On the Trail............
The Stour river to Double hut Trek.
Another easy destination weekend trek, this time saddling and riding from Castleridge Station in the Ashburton Gorge, out past Lake Emily and following a farm track around and out to meet up with the Stour river, where we turned north and followed this up thru some lovely scenic countryside, to our intended first night stop over, this being the Manuka Hut...
Mr Gizz, thinking.. I wonder where we are going this week..?
The beautiful upper Stour river basin....
This weekend ride, was another to help give Lofty some trekking miles under his belt, and each time he has been taken out, he is learning to cope with all insundry camping gear tied to him, flopping about, to a point now where he really doesnt give much of a toss what we put on him.. a stark contrast, to when we first asked him to carry our gear.... he is also learning to remain calmer when faced with obsticles in front of him such as narrow areas, and boggy sections..
I have always maintained with horses... once a rider bonds with a horse, and that horse trusts the riders judgement, then major inroads into the trail conditions, learning curve become rapid, and this the case here with Lofty.... some in the past have voiced comment that this horse would never make a good trekking horse.. well I for one have enjoyed watching Mandy and Lofty working together to create this nice trekking fellow.......
Just a little way on from where the above photo was taken is the turn off up a small side stream to where the Manuka Hut sits in its lovely sheltered spot, however upon arrival, we were met at the hut door by four likely lads whom had walked in the day prior with as much beer as they could each carry, and by the looks had ploughed their way thru a fair amount by the time of our arrival,
Talking to a couple of them, they strongly hinted that wanted to be left alone, saying they intended to party roudly all night, so we took the hint, remounted and headed on up country to the Double hut, another hour or twos ride north...
Arriving at Double hut,to find it uninhabited was a nice feeling, however this was not to be for long... a family turned up a couple hours later, with the same story we had been told down a Manuka, and they too were feeling the warm ambiance of this hut...
I have always maintained with horses... once a rider bonds with a horse, and that horse trusts the riders judgement, then major inroads into the trail conditions, learning curve become rapid, and this the case here with Lofty.... some in the past have voiced comment that this horse would never make a good trekking horse.. well I for one have enjoyed watching Mandy and Lofty working together to create this nice trekking fellow.......
Just a little way on from where the above photo was taken is the turn off up a small side stream to where the Manuka Hut sits in its lovely sheltered spot, however upon arrival, we were met at the hut door by four likely lads whom had walked in the day prior with as much beer as they could each carry, and by the looks had ploughed their way thru a fair amount by the time of our arrival,
Talking to a couple of them, they strongly hinted that wanted to be left alone, saying they intended to party roudly all night, so we took the hint, remounted and headed on up country to the Double hut, another hour or twos ride north...
Arriving at Double hut,to find it uninhabited was a nice feeling, however this was not to be for long... a family turned up a couple hours later, with the same story we had been told down a Manuka, and they too were feeling the warm ambiance of this hut...
Destination... the Double Hut...
This 6 bunk hut is an ideal destination for horse trekking,, its an easy 14 odd kilometres distance ,taking some 3 hours of basic flat riding .. there is a good secure overnight horse paddock, with several different day rides out from here...The whole trail is on DoC held land, so no permissions are required, the hut is free of charge, and works on a first come first served basis..
I would recommend packing a small tent if undertaking this trek as the whole area is very popular with trampers, and hikers..
I would recommend packing a small tent if undertaking this trek as the whole area is very popular with trampers, and hikers..
Day ride.. this and below photos of the ride out to Lake Heron ...
On the Trail............
The Turtons saddle to Comyns Hut Trek
For the previous two weeks, we had planned this trek however both previous attempts were setback due to Spring Southerly weather arriving each time bringing snow to around the Turton Saddle height of 1200 metres...
I can tell you its no fun for the horses trudging up hill in anything more than a couple of inches of white, and then for horses not used to snow conditions unable to feed along the trail and at the hut....
The Turtons saddle trail is an easy riding trail of some 17 kilometres distance from the Rakaia gorge road up to the Comyns hut, with a gentle up hill for the first section to the saddle..
The entire route is pole marked,and it follows an old vehicle track thru to about the "A" frame hut around half way out,... past this point the track peters out somewhat as we made our way down river, however still easy to ride....
I can tell you its no fun for the horses trudging up hill in anything more than a couple of inches of white, and then for horses not used to snow conditions unable to feed along the trail and at the hut....
The Turtons saddle trail is an easy riding trail of some 17 kilometres distance from the Rakaia gorge road up to the Comyns hut, with a gentle up hill for the first section to the saddle..
The entire route is pole marked,and it follows an old vehicle track thru to about the "A" frame hut around half way out,... past this point the track peters out somewhat as we made our way down river, however still easy to ride....
Are you my "MUM"
Driving along up the Rakaia Gorge road, admiring the views, all of a sudden Mandy says...STOP THE CAR.....!
Even before I had managed to come to a complete stop, the passenger side door flew open and out hops Mandy in a seemingly mild panic.... wondering what had happened, I looked around to see the above photo subject.....
Can we take him home.....PLEASE>>>>>> he has lost his mum and all alone here.. PLEASE>>>>>>
So folks how do I tactfully reply to Mandy to let her down gently with a polite NO...? for one. lamb has not lost his mum... she was bleating up the hill a little way, admittedly on the other side of the fence and secondly and more importantly... lamb is owned by a farmer and not for just picking up and taking to seemingly better pastures....Mandy...
Hopping back in the car with her lip dragging on the ground we continued our journey.....( Minus said lamb )
Initially, many a gate to open and close......
After saddling both Lofty and Shae, the initial poled trail heads on up thru a farmed section, with gates to open and close every couple of hundred metres or so.. I recall some 6 of these... great exercise hopping off and on ones horse... this being the case as all of these little Gems are like "Arkwrights" till on the English television program open all hours.... each having a very tight spring, which is impossible to hold open from upon a horse while passing thru..
This and below, views as we head up the trail towards the Turton Saddle..
Views, from the saddle looking back down the trail and out over the Rakaia river gorge....
From Turtons saddle looking down the river of the same name..!
Around half way out to the Comyns hut, is this.. the "A" frame hut...
Mutton Gully
Our first views of the Comyns Hut...
Interesting, as Mandy and I rode out along the trail heading down river on the unfarmed DOC land we started to come across little mobs of missed muster wild Merino sheep, all with that distinct long wool "shrek" like appearance , and man were they wild... one sighting of humans and horses they were off... rattling their collective "dags" very vigorously as they made themselves scares ..... traveling along.. another small mob.. then more mobs......
All I can say, and having had mustering experience in my early days working on high country sheep stations, that the final straggle muster on this station before handing over to DoC was rather poor, and furthermore, little excuse for missed sheep as this country is as clean of vegetation as I have seen anywhere..... over the course of this trek we counted around 15 to 20 sheep, and that's just the ones near the trail....
All I can say, and having had mustering experience in my early days working on high country sheep stations, that the final straggle muster on this station before handing over to DoC was rather poor, and furthermore, little excuse for missed sheep as this country is as clean of vegetation as I have seen anywhere..... over the course of this trek we counted around 15 to 20 sheep, and that's just the ones near the trail....
Our destination... The Comyns hut...
The Comyns hut inside...
Built in 1957, this hut replaced the historic dirt floor hut still standing just next door to this, and in all of my years to puddling around our South Island high country I have never seen a hut built out of meccano metal....to me the construction seemed too lite to withstand both the high winds that rock this area, along with dumps of snow to test the roof strength, but..... its still standing and still straight.. amazing... reading a little about the history of this hut, it was built in sections down country and helicopter transported up to this site....
An eight bunk hut, with a modern hut upgrade, made our stay a very comfortable one....
Unfortunately for us we both believed someone in authority, down in Christchurch had diverted all of the Colombo St foot traffic up here to this hut.... there were people everywhere.... this night the hut was full.... trampers coming and going.....
Pic shows Mandy preparing our gourmet meal of sweet and sour mince and rice..... all luxury food items drawled over by others in the hut whom had to be content with freeze dried and reconstituted delights carted in on their backs..... horses carrying gear is a far more palatable way of living out here I think...
Thanks to Kristen Hubbard and friends, a large well fenced new overnight horse paddock is available for our equine friends to reside in while at camp
Sandflies, in numbers surprised us in this area..... something I would have expected more in bush areas......
The Original Comyns hut built in 1898...
Before modern transport times, all of these hut materials had to be transported up to the sites by pack horse.... look at the corrugated iron... cut into around 4 foot lengths to facilitate pack horse transport... imagine how many trips back and forth over pack tracks to bring sufficient materials to build these huts it must have taken....!
Round Hill Stream....doubled as our "bath"
Looking up this stream towards the distant Client saddle, and out to Lake Heron on the other side.... another trek for another day....
On the Trail............
The Lakes Station, to Eskhead Station Trek........Distance trekked.. 96 kilometres...
Eskhead Station on the fringes of the greater Lake Sumner area, has been another destination I have wanted to tick off on my "bucket list", and just one month prior, I got to sample just a little of this paradise when I passed thru a corner of this place on my Mt White trek, staying one night at Deep Creek hut..
That night just as the sun was setting I sat up on a tussock covered bank overlooking this beautiful mountain countryside, and thinking.. Man I need to revisit this place and spend a few days to soak it all up.....
So being that I , along with three other riders planned and set off on a five day round trek starting from the Lakes Station , riding the first day out past Loch Katrine, then the upper end of Lake Sumner, and around to the Lakes Station top hut for the first night...
Also planned in were two further days based at Eskheads Stony stream hut, with a day trip right up to the top South branch Hurunui hut, then travelling on around and down to Deep Creek hut, and finally around again meeting and crossing the Hurunui river, up over the Woolshed Range and back to the floats..
Along today was Vicki riding her horse Buddy, Sharlene riding her "tractor" also called Buddy, Fiona on Mr Cons, and myself riding the Irish Lump and Bailey with the pack gear...
Now before we go any further, lets talk about Sharlene's Tractor......!
That night just as the sun was setting I sat up on a tussock covered bank overlooking this beautiful mountain countryside, and thinking.. Man I need to revisit this place and spend a few days to soak it all up.....
So being that I , along with three other riders planned and set off on a five day round trek starting from the Lakes Station , riding the first day out past Loch Katrine, then the upper end of Lake Sumner, and around to the Lakes Station top hut for the first night...
Also planned in were two further days based at Eskheads Stony stream hut, with a day trip right up to the top South branch Hurunui hut, then travelling on around and down to Deep Creek hut, and finally around again meeting and crossing the Hurunui river, up over the Woolshed Range and back to the floats..
Along today was Vicki riding her horse Buddy, Sharlene riding her "tractor" also called Buddy, Fiona on Mr Cons, and myself riding the Irish Lump and Bailey with the pack gear...
Now before we go any further, lets talk about Sharlene's Tractor......!
"Fergie"..... parked in the shed.....!
Sharlene, as some of you will know, has ridden on a number of our treks this season, and each time has gained experience and confidence, to the point where her "L" plates can be well and truly discarded...
Normally riding her Paint / Gisborne Stationbred horse "Tomo", this trek she decided to dust the cobwebs off her little Haflinger horse, throw him on the float, and arriving at the start point, unloads him. throws a saddle, along with all in sundry bits and bobs tied to this saddle for the trek, climbs on and is ready.... Buddy.... this horse stands only a short distance in height taller than your average "Mallard Duck" , and along with this, had no shoes on, and was totally unfit....
Walking beside the 17 hh Irish Lump, Buddy was seen taking two steps for each of Shaes, and Sharlenes initial thoughts were,, well I dont know what he will be like, and I dont know if he can keep up with the rest but, hey.. lets see...
Heading out for the first leg up to the Lakes Station hut, the terrain was fairly flat, and stony along much of the trail.. infact over this five days, stony trails were an everyday occurrence for the barefooted soldier
But keep up.... he did... his little fast walk was so cute to watch...
Now, at our first nights camp this little horses hard case nature started to envelope all of us.... CHEEKY..... is one word to describe this little guy.... he was a constant pest at the hut door, walking half way in, checking out what the "Umans" were up to... constantly in ones face when we were outside doing what ever, but the little horse really started to shine on the second morning, which saw us climbing to a saddle in between Lakes Sumner and Mason.... here was a horse on stony ground, up hill, fully loaded, totally unfit with very heavy breathing, but..... was right there, walking beside Shae and the other horses who were very fit..
Man..... I said to Sharlene, watching Buddy work like a trooper... you dont have a horse, you have a tractor heading up here.. and... a four wheel drive version at that.... I reckon we need to change Buddys name from that to "FERGUSON the tractor. so the name was born, and it was shortened to Fergie over the course of the trek... what a honey he was...
Normally riding her Paint / Gisborne Stationbred horse "Tomo", this trek she decided to dust the cobwebs off her little Haflinger horse, throw him on the float, and arriving at the start point, unloads him. throws a saddle, along with all in sundry bits and bobs tied to this saddle for the trek, climbs on and is ready.... Buddy.... this horse stands only a short distance in height taller than your average "Mallard Duck" , and along with this, had no shoes on, and was totally unfit....
Walking beside the 17 hh Irish Lump, Buddy was seen taking two steps for each of Shaes, and Sharlenes initial thoughts were,, well I dont know what he will be like, and I dont know if he can keep up with the rest but, hey.. lets see...
Heading out for the first leg up to the Lakes Station hut, the terrain was fairly flat, and stony along much of the trail.. infact over this five days, stony trails were an everyday occurrence for the barefooted soldier
But keep up.... he did... his little fast walk was so cute to watch...
Now, at our first nights camp this little horses hard case nature started to envelope all of us.... CHEEKY..... is one word to describe this little guy.... he was a constant pest at the hut door, walking half way in, checking out what the "Umans" were up to... constantly in ones face when we were outside doing what ever, but the little horse really started to shine on the second morning, which saw us climbing to a saddle in between Lakes Sumner and Mason.... here was a horse on stony ground, up hill, fully loaded, totally unfit with very heavy breathing, but..... was right there, walking beside Shae and the other horses who were very fit..
Man..... I said to Sharlene, watching Buddy work like a trooper... you dont have a horse, you have a tractor heading up here.. and... a four wheel drive version at that.... I reckon we need to change Buddys name from that to "FERGUSON the tractor. so the name was born, and it was shortened to Fergie over the course of the trek... what a honey he was...
On the trail heading towards Loch Katrine...
Will we make it to the hut before the predicted Southerly rain arrives..?
The Lakes Station hut....
We did beat the Southerly front arriving the night before, but only had a skiff of rain overnight....
Sharlene delighted us providing our evening meal from her home cooking, followed by a bit of a yarn over a bourbon or two.... All on this trek and I have frequented this hut a lot, and each time enjoy our stay..
Its so lovely to have al the horses in the little paddock that the hut sits in, and the interaction with their and our characters over the duration..
This hut sits away up on a little terrace and with one pulling out of the hut our chosen comfortable chair each, to sit and just watch the scenery away out towards the head of the Lake Sumner some 2 to 3 kilometres away is stunning as the sun goes down into dusk.... just sooooooo peaceful..!
This above photo shows us all with a rather late start from our sleep in and leisurely breakfast, about to head on out back down to the head of the Lake Sumner, and picking up the rough stock track that heads up to a saddle in between Lakes Sumner and Mason follow this up and over towards the picturesque Lake Mason, surrounded by mountains on both sides, with the saddle at the rear, and nearing the lake Beech forest patches dabbled here and there to complete the scene...
Sharlene delighted us providing our evening meal from her home cooking, followed by a bit of a yarn over a bourbon or two.... All on this trek and I have frequented this hut a lot, and each time enjoy our stay..
Its so lovely to have al the horses in the little paddock that the hut sits in, and the interaction with their and our characters over the duration..
This hut sits away up on a little terrace and with one pulling out of the hut our chosen comfortable chair each, to sit and just watch the scenery away out towards the head of the Lake Sumner some 2 to 3 kilometres away is stunning as the sun goes down into dusk.... just sooooooo peaceful..!
This above photo shows us all with a rather late start from our sleep in and leisurely breakfast, about to head on out back down to the head of the Lake Sumner, and picking up the rough stock track that heads up to a saddle in between Lakes Sumner and Mason follow this up and over towards the picturesque Lake Mason, surrounded by mountains on both sides, with the saddle at the rear, and nearing the lake Beech forest patches dabbled here and there to complete the scene...
Just to the summit of the Saddle between the two lakes....
This and below photos on the Lake Mason Pack Track heading south.....
Heading on over onto EskHead Station Country.......
Riding around the edge of Lake Mason along the pack track as it meanders in and out of the Beech trees, we eventually came out at the Southern end of the lake and a couple of funnies happened around where this above photo was taken..
Firstly, in the above photo Vicki was having trouble with her horse "Buddy" continually walking slow, so snapped off a little stick to use as a whip as per the photo.. its a bit of a Clayton whip really but she flicked Buddy now and then to try and aid her problem, but just after taking this photo, the "Irish Lump" whom I was riding was on a bit of a mission himself.....un be known to us...
He was initially walking behind Buddy, but upped the pace a tad and started as if to pass Buddy, however just when he was within striking distance, he grabbed Vicki s whip from behind, and it was gone....... a mobile tasty snack in his mind.... I have told you folks before that this horse is trouble...lol
The second funny, was a little way further on we all knew we needed to turn right and follow the southern shore of the lake around to the far side to pick up a further track as it started to head down the terrace and out onto the riverbed of the South Hurunui River, however at the bottom of the Lake someone had erected new fencing.... so a quick stop and Vicki producing a topo map, decided that we needed to go thru a new gate to then access around the shore, however after a kilometre we arrived at the bush line on the otherside to be confronted with a continuation of said fence up into the hill side bush blocking our path... Vick hopped off her horse and said there must be a gate here somewhere, but ten minutes later upon her return the look on her face said it all......
So back tracking on a reciprical journey as enjoyed the same scenery from a different angle back to the gate once again.... all the time her telling us this darn fence never used to be here..
O well such is the trekking life we all know and love..lol
Firstly, in the above photo Vicki was having trouble with her horse "Buddy" continually walking slow, so snapped off a little stick to use as a whip as per the photo.. its a bit of a Clayton whip really but she flicked Buddy now and then to try and aid her problem, but just after taking this photo, the "Irish Lump" whom I was riding was on a bit of a mission himself.....un be known to us...
He was initially walking behind Buddy, but upped the pace a tad and started as if to pass Buddy, however just when he was within striking distance, he grabbed Vicki s whip from behind, and it was gone....... a mobile tasty snack in his mind.... I have told you folks before that this horse is trouble...lol
The second funny, was a little way further on we all knew we needed to turn right and follow the southern shore of the lake around to the far side to pick up a further track as it started to head down the terrace and out onto the riverbed of the South Hurunui River, however at the bottom of the Lake someone had erected new fencing.... so a quick stop and Vicki producing a topo map, decided that we needed to go thru a new gate to then access around the shore, however after a kilometre we arrived at the bush line on the otherside to be confronted with a continuation of said fence up into the hill side bush blocking our path... Vick hopped off her horse and said there must be a gate here somewhere, but ten minutes later upon her return the look on her face said it all......
So back tracking on a reciprical journey as enjoyed the same scenery from a different angle back to the gate once again.... all the time her telling us this darn fence never used to be here..
O well such is the trekking life we all know and love..lol
Picture postcard setting, of this Stony Stream Hut......
Around three hours from the Lakes Station hut we arrived up to this beautiful setting, and I personally was blown away with the serenity and almost romantics of this huts ambience.... the beautiful Bush setting that it is nestled into, and standing on the huts veranda, the view commanded out over the far below South branch Hurunui river . with beautiful Beech forest and tussock flats right along the valley floor back down to the outlet stream of Lake Mason.....
This is the first time I have been to this hut, and after using it as our base camp for a few days, all I can say is I dont think it will be the last visit.... I loved my stay and felt very privileged to be apart of this simple natural place...
Mice had well and truly moved in since the last human occupation, which from the hut book records showed infrequent use, and the smell and damage they had caused took a bit to tidy back up again....
Having no real horse paddock here, we all managed to find and erect a day time make do paddock which all the five horses respected, with two of the five high lined between two trees outside this paddock overnight each nights stay, just in case they broke down the fragile fence...
Sharlene, again produced an evening banquet from her home cooking, and by the looks coupled with her views I can see in time her husband having to send out a search party for one missing lady and her horse.. last seen headed for the simple life in the mountains for an extended period....each of the treks she has been on with us she says words to this effect more and more... and why not.... who needs the modern fast paced life around our metropolitan cities....
This is the first time I have been to this hut, and after using it as our base camp for a few days, all I can say is I dont think it will be the last visit.... I loved my stay and felt very privileged to be apart of this simple natural place...
Mice had well and truly moved in since the last human occupation, which from the hut book records showed infrequent use, and the smell and damage they had caused took a bit to tidy back up again....
Having no real horse paddock here, we all managed to find and erect a day time make do paddock which all the five horses respected, with two of the five high lined between two trees outside this paddock overnight each nights stay, just in case they broke down the fragile fence...
Sharlene, again produced an evening banquet from her home cooking, and by the looks coupled with her views I can see in time her husband having to send out a search party for one missing lady and her horse.. last seen headed for the simple life in the mountains for an extended period....each of the treks she has been on with us she says words to this effect more and more... and why not.... who needs the modern fast paced life around our metropolitan cities....
A friends very apt description...... a "Thorn between two roses".....lol
Fiona on the left, the old fart in the middle, with Sharlene to the right, and Vicki taking the photo, shows us all relaxing after tea, sitting on the veranda watching the evening develop.... this is peace in the mountains..!
Note behind me I have had to get a lot more resourceful with my soft pannier bags to keep rodents at bay.. both mice and possums, keen to help themselves to anything left within reach..
That night while fast asleep on my bunk, I had my arm out of the sleeping bag to one side as it was quite a warm night to be woken by a little feeling that my arm was moving... upon waking it wasnt moving but a mouse running up it with its little feet causing this feeling.... cheeky so in so I thought... a number of times I think we all experienced mice running along the top of our swag rolls as we slept within. so perhaps this huts is not everyones "cup of tea" so to speak..!
After a further lie in till around 8.30am, Fiona made us all a yummy breakfast of pancakes and coffee..... ( this trekking with pack horses is tough you know... having to choose from a number of different breakfast choices every morning is not easy...)
Today.. was another area I have wanted to tick off on my dwindling "bucket list", that being a look up into the head waters of this South Branch of the Hurunui river, right up to the top hut...
Note behind me I have had to get a lot more resourceful with my soft pannier bags to keep rodents at bay.. both mice and possums, keen to help themselves to anything left within reach..
That night while fast asleep on my bunk, I had my arm out of the sleeping bag to one side as it was quite a warm night to be woken by a little feeling that my arm was moving... upon waking it wasnt moving but a mouse running up it with its little feet causing this feeling.... cheeky so in so I thought... a number of times I think we all experienced mice running along the top of our swag rolls as we slept within. so perhaps this huts is not everyones "cup of tea" so to speak..!
After a further lie in till around 8.30am, Fiona made us all a yummy breakfast of pancakes and coffee..... ( this trekking with pack horses is tough you know... having to choose from a number of different breakfast choices every morning is not easy...)
Today.. was another area I have wanted to tick off on my dwindling "bucket list", that being a look up into the head waters of this South Branch of the Hurunui river, right up to the top hut...
