Craigieburn Cruising

Hello all!

It has been a tense time the last few weeks trying to find summer work and studying for exams. Everything has gone pretty well; I felt good about the exams and I have sussed out some work. The work  is a summer research position with the University looking at cable tensions in forestry machinery. The rigs we'll be looking at will likely be cable yarder and steep-terrain harvester stabilisation wires. There's not a lot known about the working loads of the wires, or how safe the rigs are, so it should be pretty interesting. It's also gunna lend itself well to my final year research project - two birds with one stone.

As a blow out post-exams Jack, Harry (two of the other fore-eng boys) and I decided to go out for a blast in the bush for a couple of days. We went around the Cass River - Lagoon Saddle 'loop'.

Track in green - 10km grids

After having watched the ABs crush the Aussies early Sunday morning, we boosted out to the track, arriving at 10:00 and aiming to reach Hamilton hut (the lowest hut on the map - we were traveling clockwise from the SH73 carpark) by 5:30. Briefly after starting out we came across a couple of hunters walking out, who skipped pleasantries to give us firm instructions to not mention the rugby results. Obliging, we carried on up the Cass River to the first saddle, which was mostly straight forward.The goat track going down the other side was a completely different story, reaching a joint-destroying 45°+ gradient in places. Hamilton hut was definitely a welcome sight that evening.

[Sorry for the poor image quality - Blogger compresses everything heaps - here's a link to all of my photos: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwK4TshkOvhJSjNJZEpEMnBFZlk&usp=sharing].

Harry and Jack - Cass lower reaches

Nice fall close to Cass Saddle hut

Looking back down Cass River valley from the saddle

Hamilton Hut

After gorging ourselves on Harry's mean B&E pie, we set off on the longer of the two days; again we left the hut at 10:00 (pretty late, I realise) and were hoping to get back to the car before sunset - around 7:30. The first stop was only half an hour climb from the hut, up a ridge at Mirror Tarn.

Mirror Tarn in near-perfect stillness

This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. Initially disturbed, the tarn calmed for a minute, giving us this incredible reflection! We were very lucky to get this view - a real privilege. The view back down off the ridge overlooking Hamilton River was also pretty cool.

Hamilton River (not the Waikato!)

Continuing up the Harper River we eventually came to the West Harper hut - a real character of a hut with canvas bunks and raw log frame construction, built in 1957. We had initially considered walking through to stay here overnight - perhaps it was better that we didn't...

West Harper tea break

To be fair, it did have a pretty mint swimming hole out the front, though I quickly decided against a dip when my hand nearly fell off filling the drink bottles - pure spring snow-melt!

More riverbed navigation and beech-bashing eventually took us past the Lagoon Saddle A-frame shelter up to the saddle itself, giving superb views of the Waimakariri river and surrounding mountains, as well as the nearby tarns which gave the saddle its name. 

Looking over the Waimak - this picture does it no justice.

From here unfortunately it was a slow boggy grind down to the road end. This left the issue of getting to the car which was parked another ~12km away. I strapped my running shoes on, ditched the pack and got going. Perhaps unsurprisingly, nobody was particularly keen on picking up a tall dreaded guy going for a jog through Arthur's Pass on a Monday evening. I eventually got the car and drove back to the lads.

It was definitely a tough track, mainly just due to the length. If anyone is considering doing it- take two cars if at all possible 'cause that last patch on the road is pretty tough, and kinda sketchy at points. So yeah, that's about all for that tramp!



Oh yeah, Pondy caught a beast brown in the Selwyn River on a night trip we went on recently:

That was pretty awesome - an uncharacteristically successful trip :P


I think that's about all I have to say. Looking forward to the summer!


Cheers for reading

Russell.

Playing Catch Up!

Hello!

As you may have noticed, I've been bloody slack on the blog front. This isn't due to lack of adventures, so I'll do my best to recap the last few months (wow, it really HAS been that long). Here's the highlights reel:

In May Pondy, Becky and I went for a typical FishSoc style outing to the Waimakariri river mouth; beautiful conditions and a nice view, but no fish!

