Hackett Stream to Pelorus River

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Hackett Stream to Pelorus River Rosie Jorgensen The weekend before Easter Jill The river was a wel- Dickinson andlwaved farewell come sight and after a to Bob Dickinson (ex-T&M) at scrambly sidle to the Hackett Bridge on a cloudy but other- bridge and an equally wise fine day, and set off towards Roe- scrambly exit from it, buck Hut. Eight o'clock in the morn- we were at Roebuck ing wasn'ta bad start for me, although Hut. The first job was a it's usually my cup of tea in bed time. wash in the river, ac- We strolled along the well-worn path companied by screams to the Miner waterfall, but this time and yells at the cold. Jill turned towards Browning Hut. said the noise polluted the atmosphere, but it It was quite an interesting walk up the was wonderful and most creek and around a recent slip where refreshing. Dinner was we met a hunter (about our own age preceded by sips of fior a bit younger!) who said he thought ery liquid, and oysters Browning Hut was in a mess. We told on biscuits. What him we were only stopping there for luxury. We had a side lunch and going on to Roebuck Hut. salad with both dinners, He looked a bit startled and said, served on a billy lid. "Well, don't waste too much time, you'll need to get moving. " Oops, we The tuis and bellbirds thought, have we bitten off more than had us awake reasonwe can chew? Of course not! Women ably early, so we set off can do anything, we told ourselves in good time. There A steep descent Jill Dickinson confidently. were two swingbridges to cross this time-the We had a nice lunch stop by the creek approaches to all these are the most was very chatty, the other very quiet, at Browning Hut, accompanied by a difficult I have ever come across. so they were a compatible pair, think. brew. We saw another lone hunter, who said "sorry" and disappeared. We stopped for lunch by a lovely It wasn't such a comfortable night- They were the only people we saw all stream which we thought was about the DOC guys were trying to rid the day. an hour from Middy Hut, only to find hut of rats, but instead of succumbing my map was, not of a large scale, and to poison, they played in the roof all A stiffish climb saw us on the saddle the hut was not even marked on it. night. And the quiet chap snored! an hour later, and we sidled into a gully. The bush was interesting but We came to the next stream an hour Morning arrived, another muggy day. after another houri it became quite dif- later and I was wondering if severe The DOC guys, who were also on their ferent. We made our way on a rough depression might get the better of us. way out, said it was about 2-3 hours' sidle for some time and the area We fought it off bravely, however, and walk to the roadend-we took over 5, looked as though it had been hit by arrived at Middy Hut around 2.30pm. but of course there was a lot of plant landslides. It was quite desolate and It was extremely hot and another swim life to look at. We saw a lot more of the bush rather sparse, although there was the order of the day. the river this day, which is deep emwas a fenced area which had a lot erald green and so beautiful. About half more vegetation. It was obvious that About 3.30pm we set off for Captain an hour before we reached the roadthis area had been badly damaged by Creek, hoping that the next two hours end it started to rain a little; nothing grazing animals. wouldn'tturn into four, and shortly af- much until we got to the road, then it terwards we met four young lads on poured down! We donned coats and After another couple of hours we de- their way to climb Mt Richmond. We walked down the road to keep warm. scended a ridge which was easier-go- chatted to them for a while and were ing and the bush more pleasant, be- quite glad they hadn't come by Middy Graham arrived pretty well on time to fore dropping very steeply down to the Hut and spoilt our swim. collect us, buti if he'd been half an hour river. In spite of winching ourselves earlier, he would have saved us from downhill, complete with walking sticks Once again, there was a very steep getting drenched. At home he had a (it's the knees and hips, you know), I descent to the next swingbridge about stew on for us all, and Bob joined us still managed to sport a black toenail 15 minutes from the hut. A couple of after his day at work (we forgot other which can be attributed to this de- DOCchaps were in residence, renew- people had been working), and So scent. ing the netting on the bridges. One ended a very happy three days. 3 TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996