This and below photos of the bush clad valley floor up this Hurunui river..
Five days on stony trails everyday is hard on horses without shoes on...!
The DoC Research Hut..........
Around an hours ride up river we came upon this DoC research hut, that is manned all year round into the study of the Beech forest and its inhabitants...
Around a kilometre up river from this hut is a fence right across the valley floor with a locked gate..(most of the time) and above this area, Doc has an ongoing program of releasing endangered birds and other wildlife reared in captivity ..
Away up near the top hut we came upon a group of three DoC personal who just the day before had release 20 little Parakeet birds into this area, having firstly spent considerable time eradicating all the known predictors, such as rats and mice, possums etc,
It was funny to round a corner to see humans with TV aerials on their heads trying to tune said aerial into this weeks episode of Coronation Streat or the likes..lol ..... just kidding.... infact tracking each of the releasee's progress.... interesting to talk to these folks about the program...!
One of these rangers was saying this South branch Hurunui area has one of the most intact and natural stands of Beech forest found anywhere in New Zealand.. impressive stuff..!
Around a kilometre up river from this hut is a fence right across the valley floor with a locked gate..(most of the time) and above this area, Doc has an ongoing program of releasing endangered birds and other wildlife reared in captivity ..
Away up near the top hut we came upon a group of three DoC personal who just the day before had release 20 little Parakeet birds into this area, having firstly spent considerable time eradicating all the known predictors, such as rats and mice, possums etc,
It was funny to round a corner to see humans with TV aerials on their heads trying to tune said aerial into this weeks episode of Coronation Streat or the likes..lol ..... just kidding.... infact tracking each of the releasee's progress.... interesting to talk to these folks about the program...!
One of these rangers was saying this South branch Hurunui area has one of the most intact and natural stands of Beech forest found anywhere in New Zealand.. impressive stuff..!
Lunch time here at the upper Hurunui hut.....
Sharlene making pre dinner snacks to go with the drinks....
Fergie, and his morning Porridge....
Our final morning at this hut, Sharlene made up a lovely big bowl of porridge for herself, and having made it took it out and sat down on the veranda to enjoy it.... however it was only 30 seconds or so before the first four legged "blowfly" arrived to check this red bowl out..
I think she got about two spoonfuls in her mouth before Fergie saw his chance and next..... had his nose right inside that tiny red bowl... you got it.. after that Sharlene lost interest in continuing to eat this, so between Fergie and Bailey, both horses had a lining of porridge on their stomach for the days work ahead... so funny to watch...!
I think she got about two spoonfuls in her mouth before Fergie saw his chance and next..... had his nose right inside that tiny red bowl... you got it.. after that Sharlene lost interest in continuing to eat this, so between Fergie and Bailey, both horses had a lining of porridge on their stomach for the days work ahead... so funny to watch...!
A rough stream crossing just after leaving Stony Stream hut...
On the road again...!
Having cleaned out the hut, saddled and loaded the horses, it was time to be moving on with our little adventure ride.. today heading down river for a few hours ride, and a little side trip up to an historic old musterers hut set in a bush setting that I had heard about and wanted to see for myself before further riding down to our this nights overnight accommodation , this being Deep Creek hut...
A little mirror tarn along todays journey wayside..!
EskHead Country.....
Tucked away on the edge of the bush line is this historic little gem...!
Bush Camp hut.....
In my lifetime, I have both visited and stayed in quite a number of mountain country huts, and in that time, some huts have been outstanding, some a little drafty and in need of repair, some built witout views etc, but rare it is to find two historic huts on the one station that to my mind stand out from the masses.. both the Stony Stream and this Bush Camp huts have that "X" factor... character.... charm.. humble design, and yet totally function able all year round....
Things like a good wood supply, an open fire in such huts, all year round stream for drinking water.... and above all views....... these two huts excel in all the qualities I personally look for in my ideal back country hut..
No horse paddock here unfortunately, but with leg ties and plenty of trees to high line them overnight, I can see me returning for another visit and this time staying a few days....
Things like a good wood supply, an open fire in such huts, all year round stream for drinking water.... and above all views....... these two huts excel in all the qualities I personally look for in my ideal back country hut..
No horse paddock here unfortunately, but with leg ties and plenty of trees to high line them overnight, I can see me returning for another visit and this time staying a few days....
More Eskhead station country heading down towards Deep Creek hut...
Across country riding down to Deep Creek hut, in the far Pine trees..!
Down and thru the little gorge just before climbing up to Deep Creek hut...!
Our second visit to this Deep Creek hut in a month..!
It was lovely to return to this hut once again within a short time frame.. there is a huge horse paddock here, and the boys made short work of making themselves scares away up the hill behind the Pine trees....
I find this hut a very relaxing place to stay in, with again beautiful view out over some dramatic mountain country as the sun set on this pleasant days travel...
Sharlene, was talking about seeing if Fergie would suit a pack saddle so I said.. why not try it on now.... so we did.. and it fit him like a glove... I can see another packing lady convert next season.....
I find this hut a very relaxing place to stay in, with again beautiful view out over some dramatic mountain country as the sun set on this pleasant days travel...
Sharlene, was talking about seeing if Fergie would suit a pack saddle so I said.. why not try it on now.... so we did.. and it fit him like a glove... I can see another packing lady convert next season.....
Ain't he too cute for words... Fergie the new pack horse..!
Caption, the three ladies expressions.....lol
Final day.... taking a bit of a short cut down the hill....!
Riding the last part of the loop on this trek, back down to the Hurunui river once again..!
A bit of a dilemma this morning...
with not having ridden over this part of the station, I was unsure where.... if any..... was the access track down thru the scrub and swampy ground to access the South Branch Hurunui river once again...
So we rode along the terrace tops as in the above photo looking for a track or way down...
Eventually without finding any track, I said to the others to wait up top and Shae and I went exploring a way down thru the matagouri scrub... eventually we found a way down. so back up then leading the others down we arrived into the riverbed, then had to pick our way thru further swampy areas, on the Lake Taylor Station side.. no easy task I might add.. but we made it after a bit of walking here and there....
So we rode along the terrace tops as in the above photo looking for a track or way down...
Eventually without finding any track, I said to the others to wait up top and Shae and I went exploring a way down thru the matagouri scrub... eventually we found a way down. so back up then leading the others down we arrived into the riverbed, then had to pick our way thru further swampy areas, on the Lake Taylor Station side.. no easy task I might add.. but we made it after a bit of walking here and there....
Shae and I track finding a way down thru this scrub to the river...
River crossing back over onto Lake Taylor Station....
Someones dream hut.. with every modern appliance away out in the middle of nowhere...!
Looking back over to Eskhead where we had come from, thru scrub and swampy areas...!
The final climb to the Woolshed Range saddle and back down to the Lakes Station once again..
A short cut along the hill side to bypass a locked gate, then down to the lake..!
What a fantastic five day trek thru some of our finest scenic mountain country... all without any mishaps... all the horses well behaved and overall enjoyed sharing this journey with us humans..
One or two horses needing shoes on to be more comfortable on these harder stony trails..
Many thanks to Fiona, Sharlene and Vicki for coming along and making this a fun trek..
Also many thanks to Ted at the Lakes Station, Sam at Eskhead station, and to Dave and Rosemary at Lake Taylor station for all of your access and hut use... each of these owners / managers received a box of beers and money for hut and access use, for which each was very grateful. hopefully paving the way to future other horse trekking folks to gain an easy access right...
One or two horses needing shoes on to be more comfortable on these harder stony trails..
Many thanks to Fiona, Sharlene and Vicki for coming along and making this a fun trek..
Also many thanks to Ted at the Lakes Station, Sam at Eskhead station, and to Dave and Rosemary at Lake Taylor station for all of your access and hut use... each of these owners / managers received a box of beers and money for hut and access use, for which each was very grateful. hopefully paving the way to future other horse trekking folks to gain an easy access right...
On the Trail............
The Eskhead to Flockhill Stations Trek.......Distance trekked 168 kilometres (GPS Reading)
Pic..... Early morning Eskhead Station, looking north from just behind the Deep Creek hut.....
Having come off night shift the Wednesday night, I had a bit of a sleep in until around 10am, and having had everything prepared and loaded over the previous couple days into the car, Fiona and I headed off with the horses on board for Eskhead Station up in the lower Lake Sumner region...
Arriving in 30deg heat at this station we were greeted my the station manager Sam who was busy drafting sheep, but was happy to stop for ten minutes to introduce himself and have a yarn... infact as I unloaded my gear and started to tack up, both himself and his lad Johny came over to investigate this pack horse thing...
They asking lots of question regarding packing, having said they had tried it on a couple of occasions within the station but both times it didnt go too well ( Sams words)
It was nice to be able to offer a couple of pointers to them, and as a thank you for access and hut use I dropped a box of beers into Sams ute..... you should have seen his big smile when he saw me do that...... Thanks mate.....! they will disappear pretty quickly later this avo when finished work with this heat.....lol
So..... todays plan... after loading the horses, and saying my goodbyes to both Fiona and staff, was to ride out up alongside the South Branch of the Hurunui river and out to Eskheads, Deep creek hut, only a short 10 kilometre hop...
This trek was planned over a further 11 days involving climbing over the Dampier mountain range and down into the back of Mt White Station with around a week on this station exploring some of this remote beautiful country, and visiting as many of their huts overnights as possible,,,, infact I think we did visit most of them....
Then towards the end of this week, exiting the station down the Esk river, crossing the Waimakariri river in its gorge area, and over onto Flock hill Station, picking up one of there access tracks and following this up thru further stunning high country and out to Avoca, an historic old coal mining settlement, to be picked up again by Fiona the following Sunday week later...
Mt White station is quite hard to gain access to ride over, and have been turned down on more than the odd occasion, so a rare chance, and one I wanted to make the most of..
This Station is steeped in history, and have read much about the early days mustering and general station life as seen thru a number of other writers eyes.. the horse packing of hut materials just after the WW2 out along steep and narrow pack tracks to build the various huts such as the Ant, Cains Camp, Andersons, Cattle Creek, Bull Creek, Packety, to name a few...
Stories of packies cutting corrugated Iron into 4 foot lengths then rolling half a dozen sheet up into a roll to fit on the pack horse, forwards and backwards out to the various hut sites, then sourcing timber from the local beech forests to frame these huts up... many initially had a dirt floor...
This station has seen many managers and indeed mustering and general staff work here, all contributing their stamp on the place.... in parts this place is ruggered and unforgiving, in other places, wide wide open flats with beautiful mountain ranges towering above either side... lots of sprinklings of beech forest patches, crystal clear rivers and streams.... to me it felt like I was riding thru paradise..... and to top it al off, the majority of my week in here the weather was hot, calm and hardly a cloud in the sky..... perfect..!
Having come off night shift the Wednesday night, I had a bit of a sleep in until around 10am, and having had everything prepared and loaded over the previous couple days into the car, Fiona and I headed off with the horses on board for Eskhead Station up in the lower Lake Sumner region...
Arriving in 30deg heat at this station we were greeted my the station manager Sam who was busy drafting sheep, but was happy to stop for ten minutes to introduce himself and have a yarn... infact as I unloaded my gear and started to tack up, both himself and his lad Johny came over to investigate this pack horse thing...
They asking lots of question regarding packing, having said they had tried it on a couple of occasions within the station but both times it didnt go too well ( Sams words)
It was nice to be able to offer a couple of pointers to them, and as a thank you for access and hut use I dropped a box of beers into Sams ute..... you should have seen his big smile when he saw me do that...... Thanks mate.....! they will disappear pretty quickly later this avo when finished work with this heat.....lol
So..... todays plan... after loading the horses, and saying my goodbyes to both Fiona and staff, was to ride out up alongside the South Branch of the Hurunui river and out to Eskheads, Deep creek hut, only a short 10 kilometre hop...
This trek was planned over a further 11 days involving climbing over the Dampier mountain range and down into the back of Mt White Station with around a week on this station exploring some of this remote beautiful country, and visiting as many of their huts overnights as possible,,,, infact I think we did visit most of them....
Then towards the end of this week, exiting the station down the Esk river, crossing the Waimakariri river in its gorge area, and over onto Flock hill Station, picking up one of there access tracks and following this up thru further stunning high country and out to Avoca, an historic old coal mining settlement, to be picked up again by Fiona the following Sunday week later...
Mt White station is quite hard to gain access to ride over, and have been turned down on more than the odd occasion, so a rare chance, and one I wanted to make the most of..
This Station is steeped in history, and have read much about the early days mustering and general station life as seen thru a number of other writers eyes.. the horse packing of hut materials just after the WW2 out along steep and narrow pack tracks to build the various huts such as the Ant, Cains Camp, Andersons, Cattle Creek, Bull Creek, Packety, to name a few...
Stories of packies cutting corrugated Iron into 4 foot lengths then rolling half a dozen sheet up into a roll to fit on the pack horse, forwards and backwards out to the various hut sites, then sourcing timber from the local beech forests to frame these huts up... many initially had a dirt floor...
This station has seen many managers and indeed mustering and general staff work here, all contributing their stamp on the place.... in parts this place is ruggered and unforgiving, in other places, wide wide open flats with beautiful mountain ranges towering above either side... lots of sprinklings of beech forest patches, crystal clear rivers and streams.... to me it felt like I was riding thru paradise..... and to top it al off, the majority of my week in here the weather was hot, calm and hardly a cloud in the sky..... perfect..!
Day One.....
My two travelling mates and myself all ready to head out on this new adventure...... note behind us, Eskhead Stations Cob cottage, complete (under the iron) with its original thatch roof,........ in and around North Canterbury high country there are a number of these similar buildings, such as the Acheron historic accommodation house, and others up on the Rainbow , Molesworth and Tarndale Stations.... good to see most in various stages of being preserved....
The Eskhead Cob Cottage....
Interesting to have a quick look in and around this beautiful historic lady... the front entry door having to bend down to enter,, the place inside with so many rooms must have been a hive of activity back in her hey day... I love the general history of our high country with still many examples of early settler buildings, pack tracks, and the way everyday problems were solved in the day to day station life... no tractors or indeed roads back then... for access alone, the cutting of pack tracks to allow horse access was just one area that in many places still astounds me how they managed to do it......
Riding up along the terrace above this South Branch of the Hurunui River......
Deep Creek Hut.....
Arriving up at Deep Creek hut and looking over just behind this hut I could very easily see how it got its name.. there is a very deep gorge with a little stream far below encased with beech forest .. beautiful and yet ruggered.....
After unloading and washing the boys down, I turned them loose in the adjacent horse paddock and went exploring around the place as I had heard that previous riders had trouble finding the track down thru this gorge and up the other side to start tomorrows big hill climb up onto the Dampier range....
This trek also, I wanted to do things a little different with packing as well, this being the first time I have used my new soft panniers with a plastic liner, to keep the weight on Bailey down as much as possible for this mountain crossing..
The weight of both my hard panniers empty sits around 24 kilograms, as opposed to the soft panniers at only 10 odd kilos for the set..
My plan this time was to use the panniers as my "supply store" with daily meals all packaged in separate bags and stored within, with each days meals and food requirements carried in my riding horse saddle bags..
This worked a treat, it was easy, and didnt have to repack and re weigh the panniers each day....
This trek, was one I personally classified as a "travelling on" each day trek, so didnt take my camp oven and luxury camp cook needs as if I was basing myself somewhere for a few days and doing day rides out etc...
After unloading and washing the boys down, I turned them loose in the adjacent horse paddock and went exploring around the place as I had heard that previous riders had trouble finding the track down thru this gorge and up the other side to start tomorrows big hill climb up onto the Dampier range....
This trek also, I wanted to do things a little different with packing as well, this being the first time I have used my new soft panniers with a plastic liner, to keep the weight on Bailey down as much as possible for this mountain crossing..
The weight of both my hard panniers empty sits around 24 kilograms, as opposed to the soft panniers at only 10 odd kilos for the set..
My plan this time was to use the panniers as my "supply store" with daily meals all packaged in separate bags and stored within, with each days meals and food requirements carried in my riding horse saddle bags..
This worked a treat, it was easy, and didnt have to repack and re weigh the panniers each day....
This trek, was one I personally classified as a "travelling on" each day trek, so didnt take my camp oven and luxury camp cook needs as if I was basing myself somewhere for a few days and doing day rides out etc...
Is that Bailey on his back snoring....?
Day two.........
Up at 4.30am, had breakfast, then readied the saddle gear into two piles, going on each horse respectively, cleaned and tidied the hut, and was saddling up the horses at the crack of dawn....
Today looked to be another fine and hot day, so wanted to be ready and heading out early for the two and a half hour climb out from the hut up onto the Dampier Range, and to get as far up the hill before the hot sun arrived...
As the above photo shows, the first few steps of this day involved entering down into a steep tracked gorge, thru the stream and up the other side, thru a gate and looked at the massive hill climb in front of us.....
Today, we initially had a two and a half hour climb to the mountain saddle, then approx another hour across the side of the Dampier range until we came to a little tarn lake up there, after which we dropped down onto the back of the Andersons Spur for a further hour and a bit walk down into the back corner of Mt White Station, so quite a ride in front of us...
Today looked to be another fine and hot day, so wanted to be ready and heading out early for the two and a half hour climb out from the hut up onto the Dampier Range, and to get as far up the hill before the hot sun arrived...
As the above photo shows, the first few steps of this day involved entering down into a steep tracked gorge, thru the stream and up the other side, thru a gate and looked at the massive hill climb in front of us.....
Today, we initially had a two and a half hour climb to the mountain saddle, then approx another hour across the side of the Dampier range until we came to a little tarn lake up there, after which we dropped down onto the back of the Andersons Spur for a further hour and a bit walk down into the back corner of Mt White Station, so quite a ride in front of us...
Overlooking some of the beautiful Eskhead Station country.......
Its a steady climb out from the hut up this spur, with much of the lower area just following along a fairly well defined track...
As we climbed the landscape around us unfolded with such beautiful views out as far as the eye could see... directly behind Bailey in the distant hills is the saddle that access Lake Taylor region...
Before this trek I knew the boys would be working hard in parts , so spent quite a lot of time getting them both fit enough to be able to cope with carrying their loads up over this mountain range...
As we climbed the landscape around us unfolded with such beautiful views out as far as the eye could see... directly behind Bailey in the distant hills is the saddle that access Lake Taylor region...
Before this trek I knew the boys would be working hard in parts , so spent quite a lot of time getting them both fit enough to be able to cope with carrying their loads up over this mountain range...
Looking away up towards the distant saddle on the top of this range...
We needed to climb high enough to skirt around on the top side of a couple of swampy area up near where this ridge met the cross mountain range in the above photo, then turn south and head along to the saddle in the middle of this photo...
Beautiful views overlooking Eskhead, out as far as Lake Mason in the centre right.....
before winter, I would like to do another trek into Eskhead Station but this time head up into the country shown in the above photo, perhaps basing ourselves at their Stony Stream hut away around the far corner where the South Branch of the Hurunui river turns just below the confluence of the Lake mason stream, and do an overnight from this hut up to the top hut for a look, then in a coule days returning down and stay in the Bush camp hut below the patch of beech forest in the centre left of this photo... some stunning country to ride over for a few days...
Approaching the Dampier saddle......
Having climbed high enough to skirt around the top of a couple of swampy areas, the pack track was less obvious in places, with the result earlier of bashing ones way along in tall snow tussocks, but scouting up and down in the area we found the track again... its a good ride up that ridge to the saddle in most parts..
Our first view of the vast Mt White Station.....
Once we left the saddle and headed up the hill further on the Mt White side, we lost the pack track once again, but I reckoned I needed to get high enough to skirt around any alpine swampy area on this side, so stayed up high as we sidled across the side of this range until we came upon this small mountain side tarn lake...
Once I saw this I knew I was too high, so worked our way down thru further snow tussock and rock area, so we could pass this tarn on the down side,
It took a bit longer this way but in doing so was able to keep out of the swampy going...
The boys enjoyed a good drink from this tarn while passing..
In the above photo to the left we are looking at the long Andersons Spur, the one we need to ride down to the bottom to our this nights hut.. the Andersons Hut..
Once I saw this I knew I was too high, so worked our way down thru further snow tussock and rock area, so we could pass this tarn on the down side,
It took a bit longer this way but in doing so was able to keep out of the swampy going...
The boys enjoyed a good drink from this tarn while passing..
In the above photo to the left we are looking at the long Andersons Spur, the one we need to ride down to the bottom to our this nights hut.. the Andersons Hut..
From Andersons Spur, looking back across to the Dampier Saddle..
Descending the Andersons Spur..!
Such Stunning scenery......
Three quarters of the way down this spur we were following a well defined pack track when we came upon a patch of Beech forest right across a steeper part, and all of a sudden the track stopped.. ahead.. dense beech forest... I looked straight a head after tying the horses up to a bush, but no go.. next I sidled down to the left but it was way too steep for a pack horse, so back up to the horses and tried the right side.. still a no go....
I sat down on a large tussock looking at my options to try and get down thru this section but no matter which way I looked my path was blocked...
I back tracked up the hill a little way looking for other horse hoof prints but couldnt find any led down track..... I was certainly beginning to scratch my head over this, so thought it has to be here some place...
So I walked a few more steps back up hill, and next I spotted horse tracks coming out of a side area of light bush, so poked down and sure enough,, the track entrance had been camouflaged by just a couple of light overhanging branches.. so back down grabbed the horses and bush bashed our way down thru this area... perhaps a chain saw would be useful to clear this section again...
I sat down on a large tussock looking at my options to try and get down thru this section but no matter which way I looked my path was blocked...
I back tracked up the hill a little way looking for other horse hoof prints but couldnt find any led down track..... I was certainly beginning to scratch my head over this, so thought it has to be here some place...
So I walked a few more steps back up hill, and next I spotted horse tracks coming out of a side area of light bush, so poked down and sure enough,, the track entrance had been camouflaged by just a couple of light overhanging branches.. so back down grabbed the horses and bush bashed our way down thru this area... perhaps a chain saw would be useful to clear this section again...
Andersons Hut, at the bottom of the same named Spur......
So, a two and half hour climb out from the Deep Creek hut up to the Saddle then a further hour across the mountain side to the Andersons Spur and a further hour and a half down to the above hut, pretty much without stopping apart from a drink out of the tarn for the boys..
So was well pleased with our effort...
The Andersons hut was another hut on my bucket list that I have wanted to visit for a long time, infact many of the Mt White huts also felt into this category ..
The day was hot and windless when we arrived down, and no sooner had we stopped when the Sandfly population descended on us all... its fair to say they were thick and severe...
As soon as I unloaded and washed the boys down I dug out and put on their fly covers to give them some releif from the relentless attacks from the flies.. these covers work well in my opinion....
So was well pleased with our effort...
The Andersons hut was another hut on my bucket list that I have wanted to visit for a long time, infact many of the Mt White huts also felt into this category ..
The day was hot and windless when we arrived down, and no sooner had we stopped when the Sandfly population descended on us all... its fair to say they were thick and severe...
As soon as I unloaded and washed the boys down I dug out and put on their fly covers to give them some releif from the relentless attacks from the flies.. these covers work well in my opinion....
Shae standing in the stream cooling off as he ate his lunch...!
We suffered a bit of a catastrophe in the trouser dept.......