Looking over towards Banks Peninsula (south)

The local sailing club

I often have to remind myself that there's a good reason they call it fishing rather than catching. Though it's hard to be upset after spending a day chilling on the riverbank on a sunny autumn day. 

Early June Scott and I cruised out to Akaroa. I'm still surprised that I hadn't been out there before then! The township itself is fairly touristy, but quite nice none the less. We wasted little time before heading up the hills for a better view. It was a ripper of a day, with a stiff breeze keeping us on our toes at the ridgeline.

Looking over the township

'Stiff Breeze'

Looking over the harbor. We climbed to the edge of the hill on the left

 The walk up got the lungs burning, which were cooled quickly by a munch on some stale old snow over the back of the ridge. Just what the doctor ordered! All complaints were soon put to rest with that stunner of a view.

July brought the snow - in a big way. This inevitably clashes hard with uni work, but it would be rude not to take advantage of a fresh 1.5m base at your doorstep! Needless to say we were up there shredding the gnar before you could say "C's get degrees". Jack, Ryan, Clarence (Courtney) and I cruised up to Porters a couple of days in a row for a good session. Bluebird skies and improving conditions over the two days made for excellent times, despite being a tad gusty on the first day.

The drive through Arthurs Pass

Jack and Ryan at the top of the T-bar lifts (second day)

This is a 360 panorama of the view from the top. View in full resolution if possible!

Drama ensued when Jack's car's front tyre was punctured one a rock on the first day up. Being a front wheel drive car, two tyres needed to be changed. Normally this wouldn't have been a big deal, but the 130km/h (81mph for you American folk :P ) gusting winds in the carpark made things tricky. Gloves and teatowels were amongst the casualties, being blown off a bluff into the snow-making reservoir. The second day was much more mild and we managed to make it up to the top for some stunner views! Bloody beautiful mate.

Later in the month came a uni break. I took full advantage and hooked up with the Canterbury Uni Tramping Club for a four day foray in the Lewis Pass area. Below is the link to all of the photos I have access to from the trip (beware the partial nudity!):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2UZ2FzyLdrXOFE3OFc5N0hmMGc

And here's a link to the DOC website with track and hut descriptions, for those interested:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/stjameswalkway

I met with six members of the tramping club: Matt, Mitchell, Stephanie, Michelle, Susanne, and Zeynab. All of us except Matt walked the full length of the loop, except Matt who walked back out on the first night, as planned. 

Me, Stephanie, Michelle, Susanne, Zeynab, Mitchell and Matt at the start of the track

Despite the relatively flat terrain, the days were often long hard slogs - from memory I think the shortest day we had was six hours long.

The first day was mainly through beech forest valleys with mossy-rocked streams. On the second day the terrain opened up a bit into sparse beech and tussock land. Snow on the second night / third day kept us on our toes- luckily it was only 30cm deep over the pass, so progress wasn't slowed too badly. Making our way through the Anne pass, I was amazed at how quickly the novelty of snow-laden beech trees wore off. Plugging foot holes and bashing beech branches takes its toll; safe to say we were all pretty happy to get to the hut that night.

With the drama out of the way it was a relatively easy walk out to the carpark on the fourth day. It was a sad goodbye back in Christchurch - it's amazing how well you get to know people after spending four challenging days out in the backcountry with them! No doubt we'll tee up another adventure in future.

A couple of days later Pondy and I made the annual pilgrimage out to lake Coleridge for a fish. Coleridge is a big spawning spot for trout and salmon in the winter months, so it's a fairly regular haunt for a keen few. Last visit here none of us had waders - which doesn't sound like to much of a biggie - but when the lake has been topped up with snow-melt for the last few weeks, it's less than tropical on the old legs. This time we were fully prepared; waders, spinner rods, fly rods, nymphs, streamers, you name it we had it.

