Arawhata Memories

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Arawhata Memories John Rhodes When a fellow reaches a certain age, it gets important to him to put away for his old age. The prospect of a rest home and a wheelchair seems imminent. He looks at what he has in store and it's not enough. He needs more memories. hen a fellow makes a phone call or two and looks on the true right as far as the middle flats. Then we at some maps and buys a plane ticket and orders crossed and sidled high on thel left through unpleasant new boots and dusts off the food drier and gets scrub, to get past a cataract. out his pack. And he says to himself, well I may or may Delete "unpleasant". It's unnecessary. In the not enjoy this probably not as it's bound to rain Arawhata, unpleasantness is inherent in the concept but a trip in the Arawhata will help the memory situa- "scrub". High sidling in the Arawhata involves close, tion. Unless I get drowned, that is. Memories won't be continuous contact between trampers and scrub. The much use ifl get drowned. Take a chance on that. Maybe travel is slow, awkward, arduous, difficult, painful, and it won't rain SO much. Maybe I won't get drowned or frustrating. It frays the temper. Thus it was with relief fall off anything. Maybe the new boots will be comfort- and gratitude that we emerged on Williamson Flat, where able. Maybe we'll get to the Ice Plateau. Maybe. the mighty raging Joe joins the mighty raging Arawhata. So a fellow found himself in Wanaka in December Here at last we could walk without tripping stumbling with Grant, Sue, two Alans, two Peters, Max, Harry and or getting ensnared by vines and branches. The memory Mr Ted, a Taiwanese bear. The Christchurch contingent of walking in the ordinary way at Williamson Flati is vivid unfurled T-shirts with Olivine Icel Plateau Expedition '97even more vivid than that of crossing the Joe. Ordi- '98 on them. That seemed to a fellow like overweening narily, crossing the Joe would have struck terror into a optimism and probably the end of any Ice Plateau pros- fellow's heart. But you see there had been no rain. We pects. But we set off up the Matukituki anyway. werei in the Arawhata and there had been no rain. Then the beginning of the rain. A gentle beginning. Illness had struck some of the party SO a recuperation When rain has ten days to achieve its mischief no tri- day was declared. In hindsight this may have been the umphant massing ofl black clouds, no dramatic opening final undoing of our Ice Plateau aspirations, already jeopoft the sky, no abrupt drenching downpour is necessary. ardised byi ill-considered T-shirt wearing. Ten-day rain starts mistily. The mountaintops are seen Williamson Flat must be the only place in these iswith less clarity. Drizzle dampens one's shirt. One wipes lands where one has to oneself several square kilomeone's glasses and carries on. There is no need for par- tres of grass, abundant wood and water, beech forest kas or worries about river levels.. All that is yet to come. and views of snowy peaks. A day at Williamson Flat with Next morning the view of Arawhata Saddle from Liv- nothing to do but take photographs, read, eat, play friserpool Bivvy was hidden by cloud waiting to pounce. bee, wash, walk on flat ground without a pack, and sleep 1991 memory told of a tricky rock band a few hundred such a dayi is to be treasured in memory. Especially if feet below the saddle. We had veered right to avoid it, the sun is shining. As it was! Funny, that. climbing a gully that became nastily steep at the top Did we have a sneaky feeling of unease? A feeling and almost turned us back. This time the rock was COv- that a more enterprising party might, on such a day as ered with snow, which went all the way to the saddle. this, have been up there among the peaks? And that We went straight up, climbing a face that became nas- they might have been recording great alpine deeds on tily steep at the top and almost.. no, there was no turn- little rectangles of coloured celluloid? But this was beingl back. We popped onto the saddle like penguins onto fore the complete downfall of our plans. At Williamson an ice floe. The cloud had lifted enough to lure us into Flat there still fluttered in our breasts some hope that the Arawhata. Snowy peaks lay all around and it was within a few days we should indeed create celluloid reclunchtime. A fellow could enjoy this if he were to let tangles of crevasses and icefalls and snowy tent camps; himself go. And the sun was shining! and thati these rectangles would on winter nights in 1998 Better remember, a fellow said to himself, the inspire awe in viewers back in Wellington and Timaru Arawhata has the potential to be unpleasant. 