Just as I disembarked from my mount, I heard a bloody great rip in the neither region, and looked down to discover that certain parts of one anotomy had fallen out as a result...... I thought.. needle and thread..????? nope......... looking at the damage, the trousers were only destined for that big used clothing bin in the sky....... or where ever these garments are sent to by the heavens once they pass their useby date...
This was the second pair in a week to do this..... does this mean I finally will have no option but venture into town for my bi annual buy up of new clothes... I dislike shopping with a passion but faced with the other option of wearing only ones under garments, that prospect didnt hold a hole lot of appeal either.. Darn...!
That afternoon the air temp must have easily reached 30 deg.. man it was hot, and inside this little hut made of steel, it was like a oven, so elected to sleep outside on the ground in my swag next to my high lined horses..... what a great nights sleep was had by all....
This hut was obviously built back in the deer culler days with still the basic sacking stretched beds and not a lot else within.... but hey.. if it was snowing etc. its still a palace to be able to get in out of the weather...
This was the second pair in a week to do this..... does this mean I finally will have no option but venture into town for my bi annual buy up of new clothes... I dislike shopping with a passion but faced with the other option of wearing only ones under garments, that prospect didnt hold a hole lot of appeal either.. Darn...!
That afternoon the air temp must have easily reached 30 deg.. man it was hot, and inside this little hut made of steel, it was like a oven, so elected to sleep outside on the ground in my swag next to my high lined horses..... what a great nights sleep was had by all....
This hut was obviously built back in the deer culler days with still the basic sacking stretched beds and not a lot else within.... but hey.. if it was snowing etc. its still a palace to be able to get in out of the weather...
Day three.......
Another stunning, still and sunny day as we packed up our kit after a bit of a sleep in and breakfast...
Today we were headed South from the Andersons Hut out along this wide open flat with stunning scenery everywhere we looked.... just after this photo was take we obviously disturbed a clean skin Bull that shot up out of the right hand scrub and took off down this terrace in front of us..
I learnt a bit later in the week that this station has quite a number of these wild cattle on the property..... to those who dont know what I am referring to.. some cows and calves miss the various musters by slipping down into the dense bush out of sight and as these calves grow into adult bulls and cows they are not marked with the Station ear tags hence the name clean skin....
Many a musterer has spent many an hour trying to capture and bring some of these wild cattle in but more often than not they will break away at all and any cost and head back to their home turf... often this being steep and inaccessible scrub areas
Over my week long visit I saw some 5 wild cattle, and a number of equally wild sheep scattered about the Station..
Today, was also meet up day at the next hut, that being Cattle Creek hut in the upper Grant stream, along a way and up to the left in the above photo of two experienced lady horse riders, Vicki and Kay, who had started their ride two days ago from Lees Valley, stooping overnight on the other side of the Puketeraki Mountain Range up at the Tarn hut, then yesterday climbing to the summit of this range and sidling down the long two and a half hour descent of the Pig Spur, then riding around and up to the hut....
As I rode along a bit further in the above photo around mid morning my sight came upon a lone horse and rider, and as we got closer it was Kay on her horse coming out for a day ride to meet us.... we stopped for a chat with Kay wanting to go visit the Andersons area as she had not seen it before so we agreed to meet up later in the day at Cattle Creek...
Today we were headed South from the Andersons Hut out along this wide open flat with stunning scenery everywhere we looked.... just after this photo was take we obviously disturbed a clean skin Bull that shot up out of the right hand scrub and took off down this terrace in front of us..
I learnt a bit later in the week that this station has quite a number of these wild cattle on the property..... to those who dont know what I am referring to.. some cows and calves miss the various musters by slipping down into the dense bush out of sight and as these calves grow into adult bulls and cows they are not marked with the Station ear tags hence the name clean skin....
Many a musterer has spent many an hour trying to capture and bring some of these wild cattle in but more often than not they will break away at all and any cost and head back to their home turf... often this being steep and inaccessible scrub areas
Over my week long visit I saw some 5 wild cattle, and a number of equally wild sheep scattered about the Station..
Today, was also meet up day at the next hut, that being Cattle Creek hut in the upper Grant stream, along a way and up to the left in the above photo of two experienced lady horse riders, Vicki and Kay, who had started their ride two days ago from Lees Valley, stooping overnight on the other side of the Puketeraki Mountain Range up at the Tarn hut, then yesterday climbing to the summit of this range and sidling down the long two and a half hour descent of the Pig Spur, then riding around and up to the hut....
As I rode along a bit further in the above photo around mid morning my sight came upon a lone horse and rider, and as we got closer it was Kay on her horse coming out for a day ride to meet us.... we stopped for a chat with Kay wanting to go visit the Andersons area as she had not seen it before so we agreed to meet up later in the day at Cattle Creek...
Riding down the Esk river terrace towards the Grant stream area...
The Grant Stream stock track, access to the Cattle Creek hut..!
Cattle Creek Hut.......
A very interesting story goes with this hut...... up until around the end of WW2 this area didnt have a hut and when mustering prior to this period pack horses were bought up the rough and narrow gorged Grants stream with tent gear for the various musters and then taken back down country for the next use....
Mean while at the Nigger hills huts around this time stood a farm house with a set of stables near by, and when the new homestead away down at the front of the Station near the Poulter river was built this farm house was converted to just a hut.. with the stables largely surplus...
A musterer asked several time over a couple year period if the iron from this stable block could be taken off and it horse packed up to cattle Creek site to build a new hut up there..
Eventually the manager at that time gave in to this request, so a group of guys denailed the iron, keeping and straightening all the nails as after the war these along with Corrugated iron were in short supply...
All the iron was then hand cut in half, or around 4 foot lengths so it could be transported on the pack horse without the horses being cut or hurt.... by the sounds of it cutting all this iron by hand was a huge job, after which these 4 foot lengths were bundled up into lots of 6 and then rolled up and tied for transporting up to the new site on pack horses.. backwards and forwards they went carting all this material in...
Local Beech trees were shaped and built as framing for this new hut and today one can see the iron on it is all at this short lengths both the walls and roof sections..... quite a job I would have imagined back in that day.....
Mean while at the Nigger hills huts around this time stood a farm house with a set of stables near by, and when the new homestead away down at the front of the Station near the Poulter river was built this farm house was converted to just a hut.. with the stables largely surplus...
A musterer asked several time over a couple year period if the iron from this stable block could be taken off and it horse packed up to cattle Creek site to build a new hut up there..
Eventually the manager at that time gave in to this request, so a group of guys denailed the iron, keeping and straightening all the nails as after the war these along with Corrugated iron were in short supply...
All the iron was then hand cut in half, or around 4 foot lengths so it could be transported on the pack horse without the horses being cut or hurt.... by the sounds of it cutting all this iron by hand was a huge job, after which these 4 foot lengths were bundled up into lots of 6 and then rolled up and tied for transporting up to the new site on pack horses.. backwards and forwards they went carting all this material in...
Local Beech trees were shaped and built as framing for this new hut and today one can see the iron on it is all at this short lengths both the walls and roof sections..... quite a job I would have imagined back in that day.....
Cattle Creek hut horse paddock.......
Sandflies..... did I mention sandflies anywhere earlier..? well if you like them.. this is the best place to experience them.. thick in numbers is a good way to describe them...
Fly covers on the horse were certainly needed here...... being mid summer the little stream that run down thru the paddock had dried up so this in turn involved us walking down to the stream on the far side of the hut , filling two nose bags with water and returning for the boys to drink... it was the second run with this when I returned and upon entering the paddock I noticed something I wish I hadnt seen.....
Shae had a rear shoe missing.. darn and dam it...........
This is the first time in an awful long time that any of my horses have lost a rear shoe.. usually always a front, so in my shoeing bag I only carry fronts... and a good range also I may add...
So to the hut to dig out the shoeing bag and back to shae, tipping said bag upside down everything fell out then selected all of Shaes size spare shoes,....
Trying each to see how close each and any one may have been to somehow fit the rear shape, I selected the closest one, however it was still miles out of shape needed...
I trimmed up his foot ready for a new shoe, and with an axe on a large rock bent the shoe to more of a rear foot shape, but in doing so the two ends of said shoe became too close to fit either side of his frog... now the tricky part....... with no anvil how was one surposed to bend the two ends out.... I tried all sorts.. I looked around and thru and everywhere for a couple bits of pipe or something to help lever said shoe out but nothing....
Kay said... how would they go if we got a fire going in the hut and placed said shoe in the ashes to get it red hot... but i didnt really have anything much to hold this hot shoe to bash it with the axe straightening device....
So looking further around my eyes came upon my little gas burner.. and I thought.. heat.......hummmmm.. so light this and on full blast I held said shoe over it for quite a while... it didnt glow red hot but after a while it was sort of warm enough to bash with my shoe straightening device.. then had to repeat for the other end side to straighten that...
With much tooing and froing and advice from the two ladies. I sort of had a shoe that sort of did fit, however along the inside line of shaes hoof the shoe stuck out around 5 mm, and I have to say it was the best I could do. but I was a worried man as if Shae was to stand on this protrusion with his other rear foot he would certain rip it back off again and probably take some of the hoof side wall with it...
I couldnt stop worrying about the "what if" all night as if it had come off then we would be in trouble to get shae out from this rear and remote hut all the way over endless rocky ground for several days to reach the homestead where I could pick him up with the float.... his foot had been trimmed below the frog to take his previous set of shoes but with this short length after being recently shod the frog would have been ripped to bits on the rocky ground....not a nice feeling I can tell you..!
Originally I had planned with Vic and Kay to meet up here at Cattle creek and then we all next day ride over and stay at Anna hut further over and down the station a ways but the ladies decided that next day to change this and ride down to the Nigger then across and pick up the pack track ride up onto the Lazyman and stay at Cains camp hut with the next day now them wanting to climb back out over the Puketeraki range and back to Lees Valley as they had heard the weather was due to swing back to North West gales... so their time with us was cut very short...
Staying the night here at Cattle Creek, I have never seen so many mice running around the hut and area, they were cheeky and in numbers... I soon found out about using soft panniers in this sort of country with mice leaping into them and they started into any and everything they could chew a hole and gain entry... one of my two loaves of bread was the first target.. mice chewed a hole in the end of the bread bag, and then borrowed his way inside and along in the middle from one end almost to the other end, leaving me with only one usable slice and the crust on the end.... cheese.. well they had a banquet with that... apples for their desert was a tasty treat... even my deserts in plastic cups was no problem for them to enter.. what a bloody mess they made and cut my food rashion short in a number of areas... little tikes...
So Kay declared war on them early evening...... a cunning lady is Kay.. firstly she got four tins and placed a table leg inside each one and sat them back on the floor.. this being so mice couldnt climb up the tin to access the wooden table leg for the then quick gallop up onto said table for more choice delicacies the humans had bought for them.. that worked well.. no mouse poo was seen the entire night from then on on the table...
Next Kay said..... has anyone seen any glass bottle such as a beer stubby bottle.. yep said Vic.. over here.... so Kay lays said bottle with the neck overhanging the side of the bench, places a wet cloth over said bottles mid section and placed a stone either side to hold it in place.. next she greased the overhanging bottle neck , finally placing a piece of salami in the end of the bottle overhanging the bench... next below on the floor she filled a ten litre bucket with water and we all hopped onto our bunks and waited..
Within a few minutes the first mouse hops up onto the bench and over to the side lying bottle.. hops up onto it and starts to walk along the top of it out over past the line of the bench, then hit the slippery section.. fell off and guess where it ended up..... splash....... good bye number one pesty little tike... next................!
Fly covers on the horse were certainly needed here...... being mid summer the little stream that run down thru the paddock had dried up so this in turn involved us walking down to the stream on the far side of the hut , filling two nose bags with water and returning for the boys to drink... it was the second run with this when I returned and upon entering the paddock I noticed something I wish I hadnt seen.....
Shae had a rear shoe missing.. darn and dam it...........
This is the first time in an awful long time that any of my horses have lost a rear shoe.. usually always a front, so in my shoeing bag I only carry fronts... and a good range also I may add...
So to the hut to dig out the shoeing bag and back to shae, tipping said bag upside down everything fell out then selected all of Shaes size spare shoes,....
Trying each to see how close each and any one may have been to somehow fit the rear shape, I selected the closest one, however it was still miles out of shape needed...
I trimmed up his foot ready for a new shoe, and with an axe on a large rock bent the shoe to more of a rear foot shape, but in doing so the two ends of said shoe became too close to fit either side of his frog... now the tricky part....... with no anvil how was one surposed to bend the two ends out.... I tried all sorts.. I looked around and thru and everywhere for a couple bits of pipe or something to help lever said shoe out but nothing....
Kay said... how would they go if we got a fire going in the hut and placed said shoe in the ashes to get it red hot... but i didnt really have anything much to hold this hot shoe to bash it with the axe straightening device....
So looking further around my eyes came upon my little gas burner.. and I thought.. heat.......hummmmm.. so light this and on full blast I held said shoe over it for quite a while... it didnt glow red hot but after a while it was sort of warm enough to bash with my shoe straightening device.. then had to repeat for the other end side to straighten that...
With much tooing and froing and advice from the two ladies. I sort of had a shoe that sort of did fit, however along the inside line of shaes hoof the shoe stuck out around 5 mm, and I have to say it was the best I could do. but I was a worried man as if Shae was to stand on this protrusion with his other rear foot he would certain rip it back off again and probably take some of the hoof side wall with it...
I couldnt stop worrying about the "what if" all night as if it had come off then we would be in trouble to get shae out from this rear and remote hut all the way over endless rocky ground for several days to reach the homestead where I could pick him up with the float.... his foot had been trimmed below the frog to take his previous set of shoes but with this short length after being recently shod the frog would have been ripped to bits on the rocky ground....not a nice feeling I can tell you..!
Originally I had planned with Vic and Kay to meet up here at Cattle creek and then we all next day ride over and stay at Anna hut further over and down the station a ways but the ladies decided that next day to change this and ride down to the Nigger then across and pick up the pack track ride up onto the Lazyman and stay at Cains camp hut with the next day now them wanting to climb back out over the Puketeraki range and back to Lees Valley as they had heard the weather was due to swing back to North West gales... so their time with us was cut very short...
Staying the night here at Cattle Creek, I have never seen so many mice running around the hut and area, they were cheeky and in numbers... I soon found out about using soft panniers in this sort of country with mice leaping into them and they started into any and everything they could chew a hole and gain entry... one of my two loaves of bread was the first target.. mice chewed a hole in the end of the bread bag, and then borrowed his way inside and along in the middle from one end almost to the other end, leaving me with only one usable slice and the crust on the end.... cheese.. well they had a banquet with that... apples for their desert was a tasty treat... even my deserts in plastic cups was no problem for them to enter.. what a bloody mess they made and cut my food rashion short in a number of areas... little tikes...
So Kay declared war on them early evening...... a cunning lady is Kay.. firstly she got four tins and placed a table leg inside each one and sat them back on the floor.. this being so mice couldnt climb up the tin to access the wooden table leg for the then quick gallop up onto said table for more choice delicacies the humans had bought for them.. that worked well.. no mouse poo was seen the entire night from then on on the table...
Next Kay said..... has anyone seen any glass bottle such as a beer stubby bottle.. yep said Vic.. over here.... so Kay lays said bottle with the neck overhanging the side of the bench, places a wet cloth over said bottles mid section and placed a stone either side to hold it in place.. next she greased the overhanging bottle neck , finally placing a piece of salami in the end of the bottle overhanging the bench... next below on the floor she filled a ten litre bucket with water and we all hopped onto our bunks and waited..
Within a few minutes the first mouse hops up onto the bench and over to the side lying bottle.. hops up onto it and starts to walk along the top of it out over past the line of the bench, then hit the slippery section.. fell off and guess where it ended up..... splash....... good bye number one pesty little tike... next................!
Kays mouse trap........!
Grants Stream area, almost at the confluence of the Esk river......
Someone on this station has a sense of humour......!
So early next morning at Cattle creek hut, the two ladies were out of bed a sparrow fart, packed up and away out down to the Nigger, mean while the old fella returns back to bed and enjoyed a nice lie in, rising around 9am, having a leisurely breakfast, then strolling up to water the boys and check on shaes shoe..... ya.. still on and intact. great....
I looked at his other side rear shoe and even though he had only been shod some three weeks earlier had warn the ridge off this side shoe as well and the nails looked to have warn down as well, so thought.... bugger this....
I went and retrieved my shoeing bag once again, then removed all his other side rear shoe nails one at a time replacing them with fresh ones, then clenched these up.. that gave him a sound and safe set of rears which coincidently gave no further trouble the entire rest of the trek....
Saddling both boys we left Cattle Creek around 11am, and headed off back down the track to the Esk river, then followed this down to the Cattle yards in the Ant Stream then turned up this and rode on up to the Anna hut, some 2.5 hours ride time....
I looked at his other side rear shoe and even though he had only been shod some three weeks earlier had warn the ridge off this side shoe as well and the nails looked to have warn down as well, so thought.... bugger this....
I went and retrieved my shoeing bag once again, then removed all his other side rear shoe nails one at a time replacing them with fresh ones, then clenched these up.. that gave him a sound and safe set of rears which coincidently gave no further trouble the entire rest of the trek....
Saddling both boys we left Cattle Creek around 11am, and headed off back down the track to the Esk river, then followed this down to the Cattle yards in the Ant Stream then turned up this and rode on up to the Anna hut, some 2.5 hours ride time....
The Ant Stream area.......
The historic Ant Hut........now a derelict..!
A well appointed hut.......
Arriving up here at this Anna hut early afternoon, what a pleasant surprise awaited me...
Firstly a very well appointed hut complete with shower and running water within.... a covered tack up shed and tack room.. bliss to unload the boys in the heat of the day under this roof.....
Greeting us to this hut was Jess, one of the well built Station horses, that was left here for some reason, which later I found out why....
I had planned to stay overnight and was due to have a further day off for the boys next day.. what a lovely spot to park up for a wee while....
That night I went all out and made a delicious dinner for one then followed by desert after which I pulled a comfortable chair out onto the decking and sat down to watch the sun going down on this little slice of paradise..... just stunning....!
Firstly a very well appointed hut complete with shower and running water within.... a covered tack up shed and tack room.. bliss to unload the boys in the heat of the day under this roof.....
Greeting us to this hut was Jess, one of the well built Station horses, that was left here for some reason, which later I found out why....
I had planned to stay overnight and was due to have a further day off for the boys next day.. what a lovely spot to park up for a wee while....
That night I went all out and made a delicious dinner for one then followed by desert after which I pulled a comfortable chair out onto the decking and sat down to watch the sun going down on this little slice of paradise..... just stunning....!
Bacon and Corn patties topped off with a couple of eggs.. yum...!
Not a bad view from the Kitchen window as we slaved over a hot stove...lol!
Perfect summer weather for sleeping outdoors overnight..!
Around 10pm, with the heat of this day dissipating, I turned in for the night in the swag outside on the deck as in the above photo... the horses had disappeared over the terrace and down below grazing, and soon the sound of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz emulated from said swag roll...
It was away in the middle of the night and of which I was fast asleep, when I felt something lightly brush over my face, which woke me....
My eyes came face to face with little Baileys nose, as he checked out this snoring thing on his patch.... I reached up and gave him a pat as he turned and wandered off back into the darkness....
Next morning.. what a beautiful sight greeted me upon waking..... here was little Bailey about 4 metres in front of me lying on the ground fast asleep, with Shae standing guard near him, also fast asleep.... such a special little moment.......!
Another sleep in morning was had and after another leisurely breakfast, I left the boys to it and went for a walk up river aways...... not to far up, the river narrowed up into a little gorge, so climbed up onto a side terrace and walked along beside the Beech forest and overlooking the river below in its gorge... again such beautiful natural scenery.... a couple of hours later saw the old fart return, and was just making a cup a tea, when I heard someone yelling at dogs... next up onto the hut terrace two musterers appeared riding a horse each and a team of dogs in hot pursuit...
They looked hot and bothered so after introducing myself to them I made a cuppa for all and we all sat down in the shade and had a yarn....
The guys had dropped Jess off the day before I arrived and her rider had taken the truck back down to the station for more supplies and to feed all the animals down there as everyone else normally there were away for a few days...
The other guy driving the truck was due back up to the hut here around 3pm but by 6 pm had failed to show,
The two guys were so hungry after a big day mustering cattle and with no tucker, I offered to feed them from my supplies, which we did.. I made up a slap up meal with lots of spud and veges with a bit of meat which went down well....
The truck and driver did eventually turn up around 11pm, with him saying his truck broke down and took a while to fix.... all good...
He also said over his tea at that hour that a huge fire had broken out on the adjacent Flock hill Station early today and was out of control when he left the station.... with a light wind blowing from the South in our direction straight from the fires location I said in the morning I would change my initial plan of heading down that way, and instead move around and up into the Lochinvar area for 24 hours or so just incase the wind got up causing the fire to possibly jump the river and head our way..
I elected to do this as I know fire will race along at the same speed as the wind and didnt want to get tangled up in it.... it was just a precaution...
The next morning the guys were up early and saying their good byes one mentioned to me if I had seen three missing horses ... no....... was my reply.... the guy said they had been turned loose a week or two back and they usually make their own way back down to the homestead in a couple of days but a no show had occurred so far...
leaving the hut here around 8.30am i rode back down the Ant Stream track and up onto the terrace and along a way climbed a bit of a hill, and at the top could see away down towards Flock hill, and I have to say the whole Torlesse Mountain Range was shrouded in smoke from the fire....
Luckily the wind remand light southerly all this day, as I rode down towards the turn off up into the Lochinvar valley...
It was away in the middle of the night and of which I was fast asleep, when I felt something lightly brush over my face, which woke me....
My eyes came face to face with little Baileys nose, as he checked out this snoring thing on his patch.... I reached up and gave him a pat as he turned and wandered off back into the darkness....
Next morning.. what a beautiful sight greeted me upon waking..... here was little Bailey about 4 metres in front of me lying on the ground fast asleep, with Shae standing guard near him, also fast asleep.... such a special little moment.......!
Another sleep in morning was had and after another leisurely breakfast, I left the boys to it and went for a walk up river aways...... not to far up, the river narrowed up into a little gorge, so climbed up onto a side terrace and walked along beside the Beech forest and overlooking the river below in its gorge... again such beautiful natural scenery.... a couple of hours later saw the old fart return, and was just making a cup a tea, when I heard someone yelling at dogs... next up onto the hut terrace two musterers appeared riding a horse each and a team of dogs in hot pursuit...
They looked hot and bothered so after introducing myself to them I made a cuppa for all and we all sat down in the shade and had a yarn....
The guys had dropped Jess off the day before I arrived and her rider had taken the truck back down to the station for more supplies and to feed all the animals down there as everyone else normally there were away for a few days...
The other guy driving the truck was due back up to the hut here around 3pm but by 6 pm had failed to show,
The two guys were so hungry after a big day mustering cattle and with no tucker, I offered to feed them from my supplies, which we did.. I made up a slap up meal with lots of spud and veges with a bit of meat which went down well....
The truck and driver did eventually turn up around 11pm, with him saying his truck broke down and took a while to fix.... all good...
