No place for a mine

No place for a mine

Christmas trips had hardly been completed when the club headed right into the heart of the

South Island with an Anniversary Weekend fult of trips in the Victoria Forest Park.

The Fit trip offered a west to east crossing of the victoria Range, l?"fl ;:l:1 iU 4;r:.,' :: :S $': . 4 a i:*: 5 4Fi \?.14..' A relic near the Caledonian mine ur Friday night journey was a long one, finally winding up a rough side road between Inangahua and Reefton to a hay barn. It was 1.30am and the flies were rapidly put up and a few moments later the chorus of snoring started.

No chance of a sleep-in either as the biting sandflies provided the alarm clock. There was a farm track to begin with, but this began to tizzle and then a reasonable track led us alongside the Awarau (Larry) River through to the

Caledonian Mine. An old shaft was visible and a relic or two remained from the heyday of West Coast mining'

The beech forest was open and the going was easy but weweresoon forced to cross the river. The valley became more of agorge andthebush-bashingbecame more intense, as we noticed the Medium group heading up the river'

Worried we may be overtaken, we joined the river journey and found the travel easier going.

The black beech provides a haven for the wasps in the early months of the year. Unfortunately the northwest part of the South Island seems to have more than the odd patch of black beech, as Stuart and I found out. A few stings later and wewere on our waY again.

Grant Newton departing close to where Macraes hope to mine'

Soon after lunch we anived at the junction with Farmer

Creek and began our haul up the ridge in search of the tops. The travel was not difficult, but the gain in altitude was significant. Upon reaching the tops, the cloud that had shrouded the valley in the morning had cleared away and the views were great. After making some repairs to

Sfuart's injured ankle we were soon looking for a campsite amongst the tops.

We found a beautiful spot in a basin on the Victoria

Range, but as the sun had sunk, the evening air was very chilly, especially for January. We ate our dinner with the usual vigour, but the most pleasant surprise was the dessert'

Jonathan whipped out a huge bag of fruit and proceeded to make a fresh fruit salad. Now, the rare occasions when one is lucky enough to have fruit salad on a tramp is when somebody has hauled in a tin of Watties fruit salad' Not this time - the fruit salad was real, comprising of fresh nectarines, peaches, apricots and other wonderful fresh fruits. He then topped things off with chocolate custard. I wonder if this dessert will ever be beaten on a tramp?

Our sleeping bags were useful in the chilly air, but alas, from the other fly came Andrew's voice, "l've lost another

Trampi ng and Mountaineering 2001 /2002 feather from my sleeping bag". The cynical response echoed back _ "you must now be down to three feathers remaining". I had been surprised how even Mr Minimalist. Andrew Mclellan, had managed to use a daypack for a 3-day trip.

The fine weather of the Safurdav afternoon had disappea.ed as we awoke on Sunday morning and the mist swirled in the wind as we forced down breakfast and hauled in the flies. We set off along the tops of the Victoria Range turning south-east to reach Mt Pelion (1502m) and veering east to the main section of the range as itruns north-south. We proceeded in a southerly direction; the weather was more miserable andthe misthad now become rain. Over Mt Victoria. the high point in the range at 1639m and south towards Mt Ralnh (1543m) we travelled.

Prior to Mt Ralph, our toughest challenge of the trip lay before us, especially for a hopeless rock climber like myself. There is a sudden notch in the ridge at this point as I seemed to hang precariously from the rock by shaking fingertips and toes. But alas I made it through as four patient trampers (and infinitely better rock climbers) waited.

From Mt Ralph we descended onto the large flat boggy expanse of [^amy Saddle where we proceeded to huddle around a map and attempt to work out the route down to Wheel Creek. We split apart to peer over the edge of the saddle, regrouped, re-looked and then decided, ,,bugger it", this looks rough enough!

Shortly after leaving the saddle, the going got easy and we picked our route down to the 4-bunk Wheel Creek Hut, complete with intentions book dating back20 years - and the early pages were still in use! The shelter that the hut provided was most welcome for five wet trampers, though the bunks made from tree branches were decidedly uncomfortable! This time it was Eric who produced a great dessert.

. We awoke on day 3 to a mostly cloudy morning with the odd patch of blue sky, and urrv" "-".gld from the hut the conditions back on the tops looked wild with high winds lashing the ridgeline we had hoped to traverse. We chose the low-level valley route instead. Now Fit trips, and in particular, Andrew Mclellan Fit trips do not normally take a va-lley when the possibility of a long hard day on thl tops is offered. Maybe he was showing he is human; mavbe.

Tramping and Mountaineering 20Ol /2002

. ,-r.,: r&fi ' " lF-. i*-:: l ': Y""" * ';b #€ just maybe, he was weary after a Christmas trip. But not long after committing to the valley route the clouds disappeared, the wind dropped and wL were bush_bashing in a valley on a stunning hot summer's dav!

The grassy flats where we emerged from the bush were hot and the crossing of the Maruia River was a welcome relief to cool off in, although the wander across farm paddocks was hardly tramping _ was it not? We emerged onto the road and slouched in the available shade to wait for the bus.

The group was Andrew McLellan (leader), Jo McKenzie, Jonathan Kaye, Eric Blumhardt and Granit Newton.