1991 and Greytown and Gisborne and Christchurch. memory told of a direct descent through scrub to the New Year's Eve would be incomplete without the Arawhata bivy rock against Moir's advice and at great memory of a bonfire beside the Joe, and more particuexpense in blood and time. So today we went by the larly of Harry's fireworks display. Not that the fireworks book, skirting the scrub-edge upvalley till we came to a were of themselves memorable. Harry's New Year firerocky stream-way that led down to the main Arawhata. works are an annual event. They mayl be depended upon Here the riveri is a youthful stripling with little hint of its to be both unremarkable and unmemorable. Even so, downstream might and power. Or ofi its ability to drown. an enduring memory remains. It is of Harry's ferocious Of the next day, memory is vague; except that for enthusiasm for his fireworks, his perennial disappointsome unaccountable reason the rain held off. We stayed ment at their poor quality, his tenacious insistence that Tramping and Mountaineering 1998

Morning, Williamson Flat campsite John Rhodes the entire party stay up to hail the arrival of 1 January, trampers of what life was like before the invention of and his vocal disgust that they refuse (annually) to hu- Hell. Pleasant glades alternate with open beech forest mour him beyond 11pm. Yes, it's Harry's enthusiasm, on easy terraces. This lasts about an hour for trampers disappointment, insistence and disgust that deserve to who have the sense to go slowly. Then they find thembe cherished in memory. selves back in a hellish gymnasium of logs, scrub and The stretch of Arawhata between the Joe and the boulders. But the map showed a little way upstream, in Williamson is decorated with boulders the size of gar- a bend in the river, a flat treeless area. Every tramper den sheds, garages and seaside baches. It's a kind of knows that an area shown on the map as flat and treewarm-upt for Ten Hour Gorge. Ten Hour Gorge was hang- less will turn out to be grassy, delightful and altogether ing over us like the sword of Damocles. Only Grant and suitable for camping. Harry had been through it before. "Been through", we Sorry, not in the Williamson. A rock avalanche at some were given to understand, was a suitable choice ofwords. not too distant time had come ripping down Topsey Ten Hour Gorge was promoted as the ultimate chal- Creek on the other side of the Williamson. The reality lenge for any Olivines tramper. If we were to believe represented by the clear area on the map was four hec- Grant, Ten Hour Gorge would be a lot oft fun. Ifwe were tares of rock debris and splintered logs in a hummocky to believe Harry, Ten Hour Gorge would be unspeak- layer some tens of metres thick. We named it, once we ably horrible. We were inclined to believe Harry. But had overcome our initial shock, "The Devastation". We we did not worry about Ten Hour Gorge because upper- cleared a campsite, drank brews of mica and felspar mosti in our minds was thel Ice Plateau. Andi in the mean- from the grey, rushing Williamson, and listened to the time we had a chance on New Year's Day to preview a forecast. Still no rain! milder, beginner's version of the dreaded gorge on our From The Devastation to Andy Flat is quite a short way to the Williamson junction. distance on the map. Moir said itwould take five hours. Stay among the boulders close to the river until This was clearly an overestimate. Half that time should obliged to up, said Grant. We did, and we were. And do it, we said. we got to her flats at the Williamson junction for lunch The journey to Andy Flat is now a blur. Let it remain at 3.00 pm in degrees of jadedness. Never mind, we SO. Resist any temptation to enhance the memory of told ourselves, only Real Men (and the occasional Real that spine-numbing, skin-removing, clothes-tearing, Woman and Real Bear) get to the Ice Plateau by this oath-inducing climb. The trip to Andy Flat is not in any route. We expected to suffer, didn't we? way enjoyable. And Moir's estimatei is right. We climbed, The lower part of the Williamson Valley is quite out crossed a couple of streams, and set a sidling course. of character with the rest of the Arawhata country. It is We sidled until Andy Flat could be seen below then as though the Creator, in a playful moment, made a small launched ourselves