An Olivines Xmas (we wished!)

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An Olivines Christmas (we wished!) Matthew Grainger ight o'clock, Boxing to the Olivine Ice Plateau. Day, 1995. While From here, across the Ice most sane people Plateau, down to Mcwere still safely tucked up Arthur Flat, then down the in bed sleeping off the ex- Arawhata River via Tencesses of Christmas Day, Hour Gorge, to be picked five people huddled in the up by "Hook the Crook" Christchurch Airport car- (or similar West Coast jet park, trying desperately to boat icon), and out to the cram four huge packs into pub at Haast, glowing the boot of a Nissan Bluefrom a successful trip bird. They were unsuccessthrough the spectacular ful. Alas, thel long hot drive Olivine Wilderness Area. to Glenorchy turned out to Unfortunately, Huey had be something of an epic, other plans. high-speed game of sardines, with five people and The first night in the rock a pack crammed inside the bivvy was a dark, stormy cockpit of this flying maexperience, with thunder, chine, and Andrew's lightning, torrential rain brother, "Flight Cadet" and strong winds whistling David McLellan, at the conthrough the valley. Shane, trols. Needless to say, itwas ever the resourceful engia relieved bunch of trampneer, kept his legs dry by ers who climbed, weary but using a cantilever arrangeunscathed, out of the cocka ment, resting his feet on a pit at the entrance to Mt Asrock, an island in the piring National Park. stream thatwas now flow- - ing through our campsite. After the inevitable reshuffle I woke up at 2am to find of gear, Andrew McLellan, that our packs were: sitting Shane Connolly, Stuart in about a foot of water. Palmer and I stumbled off The worst casualty was my up the Lake Sylvan track, loo paper, which was groaning under the weight drenched. We were also of our 12-day packs. On ar- Mt Earnslaw and Pluto Peak Matthew Grainger running out of room, due rival at Rock Burn Hut, we to ther raging torrent flowwere treated to a traditional South Is- tread through the rain the next day, ing through the bivvy. To make more land welcome by Mr and Mrs Sandfly heading for thel Beans Burn rock bivvy. room, Andrew and Stuart moved out and their clan. We were to get tol know The track up thel Beans Burn provided at first light, and found a dry area just them well over the next ten days. easy travel, and l'm sure the scenery off the luxury suite (probably the would have been spectacular if we broom cupboard). The Rock Burn is a very scenic river, could have seen it through the murk. with great views of Mt Earnslaw and But really, it is a beautiful valley, With no chance of getting over Fohn surrounds. Apparently there's a spec- though we were glad to arrive at the Saddle until the weather cleared, we tacular gorge just upstream from the comparative shelter of the rock bivvy. had no option but to stay puta and wait. hut-well worth a look if you're try- Unfortunately, the luxury upstairs suite After two nights in the rock bivvy, with ing to escape the hordes in Queen- was taken, so we settled for the spa- no chance of the weather improving stown for the day. With a nasty front cious, but rather more ventilatedi llower for at least another day, we were rundue to arrive any moment, we: settled suite, complete with "comfortable" ning out of time to complete our into the hut for the night, after taking tussock grass mattress. There was a planned trip, and scuttled off back precautions against the resident mice, slight puddle at one end, but that was down the Beans Burn, tails between who didn't seem very scared of us quickly drained with the help of an ice our legs. It began to snow as we left. North Island townie folk. We obviously axe. didn't smell enough yet. When we reached the mouth of the The plan from here was to climb over Beans Burn, there was quite a crowd Sure enough, the front arrived over- Fohn Saddle, drop down into the Oli- gathered-eight people on each side night, but we strode with determined vine Valley, then up thel Forgotten River off the river, all stranded due to thel high TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996 river levels. Luckily, one of the groups flagged down a passing jet boat. The benevolent jet boat driver dumped his paying passengers on the shore, and ferried all the stranded trampers across the river. We got dropped off on the other side of the Dart River, where we found a great campsite under the trees. It wasn't even raining on that side of the river! Unfortunately, our options from here were: severely limited, and we decided to head for Cascade Saddle, and then possibly down to the Matukituki and up to the Bonar Glacier. The next day dawned fine, and we strolled up the Dart Track, having lunch at Daleys Flat Hut, where we dried some gear in Dart Glacier Matthew Grainger the sunshine. We camped that night at Cattle Flat. We were amazed that there were actually cattle settled on Mt Liverpool, and set off Shane stayed behind to set up the tent. there, in the middle of a national park! with our best Mersey accents for this We spent quite some time up there, epic climb. It was actually more of a as it was well above the sandfly zone, New Year's 's Eve was also fine, and we plod than a climb, but at least we got which Andrew estimated to be around were beginning to wish we were in to use the ice axe and crampons we 840m. From here we sussed out the the Olivines, rather thanavoiding cOw had carried all this way. The afternoon route over Arawhata Saddle as a pospats and tourists on the Dart Track. was spent lazing in the sunshine back sible option for future trips through the Dart Hut was swarming with tourists, at the campsite. Olivines, and read Harry's Arawhata and had an amazing ablution block, horror stories in the logbook. with three flush toilets complete with The next day we dropped down to the rimu trim. It also gave me the oppor- Matukituki Valley, meeting Norman Rain set in overnight, SO a day trip up tunity to trade in my "wet wipes" for Clarkson (an ex-Tongue and Meat) on to the Bonar didn'tappeal as much as a dry roll of toilet paper. the way. This was tourist country, and a pit day. After lying around for a few we were entertained by a German hours a pit day didn't appeal either, The walk up the Dart that afternoon woman shrieking and squirming be- so we took a stroll back down to Aswas a scorcher, with the intense sun cause of the sandflies. "I hate zees piring Hut to laugh at the tourists and reflecting off the schist underfoot inzects!" Aspiring Hut was more like read the National Geographics. (rock, that is; no COWS up here). Our a youth hostel, complete with a ripcampsite at Cascade Saddle was amaz- off shop, selling bottles of Pepsi and The weather the next day was still crap, ing; on a flat bench by a small stream, the like. We were also pleasantly sur- so we decided to head out, rather than and looking straight across to Mt As- prised to find a "free food" cupboard, spend another day in the tent. We piring. Watching the colours of the which we happily raided, scoring a kilo played petanque at the roadend while sunset on Mt Aspiring was magic. ofs sultanas, a 750g block of cheese and we waited around trying to hitch a ride Adolf Andrew decided it was compul- a 400gjar of peanut butter. By this time out to Wanaka. We eventually got a sory to stay up till midnight to see in Stuart's tendons were playing up, so ride with a South Canterbury sheep the New Year. We managed to keep he decided to head out to the road- farmer: another sardine ride with 6 awake by reciting Billy Connolly and end, wherel he managed to score a ride people, 4 packs and a dog in the Ben Elton comedy routines, and play- back to Christchurch with some climb- farmer's Landcruiser. And so began the ing cards. ers we had met at thel hut. Meanwhile, epic journey back to Wellington... Sherpa C, Andy Mac and Matty G New Year's Day was a cracker, and headed up the Matukituki to Shovel While we didn'treally achieve the wil- Shane, Andrew andl decided to climb Flat, where we feasted on sultana, derness tramp we were hoping for, it one of the surrounding peaks, while cheese and peanut butter sandwiches. wasstill great fun, and has onlyheight- Stuart stayed behind to guard our gear ened my desire to get into the Olivfrom keas and to rest his sore. Achilles That afternoon, Andrew and Iwent up ines some day. All it needs is some tendons. After much deliberation, we to check out Liverpool Bivvy, while good weather! TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996