Geoffrey in his natural habitat

Back-cast snags for days!

Unfortunately this didn't translate into catching fish! (can you see a common thread emerging from our fishing excursions?) The conditions were a bit gusty initially but things calmed down as the day progressed and we traveled further around the lake, which made for a nice day in any case.

Towards the end of July Scott, Jack and I cruised down to Wanaka for a couple of days up Cardrona ski field. The fields down south are easily my favourites in New Zealand from what I've boarded. Cardrona has mean wide open bowls, with easy transfer points across the faces into other bowls. It gives you a lot of variety in your runs - heaps of fun! Unfortunately I wasn't very onto it with the photography on this trip, so one cloudy view from the top is all I can show! This is looking out the back of the field, with the main faces behind me.

We had a wicked time. A big thanks to Pearl and her flatties for putting us up for a couple of nights!

That's all of the adventures I have pictures for! Recently - last Wednesday - Scott and I did a local walk up to the summit of Mt Oxford (1360m, ish) which was cool - plenty of snow up near the summit.


I'm currently back home in Hamilton catching up with friends and family, which is well overdue. You can take the boy out of the Waikato, but you can't take the Waikato out of the boy!


Thank you for reading, sorry it was so long!




- Russell.

Long Live FishSoc

Hi all!

The uni semester has started with a bang! Through O-week there were a couple of clubs days on campus which all of the FishSoc exec were really helpful with- we've got a great team. We smashed our goal of 50 members, managing to reach 113 members by the end of the clubs days and having a few more stragglers emailing us for sign ups, leaving us at about 117 members currently.

The crew. Other exec members helped too.

We have just started the ball rolling with event organisation for a flat BBQ next weekend (21st March). We were relieved to find that we don't need a liquor license for an event on private property, just so long as we don't actively advertise that we'll have alcohol on site. Needless to say there will be some very strong implication by word of mouth on the subject.

The next official event after the BBQ will be a trip down to Twizel to fish the canals at the end of the term break. Exciting times on the FishSoc front; unfortunately not so on the study front.

Week four(?) and I'm up to my eyeballs in Matlab and ArcGIS assignments- I get the feeling I should stop typing this and start typing some code. Regardless I'm managing to find time to have fun. On Thursday night I went to a concert with Nero headlining, which was mean fun. We've also recently had Adam and Bosley's joint 21st here at the flat, at which three yardies were consumed- one of them was impromptu. We had more 'mm' of spew on the lawn that night than we have had rain in the last month. The lawn will never be the same again.

Mum and Dad are arriving in town today, which is exciting. Haven't seen them since mid January.

Anyway, that's pretty much it! Cheers for reading.


Russell.

Dreadful Blog Post

Hi all!

I've been pretty flat out the last few weeks with various bits and pieces. A lot of us are gearing up for the Canterbury Uni clubs days which run on the 18th, 25th and 26th Feb. FishSoc is going strong and things are starting to come together just in time! For the uninitiated, FishSoc is the Canterbury Uni fishing club which we started up halfway through last year. This year we're aiming for 50 members. On the way for clubs day we have printed T-shirts, NZ Fish & Game info pamphlets on all of the Canterbury fishing areas and regulations, and maybe some didymo algaecide sprays etc for the people who sign up on the day.

Sick design by Becky!

I've also been on a tramp with a few blokes from the tramping club from around Cass on Arthur's Pass up to Hawdon hut, which was pretty sweet. The trip leader, Tim, brought along a mean card game which kept us busy. No trout to be had in the river we were following up unfortunately- I had brought my fly fishing gear along in case of an emergency. It was a good opportunity to get used to my new GPS though. We didn't even get lost once... how boring. Might leave it at home next time :P Here's a link to the photos that Tim took:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5Q8iu0V25nDQlUyU2FoQW9Yd0U&usp=sharing

Also, I've just got my dreads put in! Bloody stoked. Leiarne hooked me up with some sweet beads and a headband thing too. I haven't had a good chance to take any good quality pictures yet, so here's a webcam one to give you the gist:

The only other noteworthy thing I can think of is that I've moved into the new flat. It's pretty mean. I've actually got room for all of my furniture this year! I only have four major bits of furniture, but that was far too much space to ask of my past abode. A definite upgrade!

