Índex per August 2021 a Wilderness

TRACK BUILDING has come a long way since I was a child, mostly, I think, for the better. I didn’t always think that way. I remember walking the track to Cathedral Cove when it seemed no one else knew about the amazing Coromandel beach. It was a horrible, exhausting track. But the reward of a deserted beach, with a waterfall to shower beneath made it an exciting adventure. By contrast, when I first walked the modern concrete path the trail has since become, the trip no longer sparked joy; the sense of adventure was lost (sharing the trail with hundreds of others didn’t help, either). Until a few years ago, I used to mourn that loss of adventure but the truth is the old track could not handle the volume…

NESTLED AGAINST the beech forest, Larrikin Creek Hut is dwarfed by the towering, striated bluffs of the Haystack, on the edge of Kahurangi’s Thousand Acres Plateau. It looks across to the bluff-encircled Hundred Acre Plateau, known variously as the Devil’s Dining Table, Devil’s Napkin or Mount Misery Plateau. These fascinating plateaux are considered to be New Zealand’s oldest landforms, and they possess a charm matched by few other places in the backcountry. It’s rolling tussock lands, edged by scrolls of beech forest and the occasional solitary stunted tree looking like a scene from a Chinese painting. This is limestone country, punctuated by potholes, dissected by cascading creeks, and ringed by bluffs. The calcium-rich substrate feeds soils that support more than 430 species of alpine plants. Small tarns surround miniature turf…

LEAVING FROM the Waitonga Falls car park on Ohakune Mountain Road, the track climbs gently through beech forest to the junction with the Old Blyth Track. Here, the trail continues east, opening out at the top of the first climb into tussock grass and Rotokawa. In mid-winter, this small tarn could be frozen solid. The track then descends back into the trees to curve around the hillside towards Waitonga Falls, which can be viewed from the track. The trail crosses Mangateitei Stream to junction with the Round the Mountain Track. Take the left-branching Blyth Hut Track on a steady climb along a spur for one-kilometre to Lupton Hut, a basic eight-bunker. There’s a stream crossing just before the hut and a couple afterwards, but they’re not problematic. Lupton is just…

THE MATAIHUKA WALKWAY is part of the Raumati Escarpment Reserve, which the Kāpiti Coast District Council acquired as part of the consent process for a nearby property development. The reserve contains a significant remnant of coastal forest, as well as grassland and scrub, and was the site of a pā in the 1850s. It towers over former wetlands and coastal sand dunes that once contained navigable inland waterways; it is recorded that waka could once be paddled between Raumati and Paekakariki. The first section of the track zigzags through regenerating native bush up to the edge of the escarpment, emerging onto a small clearing where a sidetrack leads, on a one minute detour, to the June Rowland Lookout, a small knoll, which offers the first of many inspiring views. June…

Project Rameka is one big carbon sink revolving around native forest restoration and walking and biking recreation. Since it began in 2008, with Bronwen Wall and her partner Jonathan Kennett purchasing an overgrown 46ha block in Golden Bay’s Rameka Valley, 14,000 tonnes of carbon has been sequestered and the area has become an amazing community project and recreation resource. With massive native replanting and weed and pest control in place, birdsong has returned. In 2015, crowdfunding added an adjoining 45ha block to the estate. It was while developing this second block that an exciting discovery was made: the lower, long overgrown section of Rameka Track was found among the bush. Back in the 1890s, the Government funded a bridle track (which would become known as Rameka Track) through the Takaka…

The mantras ‘bikes wreck tracks’ and ‘walkers don’t feel safe sharing with bikes’ are often heard on dual-use tracks. “Old tracks built for walking weren’t designed to handle bikes braking and skidding into corners and causing surface and water damage,” explains track designer Hamish Seaton. “Purpose-built dual-use tracks are made in a way that people don’t have to haul on the brakes and the water is well managed, and it definitely cuts down maintenance requirements.” Safety factors can also be designed into the trail, he says. “The main things to think about are your sightlines, so we try to avoid leading into a sharp corner where you can’t see someone coming the other way.” There are other, more subtle, things track designers can do. “If there does have to be…

If you can’t control a slip and end up in a slide, you’ll have to try to self-arrest. Here’s how: Get your head uphill: You can’t execute an arrest while upside down. This also ensures your head is protected – even a minor head knock may stop you from arresting. Try to stop quickly: The quicker you can get your pick into the snow, the better your chance of stopping the slide and avoiding injury. Bunch your body and be aggressive. When stopped, ensure your security: Statistics show that people don’t survive a second slide after initially stopping. Before removing the pick from the snow, ensure you can get security with your feet by kicking steps aggressively. Practise: When skill training, select a slope that slides (30 to 35-degrees). Check…