He also said over his tea at that hour that a huge fire had broken out on the adjacent Flock hill Station early today and was out of control when he left the station.... with a light wind blowing from the South in our direction straight from the fires location I said in the morning I would change my initial plan of heading down that way, and instead move around and up into the Lochinvar area for 24 hours or so just incase the wind got up causing the fire to possibly jump the river and head our way..
I elected to do this as I know fire will race along at the same speed as the wind and didnt want to get tangled up in it.... it was just a precaution...
The next morning the guys were up early and saying their good byes one mentioned to me if I had seen three missing horses ... no....... was my reply.... the guy said they had been turned loose a week or two back and they usually make their own way back down to the homestead in a couple of days but a no show had occurred so far...
leaving the hut here around 8.30am i rode back down the Ant Stream track and up onto the terrace and along a way climbed a bit of a hill, and at the top could see away down towards Flock hill, and I have to say the whole Torlesse Mountain Range was shrouded in smoke from the fire....
Luckily the wind remand light southerly all this day, as I rode down towards the turn off up into the Lochinvar valley...
Riding down the track with the far distant Torlesse Range almost invisible with smoke from the fire..!
Stopping up in the Nigger Stream for a drink and bite to eat....!
The vast flats up in the Lochinvar Valley region..!
What do we have here then...?
The boys and I were strolling along up the Lochinvar valley heading towards the Lochinvar hut, when we topped this hill at the head of a little gorge below us when my eye clapped on a group of three missing horses.....
They had gotten themselves on the wrong side of a fence, hence the reason they were not able to make their way back home..
I rode down off the hill and thru a gate into the area where they were, and at once they came over, shiffed our lot and started following us up the valley.... a few kilometres further up we came to another fence and thru the gate I left the three on the other side then proceeded on up to the hut overnight...
They had gotten themselves on the wrong side of a fence, hence the reason they were not able to make their way back home..
I rode down off the hill and thru a gate into the area where they were, and at once they came over, shiffed our lot and started following us up the valley.... a few kilometres further up we came to another fence and thru the gate I left the three on the other side then proceeded on up to the hut overnight...
The Lochinvar Hut...!
A bit of a surprise when we arrived up at this hut..... no water flowing in the adjacent stream, and the nearest water was a couple of kilometres away on the other side of the valley....
Luckily in the hut someone had left two ten litre plastic water containers, so I unloaded Baileys pack panniers, and shaes excess gear, then tied said plastic bottles onto Baileys pack saddle and headed off over to fill them and give the boys a drink....
I washed them down as best as I could over there. mainly undoing the girths and washing this area especially, before returning...
No horse paddock up here , so both boys on the leg ties during the day and high lined between two trees overnight...... Mice were rampant at this hut as well....
Next morning I saddled Shae with Bailey loose and nothing on him , rode out firstly to the top of the fan where I could see right down to the Esk river area.. no fire activity could be seen so decided to firstly trot out and up to Bull Creek hut for a couple hours for a look, then returned around mid day... loaded the pack gear and headed off back down to pick up the three Station horses, and on down to the Nigger hut...
Luckily in the hut someone had left two ten litre plastic water containers, so I unloaded Baileys pack panniers, and shaes excess gear, then tied said plastic bottles onto Baileys pack saddle and headed off over to fill them and give the boys a drink....
I washed them down as best as I could over there. mainly undoing the girths and washing this area especially, before returning...
No horse paddock up here , so both boys on the leg ties during the day and high lined between two trees overnight...... Mice were rampant at this hut as well....
Next morning I saddled Shae with Bailey loose and nothing on him , rode out firstly to the top of the fan where I could see right down to the Esk river area.. no fire activity could be seen so decided to firstly trot out and up to Bull Creek hut for a couple hours for a look, then returned around mid day... loaded the pack gear and headed off back down to pick up the three Station horses, and on down to the Nigger hut...
The three Musketeers had not gone far from leaving them yesterday....
Late afternoon arrival down to the Nigger huts.....
You may be able to see in this photo, the Torlesse Mountains still shrouded in smoke.. normally these mountains are easily seen from here,
Upon arriving at the hut I opened the horse paddock gate and rode in leading Bailey towards the other end, luckily the three other horses followed us in, so rode a quiet loop back around to the gate, closing it behind me.... yaaaaaaa...
Unsaddling and washing down both boys I left our lot outside the paddock for a while to get acquainted, and when I was happy all were getting on let my lot in as well....
With the other horses now in our company I had to change my route plan once again....
Originally, my plan from here was next day to head on over to the Esk, down the terrace track and on over and up to the Lazyman Plateau following day down this plateau, off the far end and down to the Packety hut, but now decided, to finish the horse job by taking the three extras back down the 18 odd kilometre track and back to the station, then back track over to the Packety hut..
However before taking them down, I wanted to go check out the pack track that leds out and up to the Lazyman. I had heard a little about it and knew it was a bit hair raising in parts, so next morning saddled Shae, with again the loose Bailey with nothing on him headed out from the Nigger huts across the flat to the Esk river to try and find this pack track firstly down into the Esk river....
Upon arriving at the hut I opened the horse paddock gate and rode in leading Bailey towards the other end, luckily the three other horses followed us in, so rode a quiet loop back around to the gate, closing it behind me.... yaaaaaaa...
Unsaddling and washing down both boys I left our lot outside the paddock for a while to get acquainted, and when I was happy all were getting on let my lot in as well....
With the other horses now in our company I had to change my route plan once again....
Originally, my plan from here was next day to head on over to the Esk, down the terrace track and on over and up to the Lazyman Plateau following day down this plateau, off the far end and down to the Packety hut, but now decided, to finish the horse job by taking the three extras back down the 18 odd kilometre track and back to the station, then back track over to the Packety hut..
However before taking them down, I wanted to go check out the pack track that leds out and up to the Lazyman. I had heard a little about it and knew it was a bit hair raising in parts, so next morning saddled Shae, with again the loose Bailey with nothing on him headed out from the Nigger huts across the flat to the Esk river to try and find this pack track firstly down into the Esk river....
It looked a bit steep off this spur down into that river below.......
The pack track was steep alright.. straight down the ridge.....
Photo doesnt do the terrain steepness justice.. I had trouble standing up scrambling down here in front of Shae.. several times slid over, but hanging onto the reins old Shae held me up....
I reckon it was a good 45 deg angle straight down....... yeeeeehaaaaa..lol
With a bit of a rock slide near the bottom we were down...... now the next side.... I had been told we needed to ride up this river around half a kilometre to pick up the pack track heading up hill and out to the Plateau , so off we went up river.....
I reckon it was a good 45 deg angle straight down....... yeeeeehaaaaa..lol
With a bit of a rock slide near the bottom we were down...... now the next side.... I had been told we needed to ride up this river around half a kilometre to pick up the pack track heading up hill and out to the Plateau , so off we went up river.....
Where is that correct other side pack track...?
Around half a kilometre up river this photo showed the first sign of a pack track, but it looked very overgrown from viewing it down here but...... well only one way to find out...
I rode Shae up this track, but scrub was thick and prickly .... bush bashing our way up onto a small flat, then riding around that flat, soon realised this was not the track, so back down to the river once again... riding up river a little further, I tried again up another cattle track with a similar outlook, still further up river tried one last time,, up onto a further small flat, but no real obvious pack track..... frustrated, and being on my own, not wanting to push things to much I decided to give in trying to find it and returned down river to the other side pack track.....
Looking up at its steepness, momentarily trying to decide.. do I ride up it, or walk up in front of Shae.... with its steepness and loose rocky surface I thought every step I took up would almost end in sliding back again, so elected to stay on Shae and give it a go....
I can tell you Shae needed four wheel drive here, but he was a real trooper... stopping a couple times for a breather, we scrambled back up to the top of the terrace in around 10 minutes...... what a ride I can tell you..lol
Back over to the Nigger Hut around Lunch time, and soon after both horses and rider deciding on a nice afternoon nap..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
In some ways I am glad I didnt push it trying to find that other side track, but looking across from this side terrace , I reckoned that last place I climbed up onto was probably the right area, just could'nt find the track up thru the dense scrub...
I rode Shae up this track, but scrub was thick and prickly .... bush bashing our way up onto a small flat, then riding around that flat, soon realised this was not the track, so back down to the river once again... riding up river a little further, I tried again up another cattle track with a similar outlook, still further up river tried one last time,, up onto a further small flat, but no real obvious pack track..... frustrated, and being on my own, not wanting to push things to much I decided to give in trying to find it and returned down river to the other side pack track.....
Looking up at its steepness, momentarily trying to decide.. do I ride up it, or walk up in front of Shae.... with its steepness and loose rocky surface I thought every step I took up would almost end in sliding back again, so elected to stay on Shae and give it a go....
I can tell you Shae needed four wheel drive here, but he was a real trooper... stopping a couple times for a breather, we scrambled back up to the top of the terrace in around 10 minutes...... what a ride I can tell you..lol
Back over to the Nigger Hut around Lunch time, and soon after both horses and rider deciding on a nice afternoon nap..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
In some ways I am glad I didnt push it trying to find that other side track, but looking across from this side terrace , I reckoned that last place I climbed up onto was probably the right area, just could'nt find the track up thru the dense scrub...
Next morning we all set off down to the Homestead to deliver to three other horses......
My, todays revised plan was to take the extra horses down the 18 odd kilometre track to the almost the homestead, leaving them on the homestead side of a fence and gate I knew existed, then back tracking out to the terrace edge, finding the pack track down into the Esk once again near the Packety hut and riding on over for my next nights accommodation ....
However.. once again arriving at the edge of the terrrace and not knowing this country, thought I found the track down into the river, so started down it sldling down a gully, however it got steeper and steeper, and along with this on dry grass, shae was slipping quite a lot with his shoes on, so stopped to access, where I was going... looking down it got even steeper, so thought, time to turn around and head back up hill.... I had certainly missed the track yet again...
Up on top of the terrace once again, I rode along a way but still couldnt see where the correct track went down hill.... frustrated and again not wanting to push it too much with a pack horse in tow, took out my GPS, and looked at my options....
The GPS, showed cliffs all away along in this region to gain access down to the Packety hut, so again following it, headed along the terrace thru scrub , looking for a further vehicle track and worked my way over to the bottom corner of Mt White where I knew a track went down into the Esk, near the Confluence of it and the Waimak rivers..
I found said track and a couple hours riding later we arrived down into the lower Esk, then back tracked up this river for the 4 or 5 kilometres and up to the Packety hut....
Quite a days ride, but in doing so needed to keep myself and horse safe, by taking this longer option....
Funny thing.... arriving at the Packety Hut, I looked over to the terrace that we tried to ride down originally and from below spotted the pack track heading back up... darn.. I was only around 30 or 40 metres short of finding it from that end... I did ride along a bit from the first decent attempt, but if I had of ridden another short distance further on would have seen it..... o well chalk that one up to experience....!
However.. once again arriving at the edge of the terrrace and not knowing this country, thought I found the track down into the river, so started down it sldling down a gully, however it got steeper and steeper, and along with this on dry grass, shae was slipping quite a lot with his shoes on, so stopped to access, where I was going... looking down it got even steeper, so thought, time to turn around and head back up hill.... I had certainly missed the track yet again...
Up on top of the terrace once again, I rode along a way but still couldnt see where the correct track went down hill.... frustrated and again not wanting to push it too much with a pack horse in tow, took out my GPS, and looked at my options....
The GPS, showed cliffs all away along in this region to gain access down to the Packety hut, so again following it, headed along the terrace thru scrub , looking for a further vehicle track and worked my way over to the bottom corner of Mt White where I knew a track went down into the Esk, near the Confluence of it and the Waimak rivers..
I found said track and a couple hours riding later we arrived down into the lower Esk, then back tracked up this river for the 4 or 5 kilometres and up to the Packety hut....
Quite a days ride, but in doing so needed to keep myself and horse safe, by taking this longer option....
Funny thing.... arriving at the Packety Hut, I looked over to the terrace that we tried to ride down originally and from below spotted the pack track heading back up... darn.. I was only around 30 or 40 metres short of finding it from that end... I did ride along a bit from the first decent attempt, but if I had of ridden another short distance further on would have seen it..... o well chalk that one up to experience....!
Below, several photos showing scenery as we rode down towards the homestead.....
The bottom corner of Mt White, looking back up the Esk River...
The historic Packety Hut.......
With our drier than normal summer, this hut also had no water adjacent to it, so once again needed to continue taking the boys ever couple of hours or so down to the river several hundred metres away for drinks, as well as sourcing water for my own needs within the hut, but all good.. it wasnt that far..
Now, at this hut, I still had one more area that I wanted to tick off from my bucket list of places and huts I wanted to visit while here at Mt White, and that is the much talked about Lazyman Plateau, and along with this visiting the Cains camp hut up on this area... there is very little information or photos of this area online, so it held a nice fascination within me to go and explore, but first....
Where was this pack track leading up off the bottom end near the Packety hut...??
I looked over from here, and all I could see was bluffs near the river, and lots of high dense scrub....
After a nice relaxing evening here at the Packety, next morning I packed a lunch, saddled Shae, and left Bailey loose to follow, we headed out and over to the bottom of the spur running down this end off the Plateau,,,
Riding along in the riverbed, and looking up. I found what looked to be a track up thru the dense scrub, so took a punt and rode up the steep cattle track onto the bottom of the spur..
Up a little way I could see that someone had cut a track about 6 foot wide up hill, so knew we were on the right track.... but again quite steep uphill, weaving back and forth thru this scrub we climbed quickly...
Now, at this hut, I still had one more area that I wanted to tick off from my bucket list of places and huts I wanted to visit while here at Mt White, and that is the much talked about Lazyman Plateau, and along with this visiting the Cains camp hut up on this area... there is very little information or photos of this area online, so it held a nice fascination within me to go and explore, but first....
Where was this pack track leading up off the bottom end near the Packety hut...??
I looked over from here, and all I could see was bluffs near the river, and lots of high dense scrub....
After a nice relaxing evening here at the Packety, next morning I packed a lunch, saddled Shae, and left Bailey loose to follow, we headed out and over to the bottom of the spur running down this end off the Plateau,,,
Riding along in the riverbed, and looking up. I found what looked to be a track up thru the dense scrub, so took a punt and rode up the steep cattle track onto the bottom of the spur..
Up a little way I could see that someone had cut a track about 6 foot wide up hill, so knew we were on the right track.... but again quite steep uphill, weaving back and forth thru this scrub we climbed quickly...
Views from the Packety, over towards the Lazyman spur....
In the above photo, the track starts up below the patch of Beech forest, and the gully below it covered in dense scrub, and sidles up towards the right hand side of the Beech and up that little spur, then around behind the forest and up the hill to the top shown here...
Photo shows the lower track just after rounding the right side of the Beech forest area..
This and below photos,, its quite a long way up this narrow section of ridge riding onto the plateau...
Looking back down the snaking ridge we had ridden up.....
A little disappointed to see this vast area, overgrown in scrub.....
I remember reading in one or two of the early mustering books written about this Station, that this lazyman plateau was once a vast grazing area for young cattle and sheep stock, however once we had climbed up the long ridge and onto this vast flat of some 1 kilometre wide and some four kilometres in length, was totally overgrown in Manuka scrub, rendering it virtually useless for farming...
At the far end of the Plateau, Cains Camp.....
This and below photo showing in and around Cains Camp hut and lake area.....
The Cains Camp Hut.....
This historic little hut, is another example of a hut being built out of the local Beech forest timber framing and the iron having been cut into four foot lengths for pack horse transport up to this site...
Its a little four bunk hut still with its dirt floor.... I loved my visit to this place.. its been a long time coming, and enjoyed the fact that this hut is still largely as it would have been in its hey day
I sat down at just this spot to take in the scenery and hut in while eating my lunch.... just soooooooooooo peaceful a spot, with virtually no visitors... the hut book apart from Kay and Vic staying here a few night prior on their return trip out over the Puketeraki mountains had no entries of recent time entered..... the lake and hut area was to my mind another gem in the secret Mt White vista..... a very special Station indeed..!
Its a little four bunk hut still with its dirt floor.... I loved my visit to this place.. its been a long time coming, and enjoyed the fact that this hut is still largely as it would have been in its hey day
I sat down at just this spot to take in the scenery and hut in while eating my lunch.... just soooooooooooo peaceful a spot, with virtually no visitors... the hut book apart from Kay and Vic staying here a few night prior on their return trip out over the Puketeraki mountains had no entries of recent time entered..... the lake and hut area was to my mind another gem in the secret Mt White vista..... a very special Station indeed..!
Now, on our return, a funny incident happened......!
Picture this.......
We left the Cains Camp, and headed back up onto the main flat area of the plateau, on our return journey to the Packety hut, and as this photo shows we were just ambling along weaving in and out of the endless scrub bushes, when I felt Shae had wondered a bit far out to the right side, so corrected our direction back over towards the left side, but as soon as I let go of the reins he siddled back over to the right,, again a bit further I re corrected him and again he reverted back to the right... so thought.... fine do it your way.....
Now a funny thing then happened.....
We basically had a kilometre wide area in which we had to ride down thru and really it didnt matter where we went as long as we were heading roughly down the Plateau, but I happened to glance down at the ground, and to my suprise.. in the dirt was our tracks on the way into the hut....
So I let shae continue loose and watched the ground as we rode along in and out of the scrub bushes..
You know that darn horse had his GPS working well... God knows how, but that horse was following back along almost exactly the track we had taken out...... he had as I said a wide area that all looked the same to me but him.... he knew where he was going.... not bad for my big Irish lump I thought....
Once we had ridden down thru the lower snaked ridge area, we had an area of rolling undulating hill to work down thru, and I knew that we had to work our way down the left lower side and make our way down to a lone beech tree, to pick up the return stock track down thru the last scrub area back into the riverbed, however with this undulating area, there were times where I couldnt see where to head to next, so thought.. I have two choices here...!
One I can take out my GPS and find my way, as on this first section I had turned on the "tracking" in it in case we did have trouble relocating the end of this track to get back down, or..... I can just sit here and see what "hairy legs" can do to find the top end of the decent track..
I opted to just sit on him.. not steer him and see what he did..
Silly bugger, Shae must have thought...
He weaved back and forth down thru these undulating hills and small valleys and within 15 minutes he escorted me down around the bottom of said lone Beech tree, picking up the top of the decent track and within another 15 mins we emerged off the lower end of the track and back into the riverbed once again..... hmmmmmmm..
I dont have any further comment to make on all this... (laughing)
We left the Cains Camp, and headed back up onto the main flat area of the plateau, on our return journey to the Packety hut, and as this photo shows we were just ambling along weaving in and out of the endless scrub bushes, when I felt Shae had wondered a bit far out to the right side, so corrected our direction back over towards the left side, but as soon as I let go of the reins he siddled back over to the right,, again a bit further I re corrected him and again he reverted back to the right... so thought.... fine do it your way.....
Now a funny thing then happened.....
We basically had a kilometre wide area in which we had to ride down thru and really it didnt matter where we went as long as we were heading roughly down the Plateau, but I happened to glance down at the ground, and to my suprise.. in the dirt was our tracks on the way into the hut....
So I let shae continue loose and watched the ground as we rode along in and out of the scrub bushes..
You know that darn horse had his GPS working well... God knows how, but that horse was following back along almost exactly the track we had taken out...... he had as I said a wide area that all looked the same to me but him.... he knew where he was going.... not bad for my big Irish lump I thought....
Once we had ridden down thru the lower snaked ridge area, we had an area of rolling undulating hill to work down thru, and I knew that we had to work our way down the left lower side and make our way down to a lone beech tree, to pick up the return stock track down thru the last scrub area back into the riverbed, however with this undulating area, there were times where I couldnt see where to head to next, so thought.. I have two choices here...!
One I can take out my GPS and find my way, as on this first section I had turned on the "tracking" in it in case we did have trouble relocating the end of this track to get back down, or..... I can just sit here and see what "hairy legs" can do to find the top end of the decent track..
I opted to just sit on him.. not steer him and see what he did..
Silly bugger, Shae must have thought...
He weaved back and forth down thru these undulating hills and small valleys and within 15 minutes he escorted me down around the bottom of said lone Beech tree, picking up the top of the decent track and within another 15 mins we emerged off the lower end of the track and back into the riverbed once again..... hmmmmmmm..
I dont have any further comment to make on all this... (laughing)
Camera on a post for this photo.....!
Arriving back down to the Packety hut, this being our last day on Mt White, decided to dig out the last can of Corn, opened my last vacuum pack of smoked bacon , and for want of a better description pigged out on bacon and corn patties with bacon topping.... delicious, followed by desert of custard and peaches, home... er.. hut made as well.....
In the above photo on our last night, the still warm evening air was ideal for sandfly flight so they swarmed in to attack both myself and horses, so on with the fly covers yet again...
Another thing I have started doing is wearing that orange Hi viz vest after hearing of a hunter firing last year at a horse rider in the Clarence reserve as said horse rider rode along in high scrub.... the hunter missed luckily, but had not identified his target correctly thinking the object was an animal..... I dont want this happening to me or my horses.....
Also as a part of keeping us all safe, I have a reflective band that velcros onto each of my horses nose band on their halters and do leave halters on them overnight , so in the event of a spot lighter shining a torch at my boys they will not only see two eyes light up but also a reflective band below said eye.... not too many deer have this reflective band to confuse said huter, so hopefully no one will accidentally shoot a horse
In the above photo on our last night, the still warm evening air was ideal for sandfly flight so they swarmed in to attack both myself and horses, so on with the fly covers yet again...
Another thing I have started doing is wearing that orange Hi viz vest after hearing of a hunter firing last year at a horse rider in the Clarence reserve as said horse rider rode along in high scrub.... the hunter missed luckily, but had not identified his target correctly thinking the object was an animal..... I dont want this happening to me or my horses.....
Also as a part of keeping us all safe, I have a reflective band that velcros onto each of my horses nose band on their halters and do leave halters on them overnight , so in the event of a spot lighter shining a torch at my boys they will not only see two eyes light up but also a reflective band below said eye.... not too many deer have this reflective band to confuse said huter, so hopefully no one will accidentally shoot a horse
Dinner time treats.........
Confluence of the Esk and Waimakariri Rivers, looking West up the Waimak gorge area..
After a week and a half exploring in and around EskHead and Mt White Stations it was time to be moving on...
Packing up the gear, balancing and loading the pack and riding horse, cleaning out the hut we left Packety around 8am, making our way back down the Esk riverbed to the above photo location at the confluence of this Esk and the Waimak rivers, followed by selecting a suitable crossing point and once on the Flock Hill Station side locating their track up the side of the hill and over onto their country...
Luckily the Waimak was at a low flow and was no issue crossing this main Canterbury river...
Packing up the gear, balancing and loading the pack and riding horse, cleaning out the hut we left Packety around 8am, making our way back down the Esk riverbed to the above photo location at the confluence of this Esk and the Waimak rivers, followed by selecting a suitable crossing point and once on the Flock Hill Station side locating their track up the side of the hill and over onto their country...
Luckily the Waimak was at a low flow and was no issue crossing this main Canterbury river...
Selecting a suitable place to cross the Waimakariri river......
Goodbye and thank you to Mt White Country........
Blackwater Lake on Flock hill Station...
not long after leaving the Packety this morning we were faced with a North West weather pattern which bought wind and rain off and on all morning, but hey.. we had up till today almost perfect weather all of this trip, so was not at all worried.. infact it was quite refreshing to ride in a little rainy weather for a change..
