow; off in the bush side stream down valley. Above the the river upstream of the gorge. isn't much better. Finally, after much gorge, in the flat middle section of the indecision, wet find a possible spot on a Douglas, lies Horace-Walker Hut. This Halfway across these slopes the track slight rise in thel bush. The ground here seems to have all the properties of a suddenly ceases. Ahuge slip has taken is at least semi-dry. Of course, the site TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING

Christmas Flat Hut Harry Smith isn't actually big enough to pitch even Half an hour further on we arrive at At the head of the valley, thick scrubone, let alonet two tents, butby building Lamel DuckFlat. This doesn't: seemtobe covered slopes lead up to the broad, up the sides with scrub and moss we much,moreofasmall swampy clearing low.curveofKarangaruat Saddle, on the are able to make do. With the tents than a grassy flat. The main flat: seems other side of which is the legendary finally pitched, we crawlinside, thankful tol be on the other side off the river. Lame Landsborough. The only trouble is, the finally to be warm and dry, to be out of Duck Hut itself is small and decaying, other side of the saddle is vertical - the the bucketing rain. It is then that we everythingi is rotten, andp possums have only direct route into thel Landsborough discover that the jets on both our been living inside. Compared to last from there is by parachute. The way in primuses.are blocked. night it is paradise. istot traversenorthwards: fromthesaddle, over Mt Howitt and The Gladiator, a On the third day to Cbristmas Flat Continuing on up valley we emerge 2125 metre, glacier-clad mountain. The The West Coast gave to me from the bush onto gravel flats. After weather is clagged in over Karangarua Tbree deep fords fording the river twice to avoid a bluff, Saddle and Mt Howitt and it would be then fording a major side creek, the foolish to go on in these conditions, We emerge from our sodden tent next Troyte, we discover a newly-cut track, even if we had time. Instead we spend morning to find that it is still raining. scything a wide path through the thick the afternoontracingoutpossibleroutes What a surprise! However, the force of scrub. This is too good to last, we think, from the flat to the saddle, through the the rain has at least decreased as in short time we arrive at the head of thick sub-alpine scrub. This remains a somewhat. More importantly, the roar the valley and Christmas Flat. The next matter ofdebate onddisagreementover of the creek has also diminished. few days prove US right. the next few days. Some favour a direct Carryingoutaninspection, wef findthat, assault throughthes scrub. Othersprefer whereyesterdaytherehodbeehadbeenaraging In good weather Christmas Flat would a more round-about line, up Baking forrent approximately equivalent to be a beautiful place. Three streams Oven Creek followed by a sidle across NiagaraFalls, nowithas shrunktor mere meet in a pleasant, grassy flat. On the flanks of Mt Howitt to the saddle. Huka Falls size and it is possible to either side, large mountains rise up, This route is relatively clear of scrub but paddle across aflat rock platformto the shouldering eachotheri for space. Int the looks very steep. Just how steep we are other side. So, after a breakfast of cold middlestands ChristmasFlat Hut. Thisis unsure; we are looking at itf front-on, so muesli, we pack up our tents, and, smallandpoky, withfourbunksofdeeply it may not be as bad as it appears. without regret at leaving one of the sagging canvas roughly tacked on more miserable campsites it has been wooden supports. The porchi is sagging On the fourth day to Christmas Flat my pleasure to endure, continuer on our and the chimney leaks where it abuts The West Coast gave to me way. the hut, but otherwise it is quite cosy. Four sagging bunks : TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING

We awake on our fourth day to find it raining heavily. This is beginning to get evers so slightly tiresome. Ifthered are any partridges or pear trees at Christmas Flat, wedecide, theymustbetheaquatic varieties. Therei isnoh hope ofcontinuing on in these conditions, SO we resign ourselves to a pit day. Harrybeginsre-readingt thefirst chapter of his book. It has been in his pack for months now and he has read the first chapter half a dozen times, on half a dozen different trips, but has never got beyond it. Later Steve borrows it and finishes it off in one sitting. That afternoon I look up and suddenly realise that we have company. Gary Goldsworthyis: standing there, dripping in the doorway. Talk about a small world where on earth has he come from? It turns out that he is on a Hutt Valley Tramping Club trip in the same area. Poor wretches. Over the next half hour the rest of the party of ten stagger into view. One by one we watch their faces light up ast they: see thel hut. And onet by one we watch their looks of misery return as they realise that it is already occupied and they are not going to be able to stay in it after all They gather around the door, like wretched flood victimsi in arefugee camp, and wel hear their miserable story. They have spent days in the rain grovelling up the Grant scrubbing out a musty-smelling pack Harry Smith Makawhio, the next valley down the Coast from the Karangarua, through horrendousthickscrubwithoutsomuch Itis still wet and drizzly. The Hutt Valleys Peninsula as far east of the Main as a sign of a track. Today they have have had enough. They are heading Divide (and the prevailing rain) as it's blundered their way over a pass in the out. Wecontinuetobelulledbyforecasts possible to get. How about the Sahara rain and the clag, then grovelled their ofane eventual clearancel int the weather Desert?, suggests John. Later, to raise waydowntheTroyteanduptothis spot. and decide to stay on. We all make our spirits, we belatedly celebrate the What a holiday! It sounds like they mistakes. New Year with fireworks. haven't taken their parkas off once in the entire trip. Suddenly Christmas Flat Cabin fever sets in. Grant and John On the sixth day to Christmas Flat Hut is beginning to seem very make repairs to the forty-year-old hut, The West Coast gave to me comfortable after all. propping up broken floorboards with Six bours of Scumbag carefully chosen boulders, plugging After a chat, thel Hutt Valleys squelch off leaks in the chimney with old black Still no change in the weather. John to set up a miserable camp in the least polythene, and replacing a broken introduces US to a new card game: sodden spott theycanfind. That evening supportinther porch. Harry constructsa Scumbag. This turns out to be a perfect a delegation comes over to hear the cribbage board on one of the few non- metaphor for life. Everybody is initially weatherforecaste on ourmountainradio. rotten pieces of wood he can find, the assignedasocialrank from King down More rain. They return to their camp topofoneofthehut: stools, andteaches to Scum, ondmneideuistotyloimprove looking even more downcast and Sue to play. The two Steves remain your standing. And as in real life, depressed than before. firmly ensconced in the tent out the everything is stacked in favour of those back. already at the top of the ladder and On the fifth day to Christmas Flat against those att the bottom. Whoeveris The West Coast gave to me That evening, Harry asks Grant about currently Scum has to do all the menial Five cold fronts : the tramping possibilities of Banks jobs like stoking the fire and making TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING cups of tea. Most importantly from our decide, we are heading out. last, feeling a bit like Word War II pointo ofview,nobody everc actuallywins prisoners of war must have felt as the Scumbag, andagamecangoonforever. On the seventh day to escapetunnel finallysurfacedonthefar We play continuously for six hours, Christmas Flat side of the barbed wire, we arrive back during which time I start off as Vice- The West Coast gave to me at the road. Scum, briefly attain the exalted heights Seven bours retreating of King in a sudden palace coup, and Andthaf'stheendofthetrip. The weather finishup as Peasant. It helps to passt the Next morning we pack our damp gear hasbeen disappointing, andistillhaven't time. into musty-smelling packs, and begin visited the mighty Landsborough, but the long trudge back down valley. We the people on the trip have been really Later, the Tongue and Meat contingent re-ford the Troyte which we forded on good company, and in a perverse kind discuss the possibility that Struan has the wayi in, stop for lunch at Lame Duck of wayl have quite enjoyed it all. Soon returned to the country for aholiday in Hut where we stopped for lunch on the we are back in Fox, and after a hot