Mary Drenth hails from the Netherlands and moved to New Zealand in 2017 to walk Te Araroa Trail. She’s currently a ‘manager in training’ at Auckland independent outdoor retailer Living Simply where she is discovering everything there is to know about gear. “When I need to replace my gear, or want to treat myself, I prioritise lightweight, durability and colour. “I bought my gear in Europe when my partner and I were preparing for Te Araroa and most of it is still in my pack because it works so well.” COOKING No freeze-dried meals for me. I got hooked on cold soaking (oats, couscous, peas, noodles) but still carry an Optimus stove to make a hot cuppa at the end of the day. CLOTHING I love tramping in shorts, no…

ERICKA O’SHEA’S eligibility came through the day she broke her ankle. As a volunteer for the Bream Head Conservation Trust, she and her husband were staking out trap lines in the claustrophobic foliage of Te Whara Track near Whangarei, when she heard a jarring crack. MEMBERSHIP TO THE HAAST CLUB ALSO OFFERS A SILVER LINING FOR WHAT IS OFTEN A TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE “I was walking on a benign part of the track, and I put my foot on some tree roots with leaves over them. My right foot slipped, and I buckled down over my left foot,” O’Shea says. The sound was like a snapping twig, but the shock travelled through her body. “At first I kept my composure and went through what I thought could be wrong,” she says.…

LOU’S LOOKOUT is a blink-and-you’llmiss-it roadside gem about 9km from the Aniwaniwa Visitor Centre. Named after long-serving local policeman Lou Dolman, the track was constructed in the 1960s, yet remains largely under the radar. If you’re driving towards Onepoto Landing, you’ll spot the unostentatious trailhead 500m past gorgeous Rosie Bay, with a small parking shoulder on the right. It doesn’t look much from the road but trust me, it’s the best short walk at Lake Waikaremoana. The track quickly climbs around 120m through rugged native bush, punctuated by Punakaiki-esque limestone formations and caves. Steps provide welcome traction for much of the climb, which is short, steep and never uninteresting, but elsewhere it can be muddy, so decent shoes are recommended. After 15-20min, the bush opens out to reveal a railed…

MACLENNAN HUT (curiously spelt McLennan on topo maps) sits in the middle of a lush pocket of bush and is a hidden jewel of the Catlins Conservation Park. Access is via the Thisbe Valley Track which comes off Cairn Road. There are no signs at the trail-head, making the start of the track difficult to find. However, it begins on a farm track that leads towards the forest where at the forest’s edge a trio of biodiversity bivouacs sit mysteriously, unmarked on the DOC website but open for public use. The fence-line beside these bivs marks the boundary into the conservation park. From there, the track enters the rainforest and meanders beneath the canopy as tea-coloured streams bubble their way towards the sea. Aside from the main track that follows…

THE ROBERTS POINT TRACK, like many on the West Coast, is loaded with points of historical interest. One such feature is Hen-de’s Hut, an old hut about 90 minutes into the trip. The track was the first built in the Waiho Valley and is named after the chief surveyor and commissioner of crown lands for the Westland District. It was used to gain access to Franz Josef Glacier at the head of the valley as part of the area’s budding guiding industry. The track starts from Lake Wombat Track car park, 1.4km from the road end and crosses the Waiho River by a large suspension bridge (Douglas Bridge). The trail is well-formed and within 30 minutes there’s an impressive bluff just before Arch Creek. This is bypassed by a very…

The thing about being up so high on Taranaki Mounga is that it’s very difficult to have a decent rest break. No matter how comfortable you try to make yourself, the gradient means anything not nailed to the mountain will simply slide off, including you. You don’t sit so much as lean into the mountain. In doing so you’re able to – with some difficulty and care – extract the essentials from your pack. In my case, this was a two-way radio. My mission was the summit, but to get there would mean leaving the relatively stable footing of loose rock (and I do mean relatively) and traversing an expanse of ice guarding the entrance to the crater. I had to make a decision: cross the ice and risk slipping…

TRAMPING WITH A TODDLER  After reading the amazing achievement of the Gerlach family ‘Holding on to trail life’ (July 2021), I felt motivated to share our recent experience of completing our first overnight hike with two children aged seven months and 30 months. I’ve read tips on how to successfully tramp with babies and school-age children; but is there a 101 on the art of an overnight hike with a toddler? Here is what we learnt: •Compartmentalise your daily toddler snacks into snack pouches for each day. Having a snack pouch handy in my pack’s waist pocket made for a quickly accessible distraction when tramping to Te Rereatukahia Hut. •Sometimes a cracker with cheese doesn’t quite cut the mustard. That’s when bribery with a once-daily ‘sweet treat’ gets you over…