I always imagined Flock hill to be a fairly baron type country, to travel thru, however today I was delighted to see quite a nice interesting landscape unfold as we rode along... lots of wide open spaces but dotted with little patches of Beech Forest here and there... quite a lot of feed around, so could see this place was well managed with the grazing... also hardly any broom or gorse on the place that I rode thru was very refreshing as well..
I always imagined Flock hill to be a fairly baron type country, to travel thru, however today I was delighted to see quite a nice interesting landscape unfold as we rode along... lots of wide open spaces but dotted with little patches of Beech Forest here and there... quite a lot of feed around, so could see this place was well managed with the grazing... also hardly any broom or gorse on the place that I rode thru was very refreshing as well..
Beautiful Flock Hill Country.....
Around half way thru this Station we stopped for a bite to eat at one of the Stations huts, then continued on down to the last terrace flat before the final leg down further onto the Avoca road and Main truck railway line where we had arranged to meet up with Fiona to pick us up....
A little history also in this last terrace area.... in around the time of the WW2 , our defence force built a large grass airfield up in these hills which is still evident today, and the reason for this was, if we did get invaded back then, our military aircraft were to be flown up and hidden up here out of harms way, however we didnt get invaded, but the airfield remains..
A little history also in this last terrace area.... in around the time of the WW2 , our defence force built a large grass airfield up in these hills which is still evident today, and the reason for this was, if we did get invaded back then, our military aircraft were to be flown up and hidden up here out of harms way, however we didnt get invaded, but the airfield remains..
The end of the line on this trek... or was it..?
Fiona and I had agreed the week and a half prior to meet up at the old historic Miners house on the Avova road at around 4pm, however I was running quite a lot early for some reason arriving here around noon... so sat down and gave the boys half an hour to feed while I did the same..
After lunch.... I thought, we may as well just start wandering down this little remote shingle road toward where Fiona would come from, so did just that.. we eventually past Craigieburn Station, but further along we started having problems with cattle stops on this road... the cattle stops were no issue but here and there there was no side bypass gate for stock to get around these... a couple of times I was able to go into adjacient paddocks and ride along and back onto the road but one i came to fence either side, no access side gate. so thought... how can we get across here with out injuring the horses...
I was able to scout around and pulled a couple of wooden boards off an old fence and laid these in the slots to get the boys across....
After lunch.... I thought, we may as well just start wandering down this little remote shingle road toward where Fiona would come from, so did just that.. we eventually past Craigieburn Station, but further along we started having problems with cattle stops on this road... the cattle stops were no issue but here and there there was no side bypass gate for stock to get around these... a couple of times I was able to go into adjacient paddocks and ride along and back onto the road but one i came to fence either side, no access side gate. so thought... how can we get across here with out injuring the horses...
I was able to scout around and pulled a couple of wooden boards off an old fence and laid these in the slots to get the boys across....
No stock bypass gate to get around some road cattle stops........
As this above photo shows... I had to pull some boards off the right side fence and laid them in the gaps to get my horses safely across here..
So moving on down this road a further number of kilometres we eventually run into Fiona coming the other way, so hopped off Shae and just let both of them eat loose while Fiona and I had a yarn...
I was leaning on the door talking to her inside the car, when my eyes caught sight of something bright to my left.... turning my head to look....... O SHIT............ a bloody train about 300 metres away and heading our way....
I ran over to Shae, grabbed the reins, and pulled him as fast as he would go over to the equally loose Bailey, however Bailey upon seeing me running towards him all of a sudden decided that...... naaaaaaa.. you not going to catch me, and ran straight out onto the railway tracks.... I dropped shae and chased him up the line a little ways but he wouldnt let me catch him....
The train driver obviously saw what was going on ahead of him and luckily he was on an uphill section, and able to slow down quickly... he stopped while I shooed Bailey back onto the side road and did eventually catch him again.... normally he easy to catch and deal with on a day to day basis but today he thought... naaaaaa.
The train drivers idled past us when I finally had everything back under control with a big grin on his face.. I thanked him as he went past....
What an ending to a fine trek this was..lol
So some 168 kilometres travelled over this trek... some hard yards, alot of memories, the odd incident here and there thrown in....
My boys overall were yet again just super eaasy to get along with making for another super trek completed...
I can now tick off quite a few items that have lingered on my bucket list of places to see...
Many thanks also to Sam at Eskhead , Richard Smith at Mt White, Richard Hill at Flock Hill Stations for your access and hut use permissions....and to Fiona for dropping me off and then later picking us back up at the other end....
I love to trek with others at times, however trekking on my own with my two travelling mates is so rewarding.. I can rise in the morning when I want, start and stop when suits, divert up a side stream for a look, or simply decide... this spot is so fantastic I will have a extra day here...... I find travelling alone, soul soothing and relaxing.... of course, being on ones own, we need to be careful, and personally I dont trek outside my comfort zone, and equally careful to always carry my PLB on my chaps belt when riding, but doing ones homework carefully before hand ,and then while out on the trek, judging if the pack tracks are safe and doable, I find it a wonderful way to see our beautiful Mountain country...
I am often asked why are you endangering yourself,... or told I am silly travelling alone.... but some folks don't understand that I have done this all my life.... its just another day in the office...
So moving on down this road a further number of kilometres we eventually run into Fiona coming the other way, so hopped off Shae and just let both of them eat loose while Fiona and I had a yarn...
I was leaning on the door talking to her inside the car, when my eyes caught sight of something bright to my left.... turning my head to look....... O SHIT............ a bloody train about 300 metres away and heading our way....
I ran over to Shae, grabbed the reins, and pulled him as fast as he would go over to the equally loose Bailey, however Bailey upon seeing me running towards him all of a sudden decided that...... naaaaaaa.. you not going to catch me, and ran straight out onto the railway tracks.... I dropped shae and chased him up the line a little ways but he wouldnt let me catch him....
The train driver obviously saw what was going on ahead of him and luckily he was on an uphill section, and able to slow down quickly... he stopped while I shooed Bailey back onto the side road and did eventually catch him again.... normally he easy to catch and deal with on a day to day basis but today he thought... naaaaaa.
The train drivers idled past us when I finally had everything back under control with a big grin on his face.. I thanked him as he went past....
What an ending to a fine trek this was..lol
So some 168 kilometres travelled over this trek... some hard yards, alot of memories, the odd incident here and there thrown in....
My boys overall were yet again just super eaasy to get along with making for another super trek completed...
I can now tick off quite a few items that have lingered on my bucket list of places to see...
Many thanks also to Sam at Eskhead , Richard Smith at Mt White, Richard Hill at Flock Hill Stations for your access and hut use permissions....and to Fiona for dropping me off and then later picking us back up at the other end....
I love to trek with others at times, however trekking on my own with my two travelling mates is so rewarding.. I can rise in the morning when I want, start and stop when suits, divert up a side stream for a look, or simply decide... this spot is so fantastic I will have a extra day here...... I find travelling alone, soul soothing and relaxing.... of course, being on ones own, we need to be careful, and personally I dont trek outside my comfort zone, and equally careful to always carry my PLB on my chaps belt when riding, but doing ones homework carefully before hand ,and then while out on the trek, judging if the pack tracks are safe and doable, I find it a wonderful way to see our beautiful Mountain country...
I am often asked why are you endangering yourself,... or told I am silly travelling alone.... but some folks don't understand that I have done this all my life.... its just another day in the office...
On the Trail............
The Maling Pass to the Fowler Pass Trek......
What an "adventure" to say the least we had on this trek........
Arriving up at our horse paddock to meet the rest of the team going on this simple four day trek, being the second in a series,of taking new to horse overnight trekking riders away for a mountain country experience...
Looking over towards the mountains the dark rain clouds indicated to me severe weather likely to be had on this spring trek, with several waves of rain bands extending right out to the paddock from the North West weather front..
Talking to all the others, I indicated that if we go, there was a good chance of riding in the rain and wind, and some chance that even some of the rivers may be in flood, but armed with this knowledge, the group decided that they would leave the final decision up to me.. charming I thought..lol ok.. well you all know what to expect and happy with this, lets go...
As a heads up, I asked each of the riders to telephone their various partners and tell them that there was a small risk that due to rivers or weather current conditions, that the next Sunday after,( due out date), may be delayed a day or so, and not to panic if we dont arrive back by that date.. we have Emergency Locator beacons should any untoward happen but in the mountains our first priority is safety, and if this means delays due to weather then so be it...
Walking into the paddock to pick up four of our horses, I noticed Shae limping...... O know..... not again..... he had stabbed himself in the other front leg with a stick, and just like the last trek into the Ashburton Gorge, he was not going anywhere this day... Darn.... Fiona called the vet who attended him again, so now need to change the horses going...
Mark had recently purchased a complete set of pack saddle and pannier gear, and with him the previous week trialling the gear on one or two of his horses, with the result of both times horses bucking and tearing off with the gear still on them. jumping a gate and trying their darn-est to remove said gear decided to use one of my horses as a pack animal... fine, so Bailey was good for that,,
Mr Cons was a second choice as pack horse so Jenny took him with my second Pack saddle and panniers to cart our food pannier in, I then elected to ride Gizz, and the only other choice for pack horse was Bracken who hadnt really packed before so thought I would take him myself, with his load being all the horse covers and Lemonade supplies for the duration...
Showing the keen new "packies" the ropes.....
Arriving up at the Maling Pass car park, the first priorty was to unload the horses and give them at least half an hour to feed, and while they were doing that I assembled at each float, all of the individual saddles and gear going on each horse...
Knowing that Bailey, my long time pack horses was bombproof with what ever is placed on his back I elected to put Marks new saddle and panniers on him, next Mr Cons lot with the hard panniers containing our food, including eggs for the breakfast menu and I knew he would be fine as well, next I had bought also a brand new second pack saddle and soft panniers, which would need to be fitted and adjusted to suit Bracken...
Before saddling any of the pack horses, I saddled Gizz with my riding gear and asked all the others to do the same, so finally when the pack horses were done we were ready to move out...
With two of the three pack horses needing all the harness assembled and adjusted for each, it took quite a while, and while doing so explained to the others how and why, then came pannier balancing as we had gear to take in from all the others so couldnt balance the panniers at home, and finally loading each horse and tying each load on.... being the only experienced packie, it did take quite a long time for this to all be done and ready, but all good...!
Knowing that Bailey, my long time pack horses was bombproof with what ever is placed on his back I elected to put Marks new saddle and panniers on him, next Mr Cons lot with the hard panniers containing our food, including eggs for the breakfast menu and I knew he would be fine as well, next I had bought also a brand new second pack saddle and soft panniers, which would need to be fitted and adjusted to suit Bracken...
Before saddling any of the pack horses, I saddled Gizz with my riding gear and asked all the others to do the same, so finally when the pack horses were done we were ready to move out...
With two of the three pack horses needing all the harness assembled and adjusted for each, it took quite a while, and while doing so explained to the others how and why, then came pannier balancing as we had gear to take in from all the others so couldnt balance the panniers at home, and finally loading each horse and tying each load on.... being the only experienced packie, it did take quite a long time for this to all be done and ready, but all good...!
I'm all ready to go...... Jenny very pleased with herself...lol
Riders asking lots of question as to how and why with Packing......
It is so much easier to load panniers when there is more than ones self doing it..!
The box hitch roping system, is tricky at first... are you watching Mark as its your turn next ....!
Forward hoooooo.......!
Now as I have said before, generally if anything is going to happen with any pack string it will happen within the first 50 metres or so from starting out and today was no exception..lol
Today we had four riders and two of these had not trekked with their horse and also being responsible for a pack horse in tow, and as well, myself had Bracken who had basically not packed before at all..
As the photo shows, Mark had the easy ride with Bailey, but Jenny had trouble with Mr Cons wanting to get in front of her and in doing so pushed past her legs constantly, with Mr Cons giving little regard to the fact that those hard pannier boxes kept hitting her leg.. not nice....
Then just as we start out, bracken... not being used to having a pannier sticking out the side ran up along the side of Gizz and myself whacking Gizz unexpectedly on the bum, giving him a fright, and just as this photo was taken, he erupted..
I let go of Brackens lead rope which saw him tear up and crashing thru the front horses with his wide load, causing bracken to start bucking, and mean while Gizz being upset also,bolted forward and started bucking as well.... next we were galloping out of control up this very steep and very rocky hill with me pulling a reins and Gizzs head right around to arrest the bolting but over this rough ground I thought,,,,, this could end in tears shortly, but I was buggered if I was going to let him get me off, so stuck like glue until he finally calmed down and stopped...
With my two horse both now on edge, I gathered up the lead rope to Bracken and again commenced the trail ride, but the whole 5and half hour ride in I was fully occupied with keeping my two from upsetting one another again and moving forward... Bracken was nothing but a pain in the ass the whole rest of this day.....
Today we had four riders and two of these had not trekked with their horse and also being responsible for a pack horse in tow, and as well, myself had Bracken who had basically not packed before at all..
As the photo shows, Mark had the easy ride with Bailey, but Jenny had trouble with Mr Cons wanting to get in front of her and in doing so pushed past her legs constantly, with Mr Cons giving little regard to the fact that those hard pannier boxes kept hitting her leg.. not nice....
Then just as we start out, bracken... not being used to having a pannier sticking out the side ran up along the side of Gizz and myself whacking Gizz unexpectedly on the bum, giving him a fright, and just as this photo was taken, he erupted..
I let go of Brackens lead rope which saw him tear up and crashing thru the front horses with his wide load, causing bracken to start bucking, and mean while Gizz being upset also,bolted forward and started bucking as well.... next we were galloping out of control up this very steep and very rocky hill with me pulling a reins and Gizzs head right around to arrest the bolting but over this rough ground I thought,,,,, this could end in tears shortly, but I was buggered if I was going to let him get me off, so stuck like glue until he finally calmed down and stopped...
With my two horse both now on edge, I gathered up the lead rope to Bracken and again commenced the trail ride, but the whole 5and half hour ride in I was fully occupied with keeping my two from upsetting one another again and moving forward... Bracken was nothing but a pain in the ass the whole rest of this day.....
I need a drink....lol
Just before the top of the Maling Pass the wind speed was severe, and just as I looked around to see what bracken was up to a huge extra gust came thru scaring him, and instantly he pulled back, catching me off guard to this, and in turn he half pulled me off my riding horse... I let go of his rope once again but was left hanging away over the side of my saddle too far to retrieve my riding position, so elected to let myself fall off....... I can tell you this trip was not the most pleasant experience I have had...
With the time delays with one thing and another, my next thoughts turned to the late hour as we stopped in the above photo to give the horses another feed as they were telling us they certainly were hungry
I knew we still had around 3.5 to 4 hours ride ahead of us to reach the hut and by now it was close to 5.30pm....riding in the dark with new riders and horses was my next thought..... O the joys of mountain trekking......
With the time delays with one thing and another, my next thoughts turned to the late hour as we stopped in the above photo to give the horses another feed as they were telling us they certainly were hungry
I knew we still had around 3.5 to 4 hours ride ahead of us to reach the hut and by now it was close to 5.30pm....riding in the dark with new riders and horses was my next thought..... O the joys of mountain trekking......
Jenny and her horse enjoying a bit of a snack down off the Pass...!
This and below shots of the upper Waiau river area as we rode along...
Darkness starts to descend.....
We still had a way to go but with the combination of dark rain clouds and the late evening, darkness descended earlier than usual... however two things were in our favour... horse can easily see in the dark and two of my horses knew this trail well, but it wouldn't have been much fun for the newbees who didnt know how much further over this unfamiliar country to the hut
Lake Guyon, Riding now with an hour to go, in steady rain....!
Lake Guyon on a nice still sunny day is a beautiful picturesque place, however this evening not quite so..
We had from here to ride around the left side of the lake and up behind this, climb a low hill. then along another couple of kilometres to the hut...
The last 30 minutes was a bit of a ride in the dark and to top it off raining as well, then nearing the hut and to our surprise a lone horse came cantering up to greet us...
This being Seans horse, Sean being a long term visitor, residing in the hut who traps possums in winter up here....
Finally arriving at StanleyVale, we unloaded and stowed all the gear, as Sean put a billy of water on the fire for as well earn't cuppa tea all round....
We all soon warmed up with the roaring fire in the hut and after a meal and change into dry clothes, a glass or two of sunburnt Lemonade went down well as we all yarned away with Sean about this and that....
All of my trekking life, personally I dont mind roughing it with weather etc during the day but its nice to sit in a nice warm and dry hut with the fire going in the evening, especially when its wet and cold outdoors....
Around 10pm, I left all the others to it and hit the hay, as I was knackered, having come off night shift working till 4am then only a few hours sleep before meeting the riders at 9.30am......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz could soon be heard from me..lol
We had from here to ride around the left side of the lake and up behind this, climb a low hill. then along another couple of kilometres to the hut...
The last 30 minutes was a bit of a ride in the dark and to top it off raining as well, then nearing the hut and to our surprise a lone horse came cantering up to greet us...
This being Seans horse, Sean being a long term visitor, residing in the hut who traps possums in winter up here....
Finally arriving at StanleyVale, we unloaded and stowed all the gear, as Sean put a billy of water on the fire for as well earn't cuppa tea all round....
We all soon warmed up with the roaring fire in the hut and after a meal and change into dry clothes, a glass or two of sunburnt Lemonade went down well as we all yarned away with Sean about this and that....
All of my trekking life, personally I dont mind roughing it with weather etc during the day but its nice to sit in a nice warm and dry hut with the fire going in the evening, especially when its wet and cold outdoors....
Around 10pm, I left all the others to it and hit the hay, as I was knackered, having come off night shift working till 4am then only a few hours sleep before meeting the riders at 9.30am......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz could soon be heard from me..lol
Sean loves a good yarn......!
Next morning.. this shot of the historic StanleyVale hut...(150 yrs old this year..!)
This morning, over the open fire and armed with a large frying pan, we made a whole batch of pancakes with Blueberries as a topping for breakfast, followed by a nice cup of billy tea.... delicious...
Today was intended as a rest day for the new to the area folks to have a look around,Jenny decided to go for a walk to view some of the scenery, but intermittent rain saw her return to the hut a little wet but happy in her adventure, the sun came out so Sharlene saddled Tomo her horse and ventured back down last nights incoming path to take another look at Lake Guyon, however that persistent rain gave a different view ......
Spring time in the Mountains has often wet and wild weather, and its just about making the most of what is available.... spirits were high over this weekend and all loved the time out there...
While the two ladies were doing there touring Sean, Mark and I turned our attention to more horse paddock fencing, creating a second holding paddock, with yet a third one under way as well,to cater for the increase in horse riders venturing into the park... its great to see more and more horse riders using this facility...
A bit later both Sharlene and Jenny returned to also help....
Today was intended as a rest day for the new to the area folks to have a look around,Jenny decided to go for a walk to view some of the scenery, but intermittent rain saw her return to the hut a little wet but happy in her adventure, the sun came out so Sharlene saddled Tomo her horse and ventured back down last nights incoming path to take another look at Lake Guyon, however that persistent rain gave a different view ......
Spring time in the Mountains has often wet and wild weather, and its just about making the most of what is available.... spirits were high over this weekend and all loved the time out there...
While the two ladies were doing there touring Sean, Mark and I turned our attention to more horse paddock fencing, creating a second holding paddock, with yet a third one under way as well,to cater for the increase in horse riders venturing into the park... its great to see more and more horse riders using this facility...
A bit later both Sharlene and Jenny returned to also help....
Time to get that next fence stay block built.......
Sean, has been a busy man, both using his pack horse to bring in some of the posts over the fowler pass and then digging this next row of post in ready for this mornings finishing work and stringing the wires....
We were a couple of stay bars short, to finish the next section as well, so I here thru the grape vine he has come out again with his pack horse to Hanmer, purchsed a couple of these posts and packed them back into StanleyVale once again....
We were a couple of stay bars short, to finish the next section as well, so I here thru the grape vine he has come out again with his pack horse to Hanmer, purchsed a couple of these posts and packed them back into StanleyVale once again....
Pic showing the back room sleeping quarters at StanleyVale Hut....
The StanleyVale hut is 150 years old this year, those mud and horse hair walls are 6 inches thick and have stood up to all this time and weather that has been thrown at it... often winds in this area reach gale force, and yet the huts stands firm as we hear the next strong wind vane rushing up the valley towards the hut....
Funding from the Canterbury Conservators Office has been approved, to install 8 bunks in this back room, and also fix a couple broken windows, along with some additions to the front room, benches and a new fireplace, so in the new year a working bee is planned to install all these things....
The rest of the day was a lovely restful day with extended yarning over cups of tea around the fire as the day was a mix of sun and then rain......
That evening we all enjoyed an evening meal provided by one of the ladies, and afterwards, Mark broke out a lovely bottle of smooth Whiskey as the top to it seemed to fall on the floor and someone accidentally stood on it, meaning any remainders couldn't be carried back out next day..... o well... bottoms up..... YUMMMMM..!
Unfortunately, next morning it was time to pack up and head back out over the Fowler Pass, but someone had a bit of a hang over I do believe and would quite happily have stayed in bed, writing some of this day off, however needs must. managed to rise and look sort of human again..lol
Funding from the Canterbury Conservators Office has been approved, to install 8 bunks in this back room, and also fix a couple broken windows, along with some additions to the front room, benches and a new fireplace, so in the new year a working bee is planned to install all these things....
The rest of the day was a lovely restful day with extended yarning over cups of tea around the fire as the day was a mix of sun and then rain......
That evening we all enjoyed an evening meal provided by one of the ladies, and afterwards, Mark broke out a lovely bottle of smooth Whiskey as the top to it seemed to fall on the floor and someone accidentally stood on it, meaning any remainders couldn't be carried back out next day..... o well... bottoms up..... YUMMMMM..!
Unfortunately, next morning it was time to pack up and head back out over the Fowler Pass, but someone had a bit of a hang over I do believe and would quite happily have stayed in bed, writing some of this day off, however needs must. managed to rise and look sort of human again..lol
Ready to load up the pack horses once again....!
Saturday morning after a leisurely breakfast and more yarning we assembled the gear going out into piles for each horse, then saddled and loaded them, heading off around 11.30am for the 3 hour trek out over the Fowler Pass and down to the Fowler hut...
With several "new" to trekking riders, I decided not to take them straight in, over the Fowlers, but instead rode in over the easier Maling Pass so I could have time to gauge each of the riders and horses abilities to tackle steeper and narrow pack tracks of the former...
I had the option if there were any riders or horses lacking in confidence, of back tracking over the Maling if need be, however all on this trek were good riders, so elected to traverse back out via the Fowler Pass...
With several "new" to trekking riders, I decided not to take them straight in, over the Fowlers, but instead rode in over the easier Maling Pass so I could have time to gauge each of the riders and horses abilities to tackle steeper and narrow pack tracks of the former...
I had the option if there were any riders or horses lacking in confidence, of back tracking over the Maling if need be, however all on this trek were good riders, so elected to traverse back out via the Fowler Pass...
On the Stanley River pack trail........
Over all the team settled down to a easy pace with most of the horses now well behaved in comparison to the ride in....
This and below couple shots on various sections of the Pass.....
Nearing the summit of the Pass.....
Looks like the Lady of the house is in this afternoon...!