Oh, and I'll be going for another tramp this Saturday- 8 hours up Andrews stream to Casey Hut- actually pretty bloody close to the last tramp I went on. I'll hopefully be heading out with my mate Zane.



Stay excellent and party on.

Russell.

Round Ruapehu

G'day! A bit of a long one for ya this time, sorry :)

I've just come back to Hamilton after a six day stint in the Tongariro national park walking around Mt Ruapehu. It's a stunning walk through a dynamic landscape, changing from dense beech forest, to alpine scrub, to desert in no time at all. The quality of the track also varies widely! As you may expect, closer to the small mountain townships the track is a boardwalk highway, however it quickly degrades to muddy ruts and scree scrambles around in the backcountry- much more fun!

A link to the topo map of the area for you to follow along: http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap?v=2&ll=-39.27215,175.590314&z=12
(I started at Whakapapa Village, heading anti-clockwise around Ruapehu.)

I set out from Whakapapa village with Mum and Dad on Sunday the 4th where we had an easy walk through bush, bog and across a river into Whakapapaiti hut. All going well so far.

Photos from this leg:

Grasshoppers everywhere

The second day brought more of a challenge. This leg was posted at an estimated 5.5 hours, which would have been fine, however we took a bit longer -- 10 hours. Mum's boots decided to fall to bits part way through the first leg, so emergency insulation tape repairs were made the previous day, which actually worked pretty well. We all soldiered on through what was, by far, the worst part of track on the circuit which consisted of; bog, washed out ruts, a healthy portion of valley-bashing, and steep downhill rock scrambles. Needless to say we were wrapped to see the Mangaturuturu (previously Whanganui Tramping Club) hut at the end of the day.

We met a group of a couple with two kids that lived just around the corner from us in Hamilton, which was cool. There were also a few French fellas as well as a bloke from Cambridge called Arndt with his two kids James and Christina (highschool age) who were going around the mountain with the same timing and in the same direction as we were, so it turned out that I saw them at each hut from then on, but not along the track during the day.

Photos from this leg:

Mt. Egmont in the background, can't see its white top in this photo.

First view of Ngauruhoe over the ridge

Lake Surprise- a large shallow tarn before Mangaturuturu

Mangaturuturu valley- Cascade falls at the far end.

Waterfall close to the hut.

The next day it was decided that Mum and Dad would abort the full trip and walk out the Ohakune mountain road to get everything sorted out. I was to continue around the mountain and they would walk in from Whakapapa to meet me at the final stop- the Waihohonu hut. This left me to continue by myself for a few days. 

Today's leg involved climbing up out of the Mangaturuturu valley via the side of an AMAZING set of waterfalls called the Cascades, then walking down a couple of km of the Ohakune mt road to the next section of track which lead onward to Mangaehuehu hut. 

My photos of the falls don't do them any justice (my photos don't do any of this park justice- you have to experience it for yourself). They were awesome though. The rock was completely stripped back to the lava flow formation and was coloured a light grey colour, presumably from the minerals in the water. The water was absolutely crystal clear (as with all of the snowmelt streams around the mountain) and pooled at points down the steep rock face. After climbing up out of the valley I hooned down the road for a bit to have a look at a waterfall and some mean swimming holes (to be re-visited), then hitchhiked the last section down to the start of the track. I continued along the initially highway-like track through beech forest and scrubland through to Mangaehuehu hut, with great views of Ruapehu along the open bog/scrub sections.

