Takitimu and Eyre Mountains

Text taken from the club newsletter.

TAKITIMU AND EYRE MOUNTAINS

A Winter’s Tale by TONY GAZLEY

Top left: Slow going in the deep snow on the Princhester Track at the start of Day 1.

Middle left: Heading down the Waterloo Burn towards Beckett’s Hut.

Bottom left: Travel in the tussock on the banks of the Waterloo Burn was awkward and slow. So we just walked down the river crossing it many times. It was cold but at least the walking was easy.

Waterloo Burn

Waterloo Burn

The cosy Aparima Hut at the junction of the Aparima River and the Waterloo Burn

Heading up the Aparima River valley on a perfect day

Aparima Forks Hut. This was our coldest night and it took a long time to get a fire going and warm the hut enough to melt the snow on the roof. But in the morning everything was frozen solid again. We decided that with the amount of snow in the bush getting further up the river and climbing onto the tops was just not possible so we turned back down the way we had already come, then headed into the Eyre Mountains

Mt Bee Huts

Mt Bee Ridge

On our last two days we traversed along the easy track north of Mt Bee and then dropped down a spur to Cromel Stream. We camped for the last night in the bush by the stream then next morning climbed over the range back to the car at Irthing Road. Although we had not done our planned trip because of the deep snow we had enjoyed some wonderful scenery in areas not often visited by North Island trampers. The happy trampers were: Illona Keenan, Megan Sety and Tony Gazley.

The way we were

Bush-bashing up the Waiatoto Valley on the way to the Bonar Glacier, East Matukituki, West Matukituki, Arawhata Saddle, Joe River, O’Leary Pass, and Dart River. Christmas/ New Year

1968 - 1969.