one of his favourite areas, the West wayin, cross (thist time without difficulty) shower, clean clothes, afewbeers, and Coast. (As an aside, Ishould perhaps thel big side streams which we crossed an excellent meal in the Cook Saddle explain fort the benefit ofnew members on the wayin, pick our way back across Cafe, we are abletot forgett tthehardships who Struan is. Struan used to be the "The Void" where we picked our way andthink back with a smile on our Eight Club'svery own rain god. Where Struan across on the wayi in, grovel back along Days to Christmas Flat: went, it rained. Don't ask me to explain the track above the gorge and below this, butinnumerable wett trampersover the bluffs which we grovelled our way the years can vouch for its veracity. along on the way in, and finally arrive On our trip to Christmas Flat Storm clouds would gather at the mere backat Cassell FlatHut, wherewe stayed The West Coast gave to us mention of Struan's name. Deserts on the way in. The mosquitoes are still Eight beers a-drinking wouldshrink before Struan'sapproach. there, waiting for victims, the pot-belly Seven bours retreating Civil Defence authorities would start stove still blasts outl heat like a furnace. Six bours of Scumbag filling sandbags as soon as Struan was After six days, nothing has changed. Five cold fronts sighted in their district. Struan left for Four sagging bunks America about halfway through last That evening we are joined by two Three deep fords year, just before those massive, students who are near the end lof aten- Two waterfalls unprecedentedfloodsweallsawonthe day trip. They have come from east of And a raging nor' westerly TVnewswerelaunchedontheinnocent, the Divide, over Broderick Pass, up the unsuspecting inhabitants of the Landsborough, and down the Douglas. Mississippi Basin. "Coincidence", Ihear Like US, they have had rain every day. EPILOGUE: you say, but any old-time Struan- Theyhawebeenheldupbys side streams watchers couldtell you better. But now, in the Landsborough and in ten days Next morning we left Foxi int the rain. We onv witht thes story. |Onoverhearing our they have never had visibility of more drove up to Franz Josef in the rain. We mention of rain gods, Steve Brasch than a few hundred yards. We admire continued on up the Coast - through suddenly becomes excited. "You don't their perserverence but it sounds like it Whataroa, Harihari, Ross - in the rain. meanStruanLitte?r1 heexclaims. Steve, hasbeenahellofatrip. Weareinterested We drove through Hokitika in the rain. itt turns out, has tramped with Struan in to learn for future reference, that there We turned right at Kumara Junction in his student days. He is able to confirm exists a high sidling route around the therain, droveupbesidetheTaramakau that some of Struan's famous tramping meltlake in the Douglas. It climbs in the rain, past Jackson's Pub in the disaster stories, improbable as theymay hundreds of metres and it crosses rain and through Otira in the rain. We sound, are actually true. exposed slabs in places, but it ground up the Otira Gorge in the rain, presumably beats swimming! and wound up the zigzag in the rain. That evening we listen carefully to the Then, as we crested the top of Arthur's forecast on theradio. All mention ofthe On the eighth day to Christmas Flat Pass, the clouds began to thin out and previouslypredicteddearrance, onwhich The West Coast gave to me disappear. Astrange, alien yellowglow we have been pinning our hopes, has Eight beers a-drinking began to filter through the murk. Blue disappeared. It's going to continue sky began to appear. Out to the east of rainingforaweek TheRouteburn Track Ourf final day. Now that we are heading thel Dividet the weather was fine, the sun has been washed out and there are out, the weather, naturally, isn't too was shining, and the sky was clear. It floods in Greymouth. We decide we bad. Until we stop for lunch that is - as gave every appearance of having been havehadenough; besides, thebeersat soon as we open our packs it starts that way for weeks. Fox are calling. Thel Landsborough and rainingoncemore. Thel Tararuabiscuits thel Douglas will haveto waitfor another and cheese are hastily shoved back My heart sank. Right, that does it! Next year. Thenextr morning, weunanimously inside and we continue on our way. At year it's Banks Peninsula! TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING