Tukituki River to Rosvall’s Track to Tarn Bivvy, Wednesday 18 January 2017 Ruahine FP. Map: BL36
Photos: Hilary Heath-Caldwell
What a beautiful river the Tukituki is, at its upper reaches. I love exploring it. Nine of us spent the day tramping up the river. Murray knew where the turn-off to Rosvall’s Track was and we had a fairly easy walk to it.
The river was certainly low, which gave us lots of bank room to skip from boulder to boulder and move easily across accessible river gravels. The water was clear and drinkable. The sun shone.
Once on Rosvall’s Track, the 800-metre climb that goes straight up with no or little zigzag was only just bearable for me. It went on and on. Once we’d all had enough, we checked our bearings on the GPS and saw we were only halfway up. Murray encouraged us that we could go all the way, and Rosemary (and sometimes Denise) took the lead. Anyway, we made it to the top. The wind was strong and the sign said it was an hour to Tarn Bivvy, so we didn’t go that far. Instead, we returned down to the river.
The river tramping is tough on boots and Sally and Denise needed first aid… taping the soles to the boot. That did the trick.
It’s not easy finding the path that takes us from the Tukituki River back up to Mill Road car park, but Murray had great bearings and we successfully completed our trip. No injuries, lots of laughs, nice packed lunches and cups of thermos tea.
We joined the others, who’d had their own adventures, and swapped tales.
Trampers: Sally Woods, Murray White, Geoff Greer, Denise Bavidge, Rosemary Jeffrey, Bruce Hodgson, John Burrell, Marie Deroles and reporter Hilary Heath-Caldwell
Tukituki River to Khyber Pass, Wednesday 18 January, 2017
Photo: Kelvin Shaw
Five trampers chose to walk from the end of Mill Road to the Khyber Pass, a rock feature about 10 km downstream. The first section from the DoC parking area down to the river is a steep track which now has a large slip to negotiate as a result of heavy rains last year. (We slid on bums down it last year and returned by another route). Now there is a track around the top of it.
The river was crystal clear with a low flow that made crossing very easy. There were numerous signs of deer of all sizes, judging by the hoof prints. We also paw prints of what we deduced to be from a hare.
What was forecast to be a 30˚ and sunny day in Napier was a warm and partly cloudy day for us with a stiff breeze – very comfortable for tramping.
Upon reaching the pass (as the name implies, a narrow gap through sheer rock walls, probably about six metres wide), we found that the only way through was to wade up to the waist. The round trip took about five hours.
On this section, the trampers were: Paul Exeter, Ted Angove, Doug Matheson, Sue Marshall and reporter Kelvin Shaw
Other trampers doing their own thing: Vic Bullock, John Marshall and Peter Slagter
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