This is one of the very few shots of Sharlene on this trek....
Sharlene was the official photographer and as such often seems to miss out on self photos of the trek, but next time I will get some of each... My hands were fairly full over this trek with one thing or another and didnt have many opportunities to snap photos....
All of this treks photos shown here have been taken by either Sharlene or Mark.....
Now, as we descended the last stage of the Pack track towards this above Fowlers Hut, I noticed three other horses already in the one and only hut paddock and all these horses were tearing around bucking and kicking out......
Some of you will remember some two years ago I was faced with a similar problem with other strange horses in hut paddocks with the then result of Shae getting kicked and crippled by one of these, so I thought.. bugger risking putting all our lot in with them, so what are my alternatives here..???
As I rode closer, I summed up that I had two options.... one continue on past this hut and ride then all the way back up the road to the floats then float all the horses down to perhaps St James homestead area, but that would have meant a big day....... or.......
Unsaddle all the horse in around the hut that was fenced on three sides, with an open area back up towards the pass that we have come down being the only exit area..
I knew that horses in general wont leave others who are contained even tho they dont know one another.. so we risked it.. turning them all loose that afternoon, they were all happy grazing, then Sat night and into Sunday morning, they were all still happy to hang around the hut beside the other lot next door...
All was well until around 11am Sunday morning when the other party hooked up their horse float and moved it over near the other paddock gate.. their horse started tearing around which in turn saw our lot do the same, with all our 7 horses tearing off back up the pack track..
Initially I was not at all concerned as thought they all didnt know others were leaving at that stage and would turn around and come racing back, however with such a large mob of them egging one another on... away they went, last seen galloping away up the pass track....
Sean and Mark grabbed a halter each and headed back up the track following them, but I was quite sure they would eventually see sense and return...
An hour later with the other two not returned, I too grabbed a halter and reins and trudged back up the hill reaching the top of the Fowler Pass, following the hoof prints..at the top I thought.. I would stay on this high ground and sidle around the mountain side so I could gain a long distance view of the track that descended down into the gorge, however around half a kilometre of sidling, away below I noticed Mark and Sean returning up the track.. calling out I descended to them to be told the horse tracks had ceased.... at least they had not gone down the gorge....
Sharlene was the official photographer and as such often seems to miss out on self photos of the trek, but next time I will get some of each... My hands were fairly full over this trek with one thing or another and didnt have many opportunities to snap photos....
All of this treks photos shown here have been taken by either Sharlene or Mark.....
Now, as we descended the last stage of the Pack track towards this above Fowlers Hut, I noticed three other horses already in the one and only hut paddock and all these horses were tearing around bucking and kicking out......
Some of you will remember some two years ago I was faced with a similar problem with other strange horses in hut paddocks with the then result of Shae getting kicked and crippled by one of these, so I thought.. bugger risking putting all our lot in with them, so what are my alternatives here..???
As I rode closer, I summed up that I had two options.... one continue on past this hut and ride then all the way back up the road to the floats then float all the horses down to perhaps St James homestead area, but that would have meant a big day....... or.......
Unsaddle all the horse in around the hut that was fenced on three sides, with an open area back up towards the pass that we have come down being the only exit area..
I knew that horses in general wont leave others who are contained even tho they dont know one another.. so we risked it.. turning them all loose that afternoon, they were all happy grazing, then Sat night and into Sunday morning, they were all still happy to hang around the hut beside the other lot next door...
All was well until around 11am Sunday morning when the other party hooked up their horse float and moved it over near the other paddock gate.. their horse started tearing around which in turn saw our lot do the same, with all our 7 horses tearing off back up the pack track..
Initially I was not at all concerned as thought they all didnt know others were leaving at that stage and would turn around and come racing back, however with such a large mob of them egging one another on... away they went, last seen galloping away up the pass track....
Sean and Mark grabbed a halter each and headed back up the track following them, but I was quite sure they would eventually see sense and return...
An hour later with the other two not returned, I too grabbed a halter and reins and trudged back up the hill reaching the top of the Fowler Pass, following the hoof prints..at the top I thought.. I would stay on this high ground and sidle around the mountain side so I could gain a long distance view of the track that descended down into the gorge, however around half a kilometre of sidling, away below I noticed Mark and Sean returning up the track.. calling out I descended to them to be told the horse tracks had ceased.... at least they had not gone down the gorge....
Top of the Fowler Pass, looking North East......
With all three of us returning to about the spot in the above photo, Sean just happened to be looking up where the above photo was taken and spotted 7 horses that looked like specks away up on top of this Mountain Range.. then about 30 seconds later they all went behind the upper middle hill and out of sight.. a lucky chance at spotting them....
They looked to be looking for a way down on the other side where the hut, far below was situated so Sean and Mark walked back down the track and I started climbing and sidling around this mountain back also towards the hut hoping to catch up with the descending horses, however nothing.... I didnt see them at all.. so we all returned to the hut for a cupa tea and rethink.....
Around 4pm Sean announced that he would climb away back up to where they were last seen, and Mark said ok I will go as well....
Sharlene and I decided to hop in the car and drive out to the top of Jacks Pass where we had cell phone reception and called Bill Hales, a local helicopter pilot, to see if he was available to come drop us off to where ever they had roamed to..
Bill said he would be available next morning, and if we had not located them...... to drive back out and call him to help, however on our return, Sean and Mark had just arrived back down with all of them in tow... they were both knackered I can tell you but we had them...
The other horse party had by this time left so our lot were securely placed in the hut paddock...
Being the "Due out "day... Jenny before hand had decided to leave her float and head back home, and in doing so we all asked her to telephone all our respective partners and inform them of what happened and that we would be staying until the horses were found and retrieved...
Upon returning to the hut it was cause for a well earn't drink... or two..... and we were mighty glad to have them all back as a SOutherly weather front rolled in late evening and it started snowing.... great....
Early next morning and with inclement weather at the hut, we initiall decided to hook up Jennys float , load her horse on and take that down to a friends place in Hanmer, in case the snow worsened and made it impossible to get the floats and vehicles out, down Jacks Pass..
Sharlene also loaded her horse Tomo and Bracken on hers and followed us out... with around 2 to 3 inches of snow settled on the Jacks Pass, I drove her vehicle for her down the icy side, very slowly as her float had no brakes..... interesting.... but we all made it down safely, with Sharlene continueing on home dropping Bracken back to our paddock..
They looked to be looking for a way down on the other side where the hut, far below was situated so Sean and Mark walked back down the track and I started climbing and sidling around this mountain back also towards the hut hoping to catch up with the descending horses, however nothing.... I didnt see them at all.. so we all returned to the hut for a cupa tea and rethink.....
Around 4pm Sean announced that he would climb away back up to where they were last seen, and Mark said ok I will go as well....
Sharlene and I decided to hop in the car and drive out to the top of Jacks Pass where we had cell phone reception and called Bill Hales, a local helicopter pilot, to see if he was available to come drop us off to where ever they had roamed to..
Bill said he would be available next morning, and if we had not located them...... to drive back out and call him to help, however on our return, Sean and Mark had just arrived back down with all of them in tow... they were both knackered I can tell you but we had them...
The other horse party had by this time left so our lot were securely placed in the hut paddock...
Being the "Due out "day... Jenny before hand had decided to leave her float and head back home, and in doing so we all asked her to telephone all our respective partners and inform them of what happened and that we would be staying until the horses were found and retrieved...
Upon returning to the hut it was cause for a well earn't drink... or two..... and we were mighty glad to have them all back as a SOutherly weather front rolled in late evening and it started snowing.... great....
Early next morning and with inclement weather at the hut, we initiall decided to hook up Jennys float , load her horse on and take that down to a friends place in Hanmer, in case the snow worsened and made it impossible to get the floats and vehicles out, down Jacks Pass..
Sharlene also loaded her horse Tomo and Bracken on hers and followed us out... with around 2 to 3 inches of snow settled on the Jacks Pass, I drove her vehicle for her down the icy side, very slowly as her float had no brakes..... interesting.... but we all made it down safely, with Sharlene continueing on home dropping Bracken back to our paddock..
Sharlene and I driving very carefully down Jacks Pass,...!
Now, to back track this story just a little...... late in the afternoon when the boys had retrieved all the horse off the mountain, all of them except Sharlenes horse Tomo, were busy eating, but Tomo was seen out away from the others not eating and just standing...
We sort of thought at the time.. he was just knackers also from the big day out however next morning Tomo had hardly shifted and was still not eating...
Mark and I went back up to the hut after dropping Jennys float down country to retrieve our lot and get out as soon as possible with snow still falling, which we did without incident..
Upon arriving home, I telephoned Sharlene just to thank her for taking Bracken back, and she said that Tomo was looking quite ill.. we discussed this for a minute and both agreed to call the vet just to check him over...
Tomo was indeed very ill, and now scouring badly which any horse person knows is a bad sign if this continues... it did and Tomos condition worsened.... the vet gave him shots and intravenous fluids as Tomo had an electrolyte deficiency ....
All that day.. all that night Sharlene stayed in the stable with Tomo, and next morning I dropped over a couple fresh bales of hay for him..... he was indeed a very sick horse.....
Some 36 hours later, Tomo passed a plastic bag in his stools, and upon talking to her vet, it was ascertained, that this was the probably cause od his illness....
Hence now a week or so later Tomo has made a full recovery..... Thank God....!
We sort of thought at the time.. he was just knackers also from the big day out however next morning Tomo had hardly shifted and was still not eating...
Mark and I went back up to the hut after dropping Jennys float down country to retrieve our lot and get out as soon as possible with snow still falling, which we did without incident..
Upon arriving home, I telephoned Sharlene just to thank her for taking Bracken back, and she said that Tomo was looking quite ill.. we discussed this for a minute and both agreed to call the vet just to check him over...
Tomo was indeed very ill, and now scouring badly which any horse person knows is a bad sign if this continues... it did and Tomos condition worsened.... the vet gave him shots and intravenous fluids as Tomo had an electrolyte deficiency ....
All that day.. all that night Sharlene stayed in the stable with Tomo, and next morning I dropped over a couple fresh bales of hay for him..... he was indeed a very sick horse.....
Some 36 hours later, Tomo passed a plastic bag in his stools, and upon talking to her vet, it was ascertained, that this was the probably cause od his illness....
Hence now a week or so later Tomo has made a full recovery..... Thank God....!
One very ill Tomo, at home after the trek.....
So there you have it..... a simple four day trek into some of the easier parts of St James, that went from that to one of challenges and adventure...One just never knows what awaits us on these treks...
Many many thanks to Sharlene and Mark for the supply of all these photos, and to Jenny for putting up with Mr Cons attacking her leg with the pack boxes... and to Sean for all of his help and company.....
Our next easy four day trek will probably be into the back of Lake Sumner in the new year..... I wonder how many takers after reading this story.?..lol
Many many thanks to Sharlene and Mark for the supply of all these photos, and to Jenny for putting up with Mr Cons attacking her leg with the pack boxes... and to Sean for all of his help and company.....
Our next easy four day trek will probably be into the back of Lake Sumner in the new year..... I wonder how many takers after reading this story.?..lol
On the Trail............
The Hakatere Station Trek.....
A week before the commencement of our first Spring trek of this new season, I organised Barry our farrier to shoe Shae, Gizzy, and Mr Cons, with Fiona already having had Mr Bracks shod a week or so back...
Also right on cue, my new second pack saddle turned up the day before leaving, so a quick oil up the night before, to be all set..
Going on this trek, Shae would be my riding horse, Giz, my pack horse, with Fiona riding Mr Cons and packing Bracken for the first time..
The day before due to leave on this trek, I head up to the horses as usual, and upon arriving, here was Shae on three legs.. limping badly, having stabbed himself in the upper inner front leg.... O bugger.... I thought.... he wont be going anywhere.... dam.... was my second thought.. I had no spare horse with shoes on....
My first priority was Shae...... I rang Mike our Vet, and asked him if he could swing by and take a look at him... a couple hours later, he did so and after a couple of shots, Shae was pronounced to be ok in a few days... all good...!
I rang Fiona and contemplating the thought of having to postpone this trek, she said, she would stay behind and me take one of her horses, but this was not the ideal answer... I rang Liz and Sharlene, the other two riders going on and told them of my dilemma , with the possibility of a "no goer"..
My only other option was Bailey, but Bailey had been turned out all winter and was currently still doing so.. he was not fit, and had no shoes on......
I rang Barry again asking if there was any chance he was in our area, and time to shoe Bailey..... Sorry Mate.. fully booked today...... however tomorrow morning my first appointment is not till 9am.... I could do him at 7.30am for you.........
So thanks to Barry, Bailey got a brand new set of shoes on him, then loaded straight on the float with the others as we headed off to meet up with Sharlene and then Liz further along the journey South...
Now Liz is a lady who knows her priorities also.... outside her place we stopped, and her first words..... hello... hey.. can we stop at the famous Sheffield pie shop for smoko..... great idea was agreed by all, so off on our horse float convoy to the pie shop... and I can say..... they were very delicious .....
Our convoy headed South to Mt Somers and then inland to Hakatere Station for the commencement of this trek...
Also right on cue, my new second pack saddle turned up the day before leaving, so a quick oil up the night before, to be all set..
Going on this trek, Shae would be my riding horse, Giz, my pack horse, with Fiona riding Mr Cons and packing Bracken for the first time..
The day before due to leave on this trek, I head up to the horses as usual, and upon arriving, here was Shae on three legs.. limping badly, having stabbed himself in the upper inner front leg.... O bugger.... I thought.... he wont be going anywhere.... dam.... was my second thought.. I had no spare horse with shoes on....
My first priority was Shae...... I rang Mike our Vet, and asked him if he could swing by and take a look at him... a couple hours later, he did so and after a couple of shots, Shae was pronounced to be ok in a few days... all good...!
I rang Fiona and contemplating the thought of having to postpone this trek, she said, she would stay behind and me take one of her horses, but this was not the ideal answer... I rang Liz and Sharlene, the other two riders going on and told them of my dilemma , with the possibility of a "no goer"..
My only other option was Bailey, but Bailey had been turned out all winter and was currently still doing so.. he was not fit, and had no shoes on......
I rang Barry again asking if there was any chance he was in our area, and time to shoe Bailey..... Sorry Mate.. fully booked today...... however tomorrow morning my first appointment is not till 9am.... I could do him at 7.30am for you.........
So thanks to Barry, Bailey got a brand new set of shoes on him, then loaded straight on the float with the others as we headed off to meet up with Sharlene and then Liz further along the journey South...
Now Liz is a lady who knows her priorities also.... outside her place we stopped, and her first words..... hello... hey.. can we stop at the famous Sheffield pie shop for smoko..... great idea was agreed by all, so off on our horse float convoy to the pie shop... and I can say..... they were very delicious .....
Our convoy headed South to Mt Somers and then inland to Hakatere Station for the commencement of this trek...
First job, fill the panniers and balance each one of them.....
Fiona and I have decided, that this season we will pack Bracken as well as the others who are already used to it, so today Bracken was packed up mainly with horse covers and other unbreakables, for his first experience in this role, just incase he decided to try and eject his load... I knew once it was all on him and tied down he could almost do anything and the load would remain intact and on him but throughout the entire trek he took to packing like a duck to water... great.....
I left all the girls to pack each pannier and balance them, while I saddled my riding horse, and then both pack horses...
Today, we packed out to the hut, two bags of coal for hut heating as there is no firewood source out there, also some of both Sharlene and Liz's gear on one of the pack horses, with the other one taking covers and some other odds and ends...
The girls made a great job, with each of the four panniers balancing each other perfectly... well done ladies......!
I left all the girls to pack each pannier and balance them, while I saddled my riding horse, and then both pack horses...
Today, we packed out to the hut, two bags of coal for hut heating as there is no firewood source out there, also some of both Sharlene and Liz's gear on one of the pack horses, with the other one taking covers and some other odds and ends...
The girls made a great job, with each of the four panniers balancing each other perfectly... well done ladies......!
Mr Bracks, first time being loaded as our new pack horse.....
When tacking up and using pack horses, I like to follow a routine of firstly saddling the pack horse..s and then saddle my riding horse, and fully finish this complete with saddle bags, with my swag roll tied to this, and have this horse basically all set to tighten the girth and go...
Next I tighten the cinch on the pack horses, and adjust any harness that needs this, followed by finally loading and tying on the pannier loads...
I use this procedure to minimise the standing around loaded time as panniers are often quite heavy.. so as soon as the pack horses are loaded I want to be moving out......
Same at the end of the days ride... the pack horses are relieved of their loads first, before unsaddling the riding horse......
Next I tighten the cinch on the pack horses, and adjust any harness that needs this, followed by finally loading and tying on the pannier loads...
I use this procedure to minimise the standing around loaded time as panniers are often quite heavy.. so as soon as the pack horses are loaded I want to be moving out......
Same at the end of the days ride... the pack horses are relieved of their loads first, before unsaddling the riding horse......
All set to head out.......
Leaving Hakatere, and after a short distance up the shingle road we branched off, and rode across country towards the distant hills and Paddle Hill steam, which we followed up heading out to the Boundary hut some 17 kilometres away
The above photo, showed a bit of a first for both horses here. Bracken as the pack horses, and the first time I have ridden Bailey with saddlebags and bed roll attached.... both horses couldnt have cared less....
The above photo, showed a bit of a first for both horses here. Bracken as the pack horses, and the first time I have ridden Bailey with saddlebags and bed roll attached.... both horses couldnt have cared less....
Off the horses, for the walk down off the little saddle near the hut....
Liz proudly showing us her scrubber de dubb dub.......
As soon as we arrived out at the hut Sharlene fell in love with the countryside, and said,, she wanted to stay here for ever......
Unloading the horses, we soon overtook the hut, leaving little room for anyone else, and then out popped a round of bourbons, as we all sat around outside watching the horses graze.. and then another round of bourbon, in fact by the time the evening was done we had almost totally consumed the three days supply..
Lots of laughter, along with some ladies rude jokes, and other unmentionable activities such as Liz showing her reaction to me accidentally spilling one of her bourbons on the floor when I shifted the couch over a little , but I wont go any further with what happened..lol
All night the three ladies, where chatting up a storm and it wasnt long before myself, the only male became the butt of jokes and teasing, but all great fun.... I can give as good as I take......lol
Fiona, whom some of you will know, has the ability to produce a good bomb fire and this evening she excelled, with the coal we took with us.....
Over the course of the evening, someone suggested that dried cow dung burnt well, so next all of us were out the hut gathering a bag of said poos, and back in to try this theory out... yes it does burn somewhat...... then dried horse poo was trialed with similar results... its amazing the resources some will go to when the firewood is in short supply, with the icing on the cake so to speak.... some were even seen picking up bags of dried rabbit poo.. now this commodity, as you will know is quite a small product, and to get enough to fuel said fire did take a while..... amazing what simple things keep us amused for ages..lol
Not that being drunk and disorderly... along with loud.... had anything to do with it all....
Unloading the horses, we soon overtook the hut, leaving little room for anyone else, and then out popped a round of bourbons, as we all sat around outside watching the horses graze.. and then another round of bourbon, in fact by the time the evening was done we had almost totally consumed the three days supply..
Lots of laughter, along with some ladies rude jokes, and other unmentionable activities such as Liz showing her reaction to me accidentally spilling one of her bourbons on the floor when I shifted the couch over a little , but I wont go any further with what happened..lol
All night the three ladies, where chatting up a storm and it wasnt long before myself, the only male became the butt of jokes and teasing, but all great fun.... I can give as good as I take......lol
Fiona, whom some of you will know, has the ability to produce a good bomb fire and this evening she excelled, with the coal we took with us.....
Over the course of the evening, someone suggested that dried cow dung burnt well, so next all of us were out the hut gathering a bag of said poos, and back in to try this theory out... yes it does burn somewhat...... then dried horse poo was trialed with similar results... its amazing the resources some will go to when the firewood is in short supply, with the icing on the cake so to speak.... some were even seen picking up bags of dried rabbit poo.. now this commodity, as you will know is quite a small product, and to get enough to fuel said fire did take a while..... amazing what simple things keep us amused for ages..lol
Not that being drunk and disorderly... along with loud.... had anything to do with it all....
Sharlene, and her horse Tomo, were very happy campers indeed...!
Horse feed in the overnight paddock is in short supply, so first up giving the boys an hours feed around the hut, before saddling up for our day ride this morning up river to the top hut for lunch some 12 odd kilometres away..
The weather was stunning the entire trek....
The weather was stunning the entire trek....
Beautiful early morning scenery just as the sun hit the area....!
Above and below photos of the Ashburton River scenery...
Above and below photos of the Ashburton River hut.....
I last ventured up this river to this hut some 42 years ago believe it or not, while working on the then Lower Lake Heron Station of which some of this ride today passed over..
We followed a vehicle track a fair way up river this morning, and at one point the track went straight down a gully to the river , then along a way and back up the next shingle fan as it made it way up river towards the hut..
Having four wheel drive on our horses I decided to take a short cut across country instead of all this ups and down that the track led, but, in one or two spots I noticed the normally chatty ladies all went very quiet as we sidled around a couple of steepish parts of this short cut, then a steep up the side of the hill saw all the horses try to canter up, further quietening our followers....
I think I got the vibe that the longer vehicle track way might have been a better option.. but we all made it in one piece....lol
We followed a vehicle track a fair way up river this morning, and at one point the track went straight down a gully to the river , then along a way and back up the next shingle fan as it made it way up river towards the hut..
Having four wheel drive on our horses I decided to take a short cut across country instead of all this ups and down that the track led, but, in one or two spots I noticed the normally chatty ladies all went very quiet as we sidled around a couple of steepish parts of this short cut, then a steep up the side of the hill saw all the horses try to canter up, further quietening our followers....
I think I got the vibe that the longer vehicle track way might have been a better option.. but we all made it in one piece....lol
While up at the hut having lunch, Sharlene was wondering around checking out this and that when she opened the door of the above little outhouse and burst out laughing...
After the old chap disappeared for a quiet lunch time nap in the hut , we re saddled the horses and headed off back down river for the 12 kilometre return trip
After the old chap disappeared for a quiet lunch time nap in the hut , we re saddled the horses and headed off back down river for the 12 kilometre return trip
This lovely little waterfall made great viewing on our return journey today..
Sunday morning, I dug into one of my panniers and suprised all the guests with Pancakes for breakfast..yum.... Sharlene had some blue berries so this topped the pancakes off beautifully. followed by a nice cup of tea...
Saddling the horses once again, we left the Boundary Hut around 9am, back tracking slightly from the way in, then up hill and onto the Doggs range for the return trip out past Mystery Lake and back down the Lake Clearwater pack track to the floats once again...
Above and below, are photos of this days ride..
Saddling the horses once again, we left the Boundary Hut around 9am, back tracking slightly from the way in, then up hill and onto the Doggs range for the return trip out past Mystery Lake and back down the Lake Clearwater pack track to the floats once again...
Above and below, are photos of this days ride..
Above and below photos.. overlooking Mystery Lake, with some of my old stamping ground of Mesopotamia across the river in the back ground..
Above photos showing us all off the horses for the walk down hill off the Doggs Range....Its interesting to watch the likes of Giz.... a basically young horse, and shown above totally happy walking down hill on his own, and having learnt the easiest way down is to sidle back and forth like he is doing...He is not interested in buggering off at the first chance he gets loose, but happy just being a team member going about his job of the day....
