A Day Out in Okarito

I'm not sure how many times I have driven past the Okarito sign. Too many. I always suspected there were better places to go on the coast, and thought there would be too many tourists stuck down there. There aren't. It's a windy road in, you are heading for the ocean but there are low hills in the way. There is generally forest on one side of the road or the other. What has drawn us in finally is friends, Franny and Brent are rumoured to be living down here somewhere in a cosy little seaside cottage living the dream.

Franny and Brent are bird people. Through and Through. They used to go on bird camps when they were kids and between them they have worked everywhere where bird people work; Anchor Island, Whenua Hou, Titi Islands and other places more unique. They have done hard yards in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia with the Blue Throated Macaw and stalked a rare ground parrot way out west in Australia. Hang on, here's a quick profile and blog from Brent. But anyway we find their little cottage, just, and are quickly enchanted with the interesting souvenirs and trinkets accumulated during their adventures. And of course its great to catch up :-) For the record Franny is as crazy as Brent, but as far as Google is concerned she is still most famous for retracing the footsteps of Nathaniel Chalmers

We had suggested to Franny that we could help out wandering around in the bush. So the next day she sent us off with a big laugh on her face...

She gave is a map and some instructions to follow some old stoat trap lines and find these little ink pad things which record which nasty voracious predators have been passing by, heres an example here with lots of little footprints all over it..

The map is fascinating, and graphically shows what a unique area the Okarito forest is. The forest runs from sea-level up to the slopes of the alps and contains rugged hills up to few hundred metres of height. It is bounded on three sides by the Waihao River, the Tasman Sea and the Okarito River. The dense rimu forest has provided a sanctuary to the final population of Rowi and people have helped buffer the defences in the last ten years or so. Read here about the Okarito Kiwi Sanctuary.

Interestingly that article states the "stoat trapping operation in this sanctuary is thought to be the largest in the world". The extensive network of tracks and dots (representing traps) enabling this operation can be seen on the map we used...

Sometimes the vagaries of computers defeat me

A decision has been made now to mothball the trapping programme, relying instead on strategic use of 1080, which is actually why Franny and Brent are here, but I'll discuss that in the next posting. But what is left is an amazing network of tracks, and that is what we were wandering around in. It's a jungle. Fallen Rimu leaves with their long tiwsting bodies and comb like edges have this amazing ability to ratchet up the iside of your trousers and irritate the backs of your knees. Supplejack is breeding hard this year. The red berries provide a splash of colour in the canopy. There are not enough gatherers like Brent mixing their fresh shoots in their salads.On the forest floor fluorescent mushrooms gather where some miracle of life has provided them sufficent motivation to sprout.

It's damn hot too. We find our way around the trap lines alright, then get distracted by a white heron. We tail it down a small stream to three mile lagoon, and pause for sometime to appreciate the pristine estuarine environment. How many estuaries with unmodified catchments are left in New Zealand bar this one? The clear but tannin waters suck us in for a swim and as we are dressing Harold comes cruising past, giving us the evil eye and letting us know in no uncertain terms just who is the boss.

It's a struggle back to the village, the track deteriorates into 5 metre high Kiekie at the end, but we soon pop out on an old pack track, surely they could allow mountain biking here? And are back to our supplies for lunch.

That afternoon Penny drags me out to the lagoon, and I drag the Canadian canoe. We paddle for an hour or so up the estuary, stalking white heron and listening to the sea thundering on the otherside of the narrow spit. It always amazes me how smooth the paddling stroke can be and how fast you can get along. As the mist thickens we power back into the light breeze to the peaceful seaside village underneath the forested point.

The Waitaks: NZ's Greatest Park for the People?

I have got used to the back of Labour now. I'm not going to miss Helen Clarks humour or Michael Cullens humility. I'm looking forward to change and the increased and more widely based political debate this may bring. National has some good ideas, but at least one is a lemon. National proposes to investigate making the Waitaks a National Park. The grumpy Brian Rudman rails against it here

I remember my first visit to the Waitaks, the boys called it the adventure run, now part of the well-known Wild Turkey running race. An hour or so up the Paraha gorge, big pools, rock scrambles, beautiful native bush. I have returned there many times often introducing new people to the area. I have also explored several of the other valleys, with others and alone. Crazy waterfalls and gorges, sometimes open, sometimes choked with boulders. You can run hard for a day in these places and see no one, while just over the hill lies New Zealands big, beautiful city.

The park has been amazingly well preserved. From Muriwai and its Gannets in the North to the rugged windswept landscapes of Huia in the south. Its a great example of an area with a very strong environmentally conscious community, perhaps if anything too close minded to change. The work Rudman mentions to remove predators from a part of the park is a more recent development I look forward to benefitting from in the future. Small government only changes things when they need changing, why is National contemplating fiddling with this success story?

Alpine Mountain Marathon

I just wrote this up for Endurance Sport magazine. I am deliberately trying to break the adventure sport reporting mould. Lets just call it a more holistic approach.

Competitors in the Inaugural Alpine Mountain Marathon traversed the rugged edges of the newly formed Hakatere Conservation Park, ploughing up the slopes of Mt Somers, twisting through the streams of the Stour and the Swin before cascading from the slopes of the Clent Hills to the finish on the glassy Lake Heron.

Mountain Marathons can best be described as competitive tramping races. Teams, self sufficient with shelter and food, journey through wild terrain using their endurance, cunning and bush skills to edge ahead of rival teams competing to reach the overnight campsite first, and then the finish. It's orienteering writ large, rogaining with racing, adventure racing without the complications.

With the success of the government's tenure review programme huge new areas are being opened to the public in the back-country of the South Island. Opportunities for tramping, hunting, mountain biking and 4WDing are expanding quickly, while the potential for more exciting events whether they be commercial or not for profit, that can help to alert the outdoors community to these new possibilities is massive.

The Alpine Mountain Marathon set out with this purpose to showcase the brand new Hakatere Conservation park a vast area of rugged hills, rivers and wetlands centred on the Ashburton Lakes Region famous for its high country stations such as Erewhon and Mt Potts. The Hakatere conservation park includes the popular Mt Somers Area; replete with its unique geology, startling canyons, and startled skinks but unfortunately without its once famous sauna; as well as the nationally important O Tu Wharekai wetlands.

However the brave competitors didn't know this when they rocked up to cathedral square on a rainy Saturday morning. The location was a mystery only to be revealed by a nervous bus trip (shouldn't all event organisers internalise the transport costs and ensure environmental efficiency?). As the bus headed south the skies quickly cleared and by Rakaia the foothills could be seen clearly with a light dusting of snow. As the bush headed through Mt Somers and hung a right the Woolshed Creek start was revealed. A quick briefing and the teams were off into the beech forest.

They were soon to find this was a navigation event with an interesting twist. The organisers had chosen several interesting areas to map in fine detail, an old mining area, a giant cascade of boulders (otherwise known as the water caves), and the scenic environs of a hut where an interesting feature was an array of 44 gallon drums fashioned into dog kennels. It was straight into the old mining area, with checkpoints scattered through the flotsam and jetsam, and trolleys and sluicings.

Courtesy of course planner for the day, adventure racing world champion Chris Forne, it was then straight up the tussocky talllused slopes of Mt Somers, although not before the depths of Watershed Creek had been plummeted for a waterfall control. Out of the blocks quickly were the favourites, Aucklanders surprisingly. Phil Wood of Lactic Turkey fame is one of the countries best navigators while Ross Rotherham has been known to do well in the odd multisport race, including that little one in February they call the Coast to Coast. They were followed by a bevy of top outdoors people; the Prince family was out in force, West Coast nut bar Tim Sikma was grinning and suffering, while World Rogaine Champion Dennis de Monchy was looking mean.

Down off Mt Somers and the Aucklanders maintained a slight advantage having mastered the maze of the water caves. At Woolshed creek hut organisers were ensuring all teams were disinfected for didymo before they headed off west into the Stour catchment and around the fringes of the O Tu Wharekai. The metaphorical journey began here; a change of horizons from the wide deforested expanse of the plains to the flickering golden mountainous basin. Te Wari of the Waitaha trod this land once spreading the Mana of Aotea Roa, forging the connection between the people and land. An age ago, but a moment ago in the vast landscape that greeted teams in the setting sun.

The long traverse of the Manuka range took its toll on competitors, many greeted the moon before they finally collapsed at the idyllic campsite and warm fire of Double Hut. By moonlight the silhouettes of the mountain ranges fringed the horizon and as the sun rose the first rays of light struck the Arrowsmith range across the valley on the other side of Lake Heron. Teams brewed up again for breakfast or just sat watching the sunrise. The Aucklanders still lead the long course “the Classic” while Colin and Chris Dixon were in front in “The Charmer”.

The idea was that the Classic would challenge even the most hardened teams, with cut-offs available for those who couldn't handle the pace. In the event no team finished the full course, creating a challenge for future years. The Charmer on the other hand was meant to be, well charming. A navigation challenge in rugged and beautiful terrain for older, younger and less confident competitors. An opportunity to smell the rosehip if you wanted to. From the get go on the second day this was achieved. After teams recovered from the surprise of micronavigation at the start, the Charmer teams traversed towards the mouth of the Swin while the Classic teams quickly thought up strategies to make the most of the time available. Many completing a loop along the Longwood range before returning to Double Hut and ascending the steep ridge to access terraces high above the Swin.

Early movers were the team of DeMonchy and Robert Jarvis. A bad error early on day 1 had reduced them to also-rans but they were determined to make ammends, opening up a 10 minute lead through brute physical force. High up the Swin river as it narrowed and Clent Hills saddle loomed teams were forced to make choices over which checkpoints to chase, the highest checkpoint carving across the scree at about 1800metres intimidating many. Jelly legs from the day before forced many to retreat tumvling down the true right of the Swin joining the Charmers on the alluvials fans and terraces feeding into Lake Heron.

To the finish and it was the mornings leaders who held their nerve to be greated first by the stink of the BBQ then by the happy organisers. Also worthy of mention were Aaron and Lara Prince mixed winners of the Classic course and second overall. After a relaxing afternoon, complete with a "mountains" and "marathons" quiz to decide the spot prizes provided courtesy of Montrail. The bus rolled off back to Cathedral Square, leaving the lake and the mountains lying in the sun. To check more photos and results look at www.madeventz.co.nz/alpinemm

The Barker Hut Fiasco

Have been meaning to write this up for a while....

Basically got myself wrapped up in a little storm in a teacup a few months ago when walking into Barker Hut we found a few dudes who had tried to call a helicopter....the full story can be found on the great website softrock.co.nz run by Graeme Kates. The facts on this site are all good, except that the climbing party, which I was a part of failed to climb Murchison cause I was too wussy.

You can read about Graeme's issues but the one that has really stuck in my mind is how the situation illustrated the disconnection between the mainstream news media and the outdoors community in Canterbury. The Press just didn't have a clue. As most people who have been around for a while know, there will always be punters in the bush, but you don't go putting them on the front page.

Seeing these guys described as top mountaineers, really hit home to me how little the general public knows of the exploits of some of the fantastic outdoors people from this province. In fact the only time they hear about them is when they die, or when they are rescued. Its a pretty sad state of affairs.