at it and swam down through the edition of the Garden of Eden as a reminder to passing scrub. This involved much more effort than can be con- Tramping and Mountaineering 1998 jured up by the mere description of it months later. But your memory and the only way to measure time is to the experience served to explain one mystery: you rarely watch the dampness creeping up from the toe of your meet anyone who has been to Andy Flat. We now un- sleeping bag like a mediaeval water clock. derstood why. In mid afternoon the rain eased. Harry observed from Andy Flat on that hot afternoon had all the allure of a the security ofl his pit that if we wanted to reach Trinity five-star hotel. The possibility of further pack carrying Col the thing to do was move off at once and camp near went unmentioned. We lay in the shade and called for the rock bridge over the Williamson. This suggestion Tararua biscuits, cheese and salami. Afterwards we slept, quickly conjured upi in nine imaginations the thought of went for gentle exploratory walks, and pondered the five hours in wet scrub and it received little support. route to the Ice Plateau. High above us to the left of the Nonetheless Harry was, as So often, right. Andy Icefall, could be seen the foot of the snow couloir Next morning the rain eased. Drapes and veils of mist on which our hopes were pinned. The forecast prom- hung about the mountains. These soon lifted and parted ised yet another dry day. Then at last there would be until we could see almost up to the couloir where we rain. The Arawhata country, now we had penetrated its had ventured however many days ago. We moved downremotest fastnesses, was to show its true colours. valley to the Williamson-Arawhata confluence. At full caucus was held. Calculations of remaining food The main perceived goals and hurdles of our trip had versus terrain to be covered versus the meteorological been, from the outset, the Ice Plateau and Ten Hour outlook led to the conclusion that we should attempt Gorge. But now that we had abandoned hope for the only a day trip to the Plateau. So next day we went up. Plateau and were homeward bound, another obstacle We went not by the official Moir route, which looked became for us a major and dispiriting preoccupation. scratchy and horrible, but via the ice-smoothed rock We had known of it all along but it had seemed minor dam that separates Lake Williamson from Andy Flat. We a bridge that we would cross when we got to it. We lunched near the foot of the couloir. It looked a goer. A had now got to it and there was no bridge. It was the few hundred feet up, the snow had washed out and a crossing of the Williamson River. scramble upa waterfall was called for A short way above In its last 300m the Williamson has no huge boulders this a much bigger washout barred the way. Peter or rapids. Freed momentarily from the mountains, it takes climbed steep rock and snowgrass to the right, taking a a straight course through the flats. The river tears along rope. There he stood, puzzled, while nobody followed. its channel at a reckless pace like the bulls at Pamplona We were all hoping someone would say, perhaps iti isn't in their last street before the ring and with as much all that important to get to the Ice Plateau today. Then determination to take human life. Ift the Williamson is to someone said, perhaps it isn't all that important to get drown a tramper in its own right before it becomes an to the Ice Plateau today. Somehow, the fire had gone anonymous contribution to the flow of Big Brother out of our bellies. We went back to Andy Flat, this time Arawhata, it must do it now. by the official Moir route. It was scratchy and horrible. We surveyed the river. We put tin markers, made camp There followed a wet day! Wet days are an important and cooked our dinner. For a while not much was said. reason why one goes on Christmas trips with Grant Then someone asked what technique will we use to cross Wheaton. On this Wheaton trip we had thus far been the river in the morning. Someone else was heard to sadly deprived of wet days. Now we had a chance to say a helicopter would be pretty good. Preferably all the catch up. On a wet day one stays in one's pit and sleeps way to Haast. We discussed techniques other than heliand reads and hurls abuse at the occupants of other copters. It was generally agreed that we could expect to tents and ignores abuse from them and receives grate- be swept away. The river was grey, mean, hungry, and fully whatever morsels of food one is allowed and lays