AT THE SOUTHERNMOST point of the Waitakere Ranges, Whatipu stands guard over the entrance to Manukau Harbour. With vast black sand dunes, a sizable wetland, impressive caves and staggering headlands, it’s about as rugged and isolated as it gets in Auckland. Until recently, the kauri die-back rahui had closed the track. Thankfully, Auckland Council has redeveloped the trail to include boardwalks and better drainage to make it less muddy and it is now open again. From the car park at Whatipu, the track begins unambiguously, aiming first towards the beach, before hairpinning to the left with no clear signage. A kauri dieback station marks the beginning of a decent climb, so take your time scrubbing those boots – it will be the last breather you get for a while. The…

THOUGH HANMER SPRINGS is nestled in an alpine basin at about 350m above sea level, surrounded by peaks sometimes soaring more than a vertical kilometre higher, as the name suggests, it’s best known for its hot springs. But, when conditions permit, within easy reach of the township, by car, bike or foot, is a fine selection of alpine trails. The most accessible option offering superb views of the Han-mer Basin is the network of trails leading to Mt Isobel, which in winter conditions can often be fully snow-clad. In a day, it’s feasible to do a return circuit on foot, following the Mt Isobel Track to the summit. However, this requires a 1000m height gain and for those with children or questionable fitness, an alternative option is to drive up…

Wild Westland on a fine day, or two or three, is just too hard to pass up. It was just such fine weather that tempted three of us over the divide one fine weekend to sample an array of the treats that only the west can offer to keen trampers. Treats like magnificent valley scenery, lush bush, high huts, and open trackless tops where the mind and body can wander at will, seeking routes between the ridges. The Taramakau River was our entry point, at Aickens just north of Otira. The river offers a broad easy avenue of bouldery riverbed, interspersed with grassy river terraces and tongues of forest descending in an unbroken green wave from high steep ridge tops. As the weather had been dry for a week or…

One night in April this year, in Pororari Hut, someone complained about bugs in the toilets. The warden said no worries, he’d blast them away with his leaf blower. Leaf blower? It’s for track maintenance, he laughed. It’s true. DOC’s Mark Nelson confirms that a leaf blower is one of the most important tools for maintaining the Paparoa Track. “If you have leaf litter on the track and water runs across, it can create a little dam, then the water starts to wash out the track. So in the long term, using the leaf blower saves the maintenance crews a huge amount of work. “It represents the changing face of the technology of track building and maintenance.”…

Strong muscles in your feet, ankle and lower leg help you keep your balance and to react when you lose it. But good balance also requires good proprioception – an awareness of your body in the physical space around you. It’s this awareness that helps you move confidently through the bush without having to look at every detail before you move. These exercises build strength and proprioception. They start simple and get more complex. For each, you can stretch your arms out to the sides or rest your hands on your hips to help your balance. Or stand near a wall or sturdy chair to steady your balance. If you have ankle or foot injuries, try these exercises with shoes on first. To challenge yourself, try them in bare feet.…

The North Face Dryzzle FutureLight $450 / 340g (m), 300g (w) Features: Made from three-layer air-permeable Futurelight fabric using recycled polyester on the outer, this shell is a step up in terms of durability, waterproofness and breathability on the previous 2.5-layer iteration of the jacket. It has a fully adjustable hood and a full-length double stormflap protecting the zipper. Hand pockets are protected by stormflaps but the chest pocket has a water-resistant zipper. A one-handed drawcord pulls the hem tight. 5/5 Fit: Described as a standard fit, medium is true to size offering good length in the arms and a below-the-waist length. I found the jacket tended to bunch up around the chest and stomach which made it feel bulky and gave an unflattering profile. But it does offer excellent…

Rab Microlight Alpine $399.95 Used by: Editor Alistair Hall Used for: Three months Wearing a down insulated jacket is one of my favourite things about winter. There’s nothing quite like sinking into its warm embrace on a cold evening in the mountains. I’ve been using a Rab Microlight for the past few years, but that jacket has one major flaw: it’s hoodless. In more recent times, I’ve come to appreciate the extra warmth and versatility a hood offers. Mainly for that reason, this year I opted for the Microlight Alpine (466g). But my reason for upgrading wasn’t only about the hood. The latest iteration of the jacket has 700-fill power hydrophobic goose down, meaning it can handle wet and damp conditions much better than my old jacket. This jacket is…