Above.. heading down the Lake Clearwater pack track....
Lunch stop half way back...
A stunningly nice three day trek, with beautiful weather, and four very happy trekkers....
A great ride, and many thanks to Sharlene, Fiona and Liz, along with all of our horses all contributing to this fun outing..!
A stunningly nice three day trek, with beautiful weather, and four very happy trekkers....
A great ride, and many thanks to Sharlene, Fiona and Liz, along with all of our horses all contributing to this fun outing..!
On the Trail............
The Otago Goldfields Trek..... (Two weeks in the saddle, covering 257 kilometres.....)
The Otago Railtrail and Goldfields trek has been an area I have wanted to ride thru for quite a while, and after extensive planning and preparation over several months prior, the start day finally arrived..
This trek I was accompanied by two friends from Taupo, Donna and Lloyd who trucked their four horses all the way down to Otago for this two week trek, also on this trek was Vicky, a long time fellow trekker and myself.....
Wednesday morning saw myself all packed and loading Giz I headed into Christchurch to Vickys place where I loaded Her horse "Buddy" on with Giz and once all ready headed off south with Vicki trailing in her vehicle for our first stop.. the Otematata Station....
We planned to leave Vickys vehicle here, the end point of our trek to have transport to drive back to Clyde, our start point to eventually pick up the floats left there..
Bailey was picked up by Lloyd a week earlier as he had one horse space left on his truck as they passed thru on their way south...
At Otematata Station we unloaded the two boys for a stretch of their legs and a feed for an hour, with Vicky loading all her gear into my car, reloading our two boys on the float carried on thru the hills and over the Lindis Pass, down thru Central Otago all the way to Clyde Racecourse to meet up with the Donna and Lloyd...
Arriving around 3pm, unloading the horses and turning them out in a little side paddock, we all sat down in the hot afternoon sun and opened an 18 pack of Bourbon cans I bought along...
By early evening I have to say that 18 pack had turned into just an empty cardboard box and 18 empty cans, along with several prospective horses trekkers with wobbly ankles to say the least... lots of giggling and a certain North Islander having a serious talk with an adjacient post at one stage..
Several beers also seemed to fall out of Donna and Lloyds truck so not wanting to waste anything downed them as well....Next poor Lloyd left the scene and was gone quite a while.... he found a nice empty stable around the corner to discharge some of his contents and was feeling a little under the weather...
We had earlier planned to all go into Clyde for tea, but in our state, I dont think any restaurant would welcome us, so just elected to grab a bite to eat out of easy to reach snack items at our overnite camp.....
Needless to say four people slept very well that night..lol
On this trek we had our four riders and seven horse, Donna, Lloyd and myself with a pack horse each, with Vickys gear also transported on my pack horse...
On the way thru to Clyde, Lloyd called into Naseby to the Pub we intended staying overnite as we passed thru on the trek a week later, and dropped a couple of bags of resupplies for us to pick up before heading into the hills for the second week of our travels..
The trek route planned was to start at Clyde, and follow the Otago Rail trail thru to Oturehua on the Maniototo tablelands , turning north thru to Naseby, followed by heading into the hills of the Mt Buster historic Goldfields for a weeks travel, basing ourselves at the Tailings hut, then travelling north once again thru further hills to the back boundary of the huge Otematata Station, with two further days travel on this station to our finish point at the Otematata Station homestead on the shores of Lake Aviemore, some 257 kilometres from our start point.....
This trek I was accompanied by two friends from Taupo, Donna and Lloyd who trucked their four horses all the way down to Otago for this two week trek, also on this trek was Vicky, a long time fellow trekker and myself.....
Wednesday morning saw myself all packed and loading Giz I headed into Christchurch to Vickys place where I loaded Her horse "Buddy" on with Giz and once all ready headed off south with Vicki trailing in her vehicle for our first stop.. the Otematata Station....
We planned to leave Vickys vehicle here, the end point of our trek to have transport to drive back to Clyde, our start point to eventually pick up the floats left there..
Bailey was picked up by Lloyd a week earlier as he had one horse space left on his truck as they passed thru on their way south...
At Otematata Station we unloaded the two boys for a stretch of their legs and a feed for an hour, with Vicky loading all her gear into my car, reloading our two boys on the float carried on thru the hills and over the Lindis Pass, down thru Central Otago all the way to Clyde Racecourse to meet up with the Donna and Lloyd...
Arriving around 3pm, unloading the horses and turning them out in a little side paddock, we all sat down in the hot afternoon sun and opened an 18 pack of Bourbon cans I bought along...
By early evening I have to say that 18 pack had turned into just an empty cardboard box and 18 empty cans, along with several prospective horses trekkers with wobbly ankles to say the least... lots of giggling and a certain North Islander having a serious talk with an adjacient post at one stage..
Several beers also seemed to fall out of Donna and Lloyds truck so not wanting to waste anything downed them as well....Next poor Lloyd left the scene and was gone quite a while.... he found a nice empty stable around the corner to discharge some of his contents and was feeling a little under the weather...
We had earlier planned to all go into Clyde for tea, but in our state, I dont think any restaurant would welcome us, so just elected to grab a bite to eat out of easy to reach snack items at our overnite camp.....
Needless to say four people slept very well that night..lol
On this trek we had our four riders and seven horse, Donna, Lloyd and myself with a pack horse each, with Vickys gear also transported on my pack horse...
On the way thru to Clyde, Lloyd called into Naseby to the Pub we intended staying overnite as we passed thru on the trek a week later, and dropped a couple of bags of resupplies for us to pick up before heading into the hills for the second week of our travels..
The trek route planned was to start at Clyde, and follow the Otago Rail trail thru to Oturehua on the Maniototo tablelands , turning north thru to Naseby, followed by heading into the hills of the Mt Buster historic Goldfields for a weeks travel, basing ourselves at the Tailings hut, then travelling north once again thru further hills to the back boundary of the huge Otematata Station, with two further days travel on this station to our finish point at the Otematata Station homestead on the shores of Lake Aviemore, some 257 kilometres from our start point.....
Leaving Clyde for the short hop to Alexandra...
Photo shows Vicky on Buddy, with myself riding Bailey today, with Gizz loaded down with two peoples supplies for the duration..
Talking with some of the locals, not too many horse trekkers use the trail so it was quite a sight to see our Calvalcade travelling along thru the countryside and passing thru the various small towns..
Over the course of our two weeks I alternated my two horses daily between packing and riding, and I have to say they both handled this distance and terrain easily..
The first days travel we met quite a few bike riders coming up behind us which several of the horses taking a little while to adjust to this but all soon settled down to the job in hand..
Talking with some of the locals, not too many horse trekkers use the trail so it was quite a sight to see our Calvalcade travelling along thru the countryside and passing thru the various small towns..
Over the course of our two weeks I alternated my two horses daily between packing and riding, and I have to say they both handled this distance and terrain easily..
The first days travel we met quite a few bike riders coming up behind us which several of the horses taking a little while to adjust to this but all soon settled down to the job in hand..
Meet the other Riders.....
Lloyd Worthington....With Jess and his pack horse Al....!
Donna Worthington..........with Fatty and her pack horse Mule....!
Vicky Christopherson........with Buddy..!
At the start of this trekking season I splashed out and bought a new camera to replace my previous model which although took beautiful photos was very bulky hanging around my neck getting in the way constantly, so replaced this with a high powered Sony compact model which is great in the it sits in my shirt pocket and can be operated in one hand, however..... half way thru the Rail trail section of this trek it slipped out of my pocket and dropped to the ground...
I realised it was missing a short distance further on, and Lloyd and I went back to the approx area and did eventually find it again.... since then I have dropped it once again on the Molesworth trek, but luckily found it once again...
On this Otago trek I took some 350 shots recording the events and scenery, but only had one battery for it, so was trying to conserve battery life for the duration and hence didnt at any stage view photos taken as thought this would only use more battery power..
Well I got home after this trek and uploaded all the photos taken into my computer and was eager to view them, but to my surprise my camera had been set onto some silly abstract program by mistake prior to starting this trek and every photo was useless for website loading.... I am beginning to think this camera is not for me somehow..
So all of the photos shown here of this trek are courtesy of Donna and Lloyd....
Below is an example of the photos my camera took... all 350 were like this..
I realised it was missing a short distance further on, and Lloyd and I went back to the approx area and did eventually find it again.... since then I have dropped it once again on the Molesworth trek, but luckily found it once again...
On this Otago trek I took some 350 shots recording the events and scenery, but only had one battery for it, so was trying to conserve battery life for the duration and hence didnt at any stage view photos taken as thought this would only use more battery power..
Well I got home after this trek and uploaded all the photos taken into my computer and was eager to view them, but to my surprise my camera had been set onto some silly abstract program by mistake prior to starting this trek and every photo was useless for website loading.... I am beginning to think this camera is not for me somehow..
So all of the photos shown here of this trek are courtesy of Donna and Lloyd....
Below is an example of the photos my camera took... all 350 were like this..
As you can imagine I was super impressed......lol
Leaving Alexandra, heading for Chatto Creek....
With such a warm stunning day, it was "bliss" out in this countryside with good friends and well behaved horses as we strolled along talking to one another and enjoying this beautiful Otago landscape
Quite a few bridges needed to be crossed...
I was impressed with all the horses coping with bridge crossing on this trek.. and bridges of all sizes and heights above the rivers...
This and below, some photos of the scenery towards Chatto Creek...
Chatto Creek Tavern.....
Pic shows out the back of the pub, a historic gold dredge that a couple of years ago was salvaged out of the Chatto Creek where it had laid submerged for a hundred or so years.. quite impressive..!
Arriving here at Chatto Creek around 3pm, our first night on the trail was spent at this historic little pub...
I got off Bailey out the back of the pub where the above photo was taken and said to the others I would go sort to accommodation etc so walked around and in to the pub with my normal trekking attire on and as soon as I walked in the door, a group were sitting at a table when one lady saw me and commented...... My god.... a real "Cowboy" never seen a real one close up before...lol
I laughed , stopped for a yarn and tried to explain that I was not infact a Cowboy but just a horse trekker but she insisted that I was still a Cowboy... the bar folks were all very interested in us and our horse travels and did spend quite a while answering questions and yarning until I managed to get to the bar and ask the bar tender about where to leave the horses and gear, and sort our accommodation etc...
The bar maid pointed me in the direction of out the back and ask for Leslie...
So strolling thru the back and into the private home of the Landlord I found Leslie.. the owner.. now Leslie instantly took a huge liking to all of us riders and over our stay was treated nothing short of royalty....
She told us to basically help yourself to what ever you need for the horses, and once finished this we all refreshed with a shower and change and sat down under a tree in her beer garden with light refreshments and complimentary finger food... Leslie joined us for quite a while sitting outside, interested in our travels etc... and man.. she was a true character...... so kind and hospitable .......a true Southern Lady host..!
About 20 mins later with her only knowing us a short time, offered free of charge her car if we wanted to go for a drive out to another historic Goldfields town of St Bathans..... who in our own town would volunteer their own car to strangers for a sight seeing trip..? amazing..!
Next morning we agreed on a breakfast time, and upon arriving at the door of the pub for breakfast Leslie invited all of us into her own home and provided breakfast in there... We all loved our stay here......
Arriving here at Chatto Creek around 3pm, our first night on the trail was spent at this historic little pub...
I got off Bailey out the back of the pub where the above photo was taken and said to the others I would go sort to accommodation etc so walked around and in to the pub with my normal trekking attire on and as soon as I walked in the door, a group were sitting at a table when one lady saw me and commented...... My god.... a real "Cowboy" never seen a real one close up before...lol
I laughed , stopped for a yarn and tried to explain that I was not infact a Cowboy but just a horse trekker but she insisted that I was still a Cowboy... the bar folks were all very interested in us and our horse travels and did spend quite a while answering questions and yarning until I managed to get to the bar and ask the bar tender about where to leave the horses and gear, and sort our accommodation etc...
The bar maid pointed me in the direction of out the back and ask for Leslie...
So strolling thru the back and into the private home of the Landlord I found Leslie.. the owner.. now Leslie instantly took a huge liking to all of us riders and over our stay was treated nothing short of royalty....
She told us to basically help yourself to what ever you need for the horses, and once finished this we all refreshed with a shower and change and sat down under a tree in her beer garden with light refreshments and complimentary finger food... Leslie joined us for quite a while sitting outside, interested in our travels etc... and man.. she was a true character...... so kind and hospitable .......a true Southern Lady host..!
About 20 mins later with her only knowing us a short time, offered free of charge her car if we wanted to go for a drive out to another historic Goldfields town of St Bathans..... who in our own town would volunteer their own car to strangers for a sight seeing trip..? amazing..!
Next morning we agreed on a breakfast time, and upon arriving at the door of the pub for breakfast Leslie invited all of us into her own home and provided breakfast in there... We all loved our stay here......
Leslie, Owner and host at the Chatto Creek Historic Pub...
Everywhere around this pub, shows the character of its host... lots of pin up notices causing lots of laughs.. like the one hanging behind Leslie saying..... Free beer to those over 90....... Must be accompanied by parents..lol....
Her Husband died a couple of years prior, and she was saying after his death the locals reconded she wouldn't be able to cope on her on... well she said.. I was bloody well determined to make this work... and you know.. last year... (Leslie pointing to the wall behind her...) I won best country pub award for the whole of NZ..... (her words).... so the bloody locals had to stuff that in their pipes and smoke it....... man she had us in stiches of laughter...!
Her Husband died a couple of years prior, and she was saying after his death the locals reconded she wouldn't be able to cope on her on... well she said.. I was bloody well determined to make this work... and you know.. last year... (Leslie pointing to the wall behind her...) I won best country pub award for the whole of NZ..... (her words).... so the bloody locals had to stuff that in their pipes and smoke it....... man she had us in stiches of laughter...!
Day Two.. Leaving the Chatto Creek Pub...
Swapping riding for yesterdays pack horse for todays journey up over a hill and down to the next little town of Omakau then on to our this nights overnite stay at a friend of Vickys in the litle town of Lauder...
Upon leaving, Leslie wanted us all in a row so she could take a photo and said she would hang it on the wall in the pub..... she also said it was "vitally" important to visit the next town of Omakau and pull up outside a shop called the Muddy Cafe and each purchase one of their homemade pies for lunch.....
Upon leaving, Leslie wanted us all in a row so she could take a photo and said she would hang it on the wall in the pub..... she also said it was "vitally" important to visit the next town of Omakau and pull up outside a shop called the Muddy Cafe and each purchase one of their homemade pies for lunch.....
Riding the long incline to the top of the Omakau Saddle....
The historic swing bridge between Omakau and Ophir...
Outside the Omakau Pub.... lunch time....!
it was amazing the steers from the locals as our cavalcade rode into this town and pulled up in the local pub carpark entrance..
Over the road behind where this photo was taken we spotted the Muddy Cafe, so Lloyd and I after taking orders went over and purchased some of the recommended home made pies.. I couldn't believe the size of them....baked and sold in a tinfoil tray they measured around 9 inches long by 5 inches wide and a couple inches high.... one pie..... I thought.. these Southern folks must have a huge appetite to call these pies a normal size..lol
Now the funniest thing happened.. I walked back over to our horses, to find that Buddy had deposited a dollop of fertilizer right in the middle of the car park entrance, but Vic didn't have any means of picking up said deposit, so I said I would tip my pie carefully over and remove the tin foil container and use this as a make do shovel..
Well on the foot path I did just that and then looked for a spot to put my pie while it cooled down to help her, but the only place that was available was on the footpath away from the interested horses prying eyes that were also interested in said pie.. so on the edge of this footpath I placed it and went over to help Vic...
I spotted a little car approaching slowly with a little old lady driving who wanted to turn into the car park but horses blocking it she pulled up on the yellow line, and as i looked around....... to see a wheel just miss my pie on the adjacent foot path by around 1.5 millimetres...lol man it was close..lol ...........said old lady hopped out and walked into the pub oblivious to the near calamity she almost caused... I reckon with the size of pie she nearly ran over would have caused her car to become stuck it was so huge....lol
I have to say it was delicious,and luckily didn't taste of a Firestone tire near miss ..... I didn't need any further feeding that day....! Lloyd went into the pub and got four bourbons to wash it all down with.. so our brief stop in this town was a lovely one.. hopping back on the horses for the second part of today's ride down to Lauder...
A little way along this next section Vickys friend Kate,who owns and runs a little B&B in Lauder we intended staying this night turned up in her car to see how we were getting on..
Lloyd was a little concerned about his pack horse Al having sore feet even though he was shod, so Kate asked if Al's load should be taken in her car to her place to give Al an easier trip this day... that was very kind of Kate I thought...
Over the road behind where this photo was taken we spotted the Muddy Cafe, so Lloyd and I after taking orders went over and purchased some of the recommended home made pies.. I couldn't believe the size of them....baked and sold in a tinfoil tray they measured around 9 inches long by 5 inches wide and a couple inches high.... one pie..... I thought.. these Southern folks must have a huge appetite to call these pies a normal size..lol
Now the funniest thing happened.. I walked back over to our horses, to find that Buddy had deposited a dollop of fertilizer right in the middle of the car park entrance, but Vic didn't have any means of picking up said deposit, so I said I would tip my pie carefully over and remove the tin foil container and use this as a make do shovel..
Well on the foot path I did just that and then looked for a spot to put my pie while it cooled down to help her, but the only place that was available was on the footpath away from the interested horses prying eyes that were also interested in said pie.. so on the edge of this footpath I placed it and went over to help Vic...
I spotted a little car approaching slowly with a little old lady driving who wanted to turn into the car park but horses blocking it she pulled up on the yellow line, and as i looked around....... to see a wheel just miss my pie on the adjacent foot path by around 1.5 millimetres...lol man it was close..lol ...........said old lady hopped out and walked into the pub oblivious to the near calamity she almost caused... I reckon with the size of pie she nearly ran over would have caused her car to become stuck it was so huge....lol
I have to say it was delicious,and luckily didn't taste of a Firestone tire near miss ..... I didn't need any further feeding that day....! Lloyd went into the pub and got four bourbons to wash it all down with.. so our brief stop in this town was a lovely one.. hopping back on the horses for the second part of today's ride down to Lauder...
A little way along this next section Vickys friend Kate,who owns and runs a little B&B in Lauder we intended staying this night turned up in her car to see how we were getting on..
Lloyd was a little concerned about his pack horse Al having sore feet even though he was shod, so Kate asked if Al's load should be taken in her car to her place to give Al an easier trip this day... that was very kind of Kate I thought...
Ya...... no load thought Al...!
Lauder Hospitality.................
Now Kate, pictured second in from the left was another amazing southern hospitality host, who went totally out of her way to ensure we all had a wonderful stay here..
She set up a small caravan in one of her sheds for Vic and myself with Donna and Lloyd sleeping in her home.. Kate also had another couple from Sweden staying this night,
Kate went to a lot of trouble in making a beautiful dinner and drinks for all of us...It was a great night of laughs and entertainment, with the folks from Sweden enjoying the fun us Kiwis can produce...
To add to the festive night Kate disappeared and returned holding a "pete" of her home made brew... and invited anyone who dared a sample... it was a cloudy brew, quite sweet, and this bottle being the first she has opened, we felt we were the guina pigs.... well the first bottle evaporated quite fast so she disappearing and returning with a couple more...... soon had her guests talking rubbish and giggling far too much.. Kate assured us it was low in Alcohol ....... yer right...lol
Lloyd was still concerned about Al, and Kate suggested he borrow her car and return to Clyde to pick up his truck to transport Al the next day to Oturehua to give him a bit of a rest...
Vicky also said Buddy was a bit sore and wanted to also float him over.. so Lloyd, Donna and Myself all drove back and picked up the floats and returned, leaving Vick to have some time alone with Kate for a yarn in peace..
Next morning after breakfast Lloyd loaded his two and Donna s pack horse on the truck with Vicky loading Buddy on my float, with my pack horse gear in the car she drove it around to the next stop over leaving just Donna and myself to ride the trail today....
It was a bit of a shame, as todays ride was to my mind one of the highlights of this Rail Trail... the day we ride over the various high Viaduct bridges and thru the Poolburn tunnels....
She set up a small caravan in one of her sheds for Vic and myself with Donna and Lloyd sleeping in her home.. Kate also had another couple from Sweden staying this night,
Kate went to a lot of trouble in making a beautiful dinner and drinks for all of us...It was a great night of laughs and entertainment, with the folks from Sweden enjoying the fun us Kiwis can produce...
To add to the festive night Kate disappeared and returned holding a "pete" of her home made brew... and invited anyone who dared a sample... it was a cloudy brew, quite sweet, and this bottle being the first she has opened, we felt we were the guina pigs.... well the first bottle evaporated quite fast so she disappearing and returning with a couple more...... soon had her guests talking rubbish and giggling far too much.. Kate assured us it was low in Alcohol ....... yer right...lol
Lloyd was still concerned about Al, and Kate suggested he borrow her car and return to Clyde to pick up his truck to transport Al the next day to Oturehua to give him a bit of a rest...
Vicky also said Buddy was a bit sore and wanted to also float him over.. so Lloyd, Donna and Myself all drove back and picked up the floats and returned, leaving Vick to have some time alone with Kate for a yarn in peace..
Next morning after breakfast Lloyd loaded his two and Donna s pack horse on the truck with Vicky loading Buddy on my float, with my pack horse gear in the car she drove it around to the next stop over leaving just Donna and myself to ride the trail today....
It was a bit of a shame, as todays ride was to my mind one of the highlights of this Rail Trail... the day we ride over the various high Viaduct bridges and thru the Poolburn tunnels....
On Bailey again, heading up into the Poolburn tunnels area......
The Manuherikia viaduct bridge..........
The first of the tall viaduct bridges crossed this day,, suprising how calm all the boys were crossing it as its a long way down.. I got off Bailey and led him across..
Stunning scenery along this section of the trail....
Stunning scenery along this section of the trail....
Manuherikia Viaduct.. under view...
Approaching the first of two Tunnels enroute today..!
Pic taken inside on maximum camera flash....
Donna walking ahead to take this shot..
All of the horses had never seen a tunnel before but upon approaching the start of the first one I hopped off Bailey and dug a torch out of the saddle bag, turned it on and he just happily followed me into the dark, with Giz close behind ... they all had little fear of this
At the other end remounting Bailey and rode up to the second one and just stayed on him with my torch walked straight thru... I was amazed how calm they were...
Quite funny.. the second tunnel had a bend in it and being dark, Bailey slid along the outside wall as we rounded this bend... i had to push him gently away from the wall with my leg in a couple of places..lol
All of the horses had never seen a tunnel before but upon approaching the start of the first one I hopped off Bailey and dug a torch out of the saddle bag, turned it on and he just happily followed me into the dark, with Giz close behind ... they all had little fear of this
At the other end remounting Bailey and rode up to the second one and just stayed on him with my torch walked straight thru... I was amazed how calm they were...
Quite funny.. the second tunnel had a bend in it and being dark, Bailey slid along the outside wall as we rounded this bend... i had to push him gently away from the wall with my leg in a couple of places..lol
Riding Bailey, approaching the end of the second tunnel...
As you can see its totally black riding thru here... loved this experience..!