very fast. When you threw a rock into it the rock immebets on how long Harry can go without a pee and lis- diately disappeared without trace beneath the greasy, tens to Grant saying, Harry, you're doing permanent ir- swirling water and you had premonitions of what all reversible damage to your bladder These are the things those malicious cumecs had in store for you. one does on wet days on a Wheaton trip. Oh, and one Grant said, when you go in there tomorrow morning dreads one's own necessary excursions to the outside you'll have to be committed. (And So should anyone world and finds, when one goes at last, that it is every who goes in there, a fellow thought to himself gloombit as bad as one feared and that to keep one's paper ily.) Just be committed, went on Grant, and stay linked dry is impossible. That's the worst thing on Wheaton together and when the river sweeps you off your feet trips, the wet paper. It ought to be taught on special keep running. Run like mad and every So often somepre-Wheaton mountaincraft courses how to keep your one's boot might touch a rock and give you a bit more paper dry in the rain. Anyone thinking of going on a impetus towards the other side. Andi lifyou get over there, Wheaton trip should attend such a course. remember to get your cameras out and take a photo of None of these wet day activities is memorable except the other group getting swept away and running like in the general way that you remember things that you've mad. We talked quite a bit about this running thing and done at length and repeatedly without enthusiasm. At Grant was SO sure it would work that a fellow began to the end of the first wet day on a Wheaton trip, you can't have a tiny bit of confidence in it. That's leadership, that remember much about it. At the end of three or four is, sending people in front of you running through a ragwet days, you lose count of how many wet days there ing river in implicit faith and trust all the way to a wahave been. A wringing mass of wet days lies soddenly in tery grave. Yes, that's leadership. And charisma too. Tramping and Mountaineering 1998

Andy Flat on a hot afternoon Harry. Smith We were up at dawn. The irony was, for this our last you stay alive. Nobory should be afraid of rivers like the day on earth, that the sky was clear and the first light Williamson. was touching the peaks back up the valley with pale We walked along McArthur Flat with the sun just startgold and Harry was on the prowl with his camera. What's ing to warm the valley and vapour rising from the beaches the point, Harry? That film is on its way to the biggest and the light just rignt for stunning photos which, in developing tank it's ever likely to see. view of our continued existence, it was worthwhile to We ate our last meal and packed and walked over to take. At McArthur Flat the Arawhata moves along in a the river, which had dropped five centimetres. Five cen- languid kind of way like a river that has done with mountimetres off the Williamson is like the five cents they tains and has only to keep going like this a bit more to take off a thirty dollar pair of trousers to make them reach the sea. Then at the end of the flats it changes its twenty-nine ninety-five. It makes no difference. mind. It's as though the river looks at the map and no- Grant sent Harry and me and Alan and Sue in first. It tices toits surprise thati iti is still nearly 300 metres above says. a lot for a fellow's regard for his leader at times like sea level and decides that something must be done. this that he follows such an order without question. Also Something is. At the end of McArthur Flat the at times like this, something comes over a fellow's esti- Arawhata disappears down the plughole of Ten Hour mation of Harry. Harryi is tall and his tare weight is about Gorge, with everything that metaphor implies. Ite emerges 100 kilograms. Having a river-crossing companion with 2% kilometres away at just 90 metres above the sea, a such properties counts for a lot to a fellow whoi is in fear height that the most self-respecting river can lose quite for his life. At such times a fellow will happilyrate Harry gently when it still has 30 kilometres to go. Getting down in the Top Echelon of First Grade Trampers and Thor- the plughole and drainpipe of the Arawhata was to be oughly Good Blokes. Or for that matter, in any echelon our occupation for the rest of the day. of Harry's choice. For best effect Ten Hour Gorge should be travelled in Contrary to expectations, we crossed the Williamson. pouring