At the hut I met a hard case group of five Aucklanders coming the other way around the mountain as a part of a mountain skills certification task. I also met another couple from Hamilton here, Steve and Liz, whose son was recently arts captain at Hamilton Boys' Highschool- my old school. Later on a German guy turned up with an extremely light pack. He had walked 11 hours to this hut from Whakapapa village in ONE day, armed with the bare essentials; a sleeping bag, one hut pass, and a lunch box packed chocca with muesli bars. He planned to walk out in 14 hours the next day starting at sunrise, completing the round the mountain trip in two days. Complete nut case, but bloody good on him.

Photos from this leg:

Cascades- track goes up the rocks to the left of the falls, then crosses.

Cascades pools

Random stream swimming hole- Ohakune Mt rd side.

For the winter tourists.

Scroggin  -> Chocolate bar

I had heard a lot about the next hut from the fullas coming the other way. Rangipo is a pretty rugged hut situated in the middle of a particularly harsh exposed desert section around to the south-east of the mountain. After half-an-hour of walking out of Mangaehuehu I popped out of the full-on beech forest into barren pumice desert terrain. The contrast was stark. The barren landscape made for fast pace- the only interruptions being the occasional spring snowmelt river valley. One such valley was more like a gorge (the Aucklanders had called it the 'grand canyon'), with extremely steep descent and ascent tracks along scree scrambles. After bashing my way through that it was a comparatively relaxed meander through to the Rangipo hut. 

Once I'd reached the hut and had a breather an American bloke came over going the opposite way to me. He was a hard case- long dreads, long beard, wearing jeans. Told me he hadn't lived in any one place for over 9 years. No bank account, no phone, nothing but what he was carrying around in his pack and the little he had in his car. Could tell he loves every minute of it too- a true free spirit! He took off, planning to tent further on. Later, Arndt and co arrived, followed by a family from Palmerston North.

Photos from this leg:

Desert begins

The only plants that grow here have pretty flowers

'The Grand Canyon'. Can't quite see the swingbridge down the bottom. 

Alpine butterflies! Their wings flash an iridescent pinky colour. 

Looking up the gorge- swingbridge in the mid-ground.

The 'track' up the other side.

Looking back up towards the hut

The next morning- sunrise @5:40am

Daytime panorama above the hut

Sunrise panorama, similar spot

Day 5 was a relatively easy one, with most of the track being downhill over desert. Towards the end there was a great view from up on a ridge of all three mountains- Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro- all lined up. I continued down the valley to Waihohonu hut, stopping in at the Ohinepango springs (which reminded me a lot of my recent Waihou trip!) along the way.

The Waihohonu hut is more like a hotel, I realised. Gas hob type cookers provided, flash as decks, graveled paths all around. Disgusting ;) . Mum and Dad had walked in from Whakapapa Village that day, so I met them there ready to walk out the following day.

Photos from this leg:

Moving into the lahar channel

Great advice

Smells strongly of sulphur here

Characteristic track around here

Not a bad spot for smoko

Hurricanes supporter grasshopper

Looking back up the valley

The spring source. It surges up from under a rock- ice cold!

Waihohonu view of Ngauruhoe

The walk out back to Whakapapa Village was super easy. The track was fully gravelled the whole way, with steps and boardwalk sections too. It's a part of the northern circuit which is a listed 'Great Walk' so DOC puts A LOT more effort into maintaining these popular tourist tracks and huts. We stopped in at the Tama Lakes along the way back, which gave great views across the saddle in between Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu.

We made it back to the village in good time, and promptly left back for Hamilton where we went out for dinner- my first non-freeze-dried dinner in 5 nights. Needless to say, I ate 'til I could barely walk.

Photos from this leg:

Looking across the saddle at Ruapehu

Lower Tama

Upper Tama - up against Ngauruhoe to the left.

Falls just outside Whakapapa

I had an awesome time out in the backcountry- I can't recommend this trip enough. There are some long days in it, but for anyone that's keen it's well worth it.

Hope this wasn't too boring a read! Thanks for having a look.



- Russell