rain. Reports from normally reliable sources It was disappointing, in a cold and wet sort of way. We indicate that in pouring rain, Ten Hour Gorge is a poxy did not get swept away. Harry stumbled but the hell-hole. It has been awarded World Poxy Hell-Hole Williamson was not strong enough to sweep us away status by the celebrated hell-hole specialist H. Smith in and we came out the other side. We got our cameras his often-quoted paper "Poxy Hell-Holes I Have Been out to take photos of Grant and the others as they crossed In". But on this dayt the sun shone in a cloudless sky and in the carefree knowledge that the Williamson, on this Ten Hour Gorge seemed like a picnic for bears and particular morning was not in a drowning mood. The trampers. At least that's how we approached it. We over- Williamson is not such a big river, you know. It's all in a came its obstacles quietly and methodically and one at day's work crossing rivers like the Williamson with Grant a time in a way that said to Ten Hour Gorge: we know Wheaton to tell you what to do and wait behind to see if that Grant and Harry have done this and so have quite a Tramping and Mountaineering 1998

Ten Hour Gorge: starting phase 2 John Rhodes few other people and they've all lived through it and so more photos and lay on rocks in the sunshine and said shall we, especially as we've just been to Andy Flat and loudly, isn'tt this a poxy hell-hole, whenever we thought lived through that. We also think you should know we've Harry was in earshot. And then we went down the rest crossed the Williamson an hour ago and moreover we're of Ten Hour Gorge. alive to prove it. We're on our way to the Haast pub and About four in the afternoon we got to thel last bend in no mere South Westland gorge is going to stop us. the gorge where you can look past beetling cliffs and Of course Harry had got us SO thoroughly psyched rushing water and see river flats 500 metres away. This up for Ten Hour Gorge that no matter what it threw at was Harry's last despairing chance to impress on us the us, wer would have taken iti in our stride. Harryl had made poxiness of Ten Hour Gorge. From here to those flats, us fully expect to come out at the end off the dayl bruised said Harry, takes 174 hours of hell-hole bashing. We got and torn and exhausted beyond human endurance. As it there in three-quarters of an hour without really trying. happened, we came out at the end of the day bruised There was even a track of sorts at the end. We had got and torn and a bit tired, but our tiredness was within down all 2% kilometres of Ten Hour Gorge in 7% hours human endurance. In retrospect Ten Hour Gorge was to including lunch. We heard no more about poxy hellseem quite easy. holes from Harry after that. Before we could turn around and ask Harry, what's There wasn't much more to it. We ate a double pudall this about a poxy hell-hole, Harry? we found our- ding and swatted countless sandflies and radioed for selves at Halfway Creek. It wasn'te even lunchtime. While thej jet boat and made a collective decision to bring the we paused for scrog and photos Harry reminded us that trip to a close before the trip report should become SO this wasn't really halfway and that the part of Ten Hour long as to be unpublishable. It's one thing to spend nine Gorge that lay ahead was ever SO much longer and harder days having an interesting or exhausting or even poxy than the part we had done, and implication if we time on a Wheaton trip in the Arawhata, but quite ancould get down it then we should be Real Men and other to bari expect people to spend nine days reading about Women and Bears like Harry. But you could tell that he it. It's time to stop this trip, we agreed, before the next had lost some of the conviction. Harry was beginning to page break. wonder if he had misremembered Ten Hour Gorge. Yes, said Harry, stop it now. But be aware it wasn't We went on a bit, around and over and under quite a the whole trip. We did the beginning and the end of the few more boulders. The larger boulders in Ten Hour trip but not the middle, said Harry. This trip was like a Gorge are about the size of houses but none that we sandwich without the filling, he said. saw had doors, or windows with flower boxes, or smil- Harry was right, of course. But never mind. We had ing ladies coming out with scones and cups of tea for Harry's fireworks on New Year's Eve. We'll remember passing trampers. So we, stopped for lunch and took your fireworks on New Year's Eve, Harry. Tramping and Mountaineering 1998