Exiting the second tunnel....
That was fun, I said to Donna.. lets go back thru again..lol
Trail riding is diverse and fun....
Well done Donna...
All the structures in this area were hand dug out and hand built... further up at the Poolburn viaduct, a huge amount of stone was taken off a huge rock mountain, carved into brick size and layed to form the supports for the high bridge to sit on... amazing work...!
All the structures in this area were hand dug out and hand built... further up at the Poolburn viaduct, a huge amount of stone was taken off a huge rock mountain, carved into brick size and layed to form the supports for the high bridge to sit on... amazing work...!
Walking across the Poolburn viaduct....
Donna and I enjoyed this section of todays ride...
Each one of these stone bricks was hand chiselled out of the otherside rock face, shaped and then hand laid..
Quite a long days ride today, and after this bridge, it was down the gentle incline for a few kilometres and out across a large flat as we rode into the last town on our rail trail section the town of Oturehua....
With Lloyd and Vicky arriving much earlier, half the town seemed to know horse riders were due, and everyone Donna and I talked to knew we were coming thru..
Our bed tonight was at the Crows Nest Back Packers, and the local cartage firm kindly lent us a couple of small paddocks for the horses..
A feed at the pub and a few beers after, then over and hit the hay for a good nights sleep..
Next morning, Al still with sore feet, we canned the ride from here to Naseby and trucked all the horses this day over to there..
Now another piece of Southern hospitality came to light...
During the preceding months in the planning stage, one area I couldnt find was a horse paddock overnight in Naseby. but after ringing around a couple of businesses with one thing or another, I was given a telephone # of a possible guy who did own some land around this area..
I phoned this guy... a cold call asking if he did have or knew anyone who we could rent a paddock overnight... this man said... well, I have ten acres right on the outskirts of Naseby.... help yourself.. stay as long as you like... I said that was very kind.. how much can I pay you for this..... NO CHARGE was his reply.. I said can I meet up and shout you a beer or two at the pub when there.... No.. I dont drink..! just help yourself and have a great trip..... such kind people everywhere down south..!
A night at the Naseby pub and after breakfast, went up, loaded the horses and trucked them up to the bottom of the Mt Buster road for the start of this weeks trail, thru the hills of Mt Buster, with several day trips planned from our basecamp at the Tailing hut in the heart of the Mt Buster area..
With Lloyd and Vicky arriving much earlier, half the town seemed to know horse riders were due, and everyone Donna and I talked to knew we were coming thru..
Our bed tonight was at the Crows Nest Back Packers, and the local cartage firm kindly lent us a couple of small paddocks for the horses..
A feed at the pub and a few beers after, then over and hit the hay for a good nights sleep..
Next morning, Al still with sore feet, we canned the ride from here to Naseby and trucked all the horses this day over to there..
Now another piece of Southern hospitality came to light...
During the preceding months in the planning stage, one area I couldnt find was a horse paddock overnight in Naseby. but after ringing around a couple of businesses with one thing or another, I was given a telephone # of a possible guy who did own some land around this area..
I phoned this guy... a cold call asking if he did have or knew anyone who we could rent a paddock overnight... this man said... well, I have ten acres right on the outskirts of Naseby.... help yourself.. stay as long as you like... I said that was very kind.. how much can I pay you for this..... NO CHARGE was his reply.. I said can I meet up and shout you a beer or two at the pub when there.... No.. I dont drink..! just help yourself and have a great trip..... such kind people everywhere down south..!
A night at the Naseby pub and after breakfast, went up, loaded the horses and trucked them up to the bottom of the Mt Buster road for the start of this weeks trail, thru the hills of Mt Buster, with several day trips planned from our basecamp at the Tailing hut in the heart of the Mt Buster area..
Almost ready to head out on this next section of the trail...
Some blokes do a lot of yarning at times...
Starting up the Mt Buster road on the Oteake Conservation Area..
This morning we had around an hour and halfs climb up onto Mt Buster from here, again a stunning day weather wise...
Reloaded with fresh supplies and reasonably heavy pack weights i elected to load Giz being the stronger horse for this hill country section thru to our next base.. the Tailings hut..
Reloaded with fresh supplies and reasonably heavy pack weights i elected to load Giz being the stronger horse for this hill country section thru to our next base.. the Tailings hut..
Half way up the Mt Buster Range looking South over the Maniototo tablelands..
Still climbing......
Finally up on the Mt Buster tablelands...
After an hour and a half climb up hill we reached this vast flatish area on top of this mountain range ,
Just quickly needed to stop to slacken Gizzys Breast plate..
Just quickly needed to stop to slacken Gizzys Breast plate..
The entrance to one of the large opencast Gold mining sites...
its such a shame that this area has to be fenced off to stop folks in vehicles driving all over this historic site..
If you look to the centre left at the last white peak you may just pick out myself standing on top of one of those white quarts crystal hills that was mined at the turn of the century ... all this and many other sites in this area were hand dug and shifted... acres and acres and dug down quite deep have all been shifted by hand..
If you look to the centre left at the last white peak you may just pick out myself standing on top of one of those white quarts crystal hills that was mined at the turn of the century ... all this and many other sites in this area were hand dug and shifted... acres and acres and dug down quite deep have all been shifted by hand..
Whole hill sides have been sifted and sluced looking for Gold.....
My god.. looks like they forgot one old digger when they all left..lol
Same photo as above but taken back to show the vast material shifted...
Overlooking the Guffies Creek area....
Off the horses and walking down hill to the stream far below..
Following the track down river as far as the eye can see and a bit further to our weeks hut destination.. the Tailings hut..
Following the track down river as far as the eye can see and a bit further to our weeks hut destination.. the Tailings hut..
It was one of this treks longest days in the saddle...
Robinsons Stream, with the track uphill and out to the Brown Hut....
The Tailings Hut....
This photo doesn't do this hut justice,,
We arrived late afternoon to this hut to the sound of a generator humming away and on arriving found a trailer mounted freezer parked right next to the front entrance,, A group of hunter were in here for the week previous and this turned out to be their last days, so we soon had the hut all to ourselves for the week we intended staying,,
I think this hut is one of the best designed huts I have seen in a long time,, this end is the main kitchen dining room with nice fireplace, with the sleeping quarter in two separate wings at the far end, and in between a large covered in area to store all our gear, firewood and heaps of room for anything else, all out of the weather..
We intended to do several day trips out from here to take a look at some of the history and countryside...
We had a good size secure horse paddock up behind this photo, and our entire time here we have beautiful warm days and not a drop of rain the entire week...
Tomorrow was a day off for the horses, with some of us just enjoying a but of hut life, with others going for a walk here and there...
We arrived late afternoon to this hut to the sound of a generator humming away and on arriving found a trailer mounted freezer parked right next to the front entrance,, A group of hunter were in here for the week previous and this turned out to be their last days, so we soon had the hut all to ourselves for the week we intended staying,,
I think this hut is one of the best designed huts I have seen in a long time,, this end is the main kitchen dining room with nice fireplace, with the sleeping quarter in two separate wings at the far end, and in between a large covered in area to store all our gear, firewood and heaps of room for anything else, all out of the weather..
We intended to do several day trips out from here to take a look at some of the history and countryside...
We had a good size secure horse paddock up behind this photo, and our entire time here we have beautiful warm days and not a drop of rain the entire week...
Tomorrow was a day off for the horses, with some of us just enjoying a but of hut life, with others going for a walk here and there...
Early evening on the first day at Tailings Hut...
looking up towards the left hill side you can just pick out four white dots... the North Island horses in middle summer with covers on..lol could resist adding this..!
The pig hunters were great company at the hut....
After a day off for the boys, next morning we packed a lunch, saddled them and were intending to head out to a hut we had heard of up in the hills, some two hours ride..
The hunters were heading out this morning as well so a final yarn and saying our goodbyes...
The hunters were heading out this morning as well so a final yarn and saying our goodbyes...
Starting our day ride out to "Pig Shit Inn"..... where ever that is..!
We left all the pack horses behind this morning and after talking with one of the hunters back at camp as to directions to this Pig Shit inn hut. headed out down river a way then turned up this hill thinking we were on the right track...!
You can see Tony behind Lloyd with his head down studying his GPS... something was not right with this track..!
You can see Tony behind Lloyd with his head down studying his GPS... something was not right with this track..!
As we reached the top of the first little hill, confusion reined...!!
As it turned out there were three tracks we could follow up hill at this point,
The GPS indicated that we needed to be on the middle track not this top one... as you can see we had heads looking in all directions..lol
The GPS indicated that we needed to be on the middle track not this top one... as you can see we had heads looking in all directions..lol
Straight down was the quickest way to get on the right track..!
Giz very sure footed on the hill sides...
On the way out to the hut, the track follows along the top of the ridge quite a way then double backs down to a stream crossing and up the other side.. some of us decided to take a short cut and sidled down to the stream.. I love riding on this sort of country and its good training for all the horses as well. teaching them to watch each step they take..
Pig Shit Inn........
Now talking to locals about this hut, I was a little confused as on the map its known as Hut Creek Hut, and asking the locals where Hut Creek Hut was.. no one had heard of it... it was one of the hunters we met who said... do you mean Pig Shit Inn..? I said I didnt know...
Its funny, the new flash DoC sign out side says Hut Creek Hut, but take a look at the door in the below pic.!
Its funny, the new flash DoC sign out side says Hut Creek Hut, but take a look at the door in the below pic.!
Mystery solved..!
Someone in the back ground was being smart saying look.. a southern and northern man in the same shot..!
Looking up hill from this hut towards the Awakino Saddle.....
One of the trips I wanted to do was take some overnight gear and ride away up this valley to the saddle and down the other side for a night at the Awakino Station Hut on the other side for a look but no one else was keen... perhaps next time..!
Visiting Sergeant Garveys Cairn.....
leaving the Pig Shit inn after lunch there, we headed out over further hills and down to a stream crossing where i asked who would like to take a side trip down a bit of a steep siding and further down to the next stream to visit a Cairn marking the death of a sergeant who was caught out in a snow blizzard and died at this location..
Initially no one wanted to come with me then Donna said ok, so just the two of us rode on down here, and as it turned out, what a beautiful dramatic landscape it was.. loved our visit here..
The others elected to stay on the hill track and waited for us away up on top of a bluff.....
Initially no one wanted to come with me then Donna said ok, so just the two of us rode on down here, and as it turned out, what a beautiful dramatic landscape it was.. loved our visit here..
The others elected to stay on the hill track and waited for us away up on top of a bluff.....
Amazing landscape in this area....
R.I.P Sergeant Garvey..........
Tall rock columns and little cannons made for some stunning scenery... you can just pick out the old Digger below the rock to give an indication to the height...amazing..!
Next day, further exploring the hills.......!
Off the horses for all steep down hill sections..
Vicky had borrowed a topo map of this area off a mutual riding friend Kay who had ridden over this area a year or so back and on her map was a dot and a brief description of a little hut away up on the tablelands, so this morning we packed another lunch and armed with this map headed off to see if we could find it...
O the adventures of horse trekking...!
Vicky had borrowed a topo map of this area off a mutual riding friend Kay who had ridden over this area a year or so back and on her map was a dot and a brief description of a little hut away up on the tablelands, so this morning we packed another lunch and armed with this map headed off to see if we could find it...
O the adventures of horse trekking...!
Lloyd and I sidling down into the stream then straight up the other side..!
Ahead of us it got steeper as we got down to the stream.. I love riding this sort of country..!
Its perfectly straight forward just sidling down in a zig zag pattern..!
Its perfectly straight forward just sidling down in a zig zag pattern..!
A hut with no name..!
After a few hours ride we found said hut... all on its own.. miles from anywhere at least a kilometre from the nearest stream for water supply, not sure why this hut was built at this location..
Lloyd seemed to think some prospector must have staked a claim in this area and this was his accommodation he was building..
Interesting as with most of the other historic huts up on this table lands rock was placed around the walls at least a foot thick to help insulate from the hore frost that envelope this land in winter, but where had this builder obtain all the rock..? the far side and rear wall had been finished and a huge pile of rock out front presumably for the front and this side yet to have been constructed..
Lloyd seemed to think some prospector must have staked a claim in this area and this was his accommodation he was building..
Interesting as with most of the other historic huts up on this table lands rock was placed around the walls at least a foot thick to help insulate from the hore frost that envelope this land in winter, but where had this builder obtain all the rock..? the far side and rear wall had been finished and a huge pile of rock out front presumably for the front and this side yet to have been constructed..
inside views....
I was amazed at such light pole construction using only Manuka sticks to hold the roof up and where did the builder get these sticks from.. not a bush or tree anywhere on these tablelands that we saw over the week visiting here..?
After here and having had lunch I wanted to continue up onto the table lands further, but no one else wanted to so we turned around and retraced our path back to the Tailings hut arriving back around 1.30pm...
I was beginning to wonder if this country was boring some folks..!
Our last day ride.. in a new direction.....
After a further day in camp after heading out to that last hut. we saddled the horses and headed back up the Guffies Stream a distance then turned up hill on the trail out to Brown hut historic Gold Claim.... Vicky wanted Buddy to have a day off so she stayed behind even tho I offered her Bailey to ride today..!
This photo shows us following one of the extensive system of water channels that prospectors dug around the sides of hills to collect water and created a gentle down slope towards their claim site to run the water jet powered sluices..
These water channels run for many kilometres each down to a little storage pond above the diggings area, then when sufficient water was stored a gate was opened allowing this water to shoot down hill into the claim floor thru 10 inch steel pipes and at the bottom a right angle and reduced down to two inch and thru a water cannon shooting onto the adjacent hill face to wash the material down thru their sluice riddle boxes... amazing simple engineering..
This photo shows us following one of the extensive system of water channels that prospectors dug around the sides of hills to collect water and created a gentle down slope towards their claim site to run the water jet powered sluices..
These water channels run for many kilometres each down to a little storage pond above the diggings area, then when sufficient water was stored a gate was opened allowing this water to shoot down hill into the claim floor thru 10 inch steel pipes and at the bottom a right angle and reduced down to two inch and thru a water cannon shooting onto the adjacent hill face to wash the material down thru their sluice riddle boxes... amazing simple engineering..
Whole hillsides moved in pursuit of that elusive GOLD..........!
Interesting..... as we rode up the track to this Brown Hut claim site, on the side of the track was still a wooden stake in the ground with an old board attached stating that this claim was a registered private claim dated away back in the late 1860 s
In this photo in front of Lloyd is still some of the Sluice steel pipe work laying in the bottom of this claim...
In this photo in front of Lloyd is still some of the Sluice steel pipe work laying in the bottom of this claim...
Brown Hut and Claim site..........!
This Brown Hut is built out of straightened 44 gallon steel drums as wall linings.. We went inside this hut on this rather warm day and it was like being in an oven....
Imagine in the dead of winter.. would be little different to being outside in temp.. but it was still a shelter I guess..
On my camera I did take a photo of a plaque mounted on the wall about this claim and the amount of ounces recovered per annum.. it was a large amount I do remember that..
In this above photo, you can pick out one of the hillside water races gently falling towards this claim on the Tussock hillside above the hut..!
I suggested after this area we continue up around in a large circle to the rear of the first claim we came across on the first day up here but again no takers, so back to the Tailings hut on this the last day in this area before moving on north thru Otematata Station...
Imagine in the dead of winter.. would be little different to being outside in temp.. but it was still a shelter I guess..
On my camera I did take a photo of a plaque mounted on the wall about this claim and the amount of ounces recovered per annum.. it was a large amount I do remember that..
In this above photo, you can pick out one of the hillside water races gently falling towards this claim on the Tussock hillside above the hut..!
I suggested after this area we continue up around in a large circle to the rear of the first claim we came across on the first day up here but again no takers, so back to the Tailings hut on this the last day in this area before moving on north thru Otematata Station...
After our week here it was time for our cavalcade to be moving on...!
All the pack horses had much lighter loads as we left the Tailing hut area, below in this photo..
Up over this little rise then a steep drop down the other side into the Otematata River, crossing it followed by a long steep pull up several kilometres to the top of the mountain range and following this along around 10 kilometres to the back boundary of the Otematata Station, then a further 5 odd kilometres further along this mountain top, then dropping down a massive zig zag track into the Chimney Tops Stream, then turning up stream a further couple of kilometres to our this nights overnight hut.. the Chimney Tops Hut..
Up over this little rise then a steep drop down the other side into the Otematata River, crossing it followed by a long steep pull up several kilometres to the top of the mountain range and following this along around 10 kilometres to the back boundary of the Otematata Station, then a further 5 odd kilometres further along this mountain top, then dropping down a massive zig zag track into the Chimney Tops Stream, then turning up stream a further couple of kilometres to our this nights overnight hut.. the Chimney Tops Hut..
On the saddle overlooking the Otematata River headwaters..!
All of the horses have handled this trek comfortably..... we had 7 horses and over the 257 kilometres of broken rock riding most of the time not one horses lost a shoe...
Otematata Gorge stock bridge...
This is a new bridge to replace one down near where we crossed this river that had been washed out...
Along the station trail of two days there were a couple more bridges like this towering above the river for stock access...
Along the station trail of two days there were a couple more bridges like this towering above the river for stock access...
Heading north along this high tablelands we arrived at the back boundary of Otematata Station...
Vast country as far as the eye can see in any direction....
Off the high tablelands, down a long zig zag track....
Mid afternoon arriving at this Chimney Tops Hut....
A nice old comfortable hut for our overnight stay, with a huge horse paddock that went quite a way up the hill side, but luckliy all the horses were a bit tired and stayed down near the bottom..
Access for the two days ride, one night at this hut and two nights at the shearers quarters at the end of the ride came to $600.00 for our party...
It wasnt that long ago one could ring and ask permission and travel thru for free, with perhaps a dozen beers as a thank you.. not any more..!
Access for the two days ride, one night at this hut and two nights at the shearers quarters at the end of the ride came to $600.00 for our party...
It wasnt that long ago one could ring and ask permission and travel thru for free, with perhaps a dozen beers as a thank you.. not any more..!
Another well designed hut.....!
Tying the Box Hitch pack knot system......
I think this box hitch knot system is the best way to secure panniers to any pack horse..
Once tied correctly the panniers become a static part of the pack horse allowing him to balance himself much easier in tight going, and not have the weight shifting around as he steps around obstacles, on steep hill sides or jumping small creeks etc.. the load and horse are one....
Another benefit for the horse is when tied correctly the rope system holds the load slightly away from the side of the horse, thus allowing him to breathe easier, rather than just having panniers hanging off the pack saddle and tying one rope loop right over the top and passing under his tummy, pulling the load into his side with the horse then having to push the load out with every breath taken... think of the horses comfort when tying loads on..!
Once tied correctly the panniers become a static part of the pack horse allowing him to balance himself much easier in tight going, and not have the weight shifting around as he steps around obstacles, on steep hill sides or jumping small creeks etc.. the load and horse are one....
Another benefit for the horse is when tied correctly the rope system holds the load slightly away from the side of the horse, thus allowing him to breathe easier, rather than just having panniers hanging off the pack saddle and tying one rope loop right over the top and passing under his tummy, pulling the load into his side with the horse then having to push the load out with every breath taken... think of the horses comfort when tying loads on..!
Our final days ride on this trek..!
The track followed a long way down the side of this Otematata River, where large sections had become covered in Briar rendering the land useless for farming...
Stopping for lunch at the Forks Hut half way down the river, we continued this long road trek thru further hills climbing and decending untill we arrived up on a hilltop for our first views of the Lake Aviemore and eventually overlooking the Otematata Station homestead and the end of our trek....
Stopping for lunch at the Forks Hut half way down the river, we continued this long road trek thru further hills climbing and decending untill we arrived up on a hilltop for our first views of the Lake Aviemore and eventually overlooking the Otematata Station homestead and the end of our trek....
The end was in sight....!
We were chased off this hill by a very dark southerly cloud closing in but made it down in dry conditions, arriving late afternoon... I think it fair to say some folks had seen enough of dusty rocky tracks to last them quite a long time, but we all made it in one piece..
Unloading and washing the boys down and just sitting down with a beer Lloyd wanted to head straight back in the car to get his truck... Poor Vic had had enough for one day already having ridden 6.5 hours but Lloyd was quite persistent, so with a beer still in hand we all piled into Vics car for the two and half hour drive down country , then over Danseys Pass and around to Naseby , then back up the Mt Buster Rd to the vehicles, then a further two and half hour drive back to Otematata Station once again..
Not long after tea we all crashed into bed...
Next morning after a leisurely breakfast I loaded my two boys on the float and set sail for home..
The others were staying one more night as Donna was flying home out of Christchurch a day later..
So another long trek... thru some interesting and some bland country... a long way in the saddle but a rewarding trek all the same...
Unloading and washing the boys down and just sitting down with a beer Lloyd wanted to head straight back in the car to get his truck... Poor Vic had had enough for one day already having ridden 6.5 hours but Lloyd was quite persistent, so with a beer still in hand we all piled into Vics car for the two and half hour drive down country , then over Danseys Pass and around to Naseby , then back up the Mt Buster Rd to the vehicles, then a further two and half hour drive back to Otematata Station once again..
Not long after tea we all crashed into bed...
Next morning after a leisurely breakfast I loaded my two boys on the float and set sail for home..
The others were staying one more night as Donna was flying home out of Christchurch a day later..
So another long trek... thru some interesting and some bland country... a long way in the saddle but a rewarding trek all the same...
On the Trail............
The Clarence Reserve, Molesworth Trek........
Distance travelled (including side trips) 180 kilometres.....
Having spent all Sunday and Monday morning readying myself and gear I loaded Giz and Bailey mid afternoon Monday and headed on up to Hanmer, then up over the Jacks Pass, turning right at the Clarence River and heading down some 25 kilometres to the Historic Acheron Accommodation house area..
Mary and I agreed to meet up at the airstrip site in this area around 7pm and being the first to arrive, checked that all the fencing was intact around the airfield and turned my two boys loose along with a bale of hay to munch on..
This evening as the above photo shows was a stunning one, warm and clear skies for the start of our 12 day trek down the Clarence River to the distant Stoat Creek hut, then thru the Bullen Hills to the upper Clarence gorge and over onto Cloudy Range Station, then a two day ride down the Clarence River thru the Clarence Reserve to Quail Flat, followed by crossing the Clarence again onto Molesworth Country, trekking thru to the remote Lake McRae, and finally a further two day trek up the Tweed River, up and over the Carter Saddle and down the Dillon river and finally back up the Clarence River to our start point, this including a few days off here and there for the boys to rest..
Mary and I agreed to meet up at the airstrip site in this area around 7pm and being the first to arrive, checked that all the fencing was intact around the airfield and turned my two boys loose along with a bale of hay to munch on..
This evening as the above photo shows was a stunning one, warm and clear skies for the start of our 12 day trek down the Clarence River to the distant Stoat Creek hut, then thru the Bullen Hills to the upper Clarence gorge and over onto Cloudy Range Station, then a two day ride down the Clarence River thru the Clarence Reserve to Quail Flat, followed by crossing the Clarence again onto Molesworth Country, trekking thru to the remote Lake McRae, and finally a further two day trek up the Tweed River, up and over the Carter Saddle and down the Dillon river and finally back up the Clarence River to our start point, this including a few days off here and there for the boys to rest..
All the boys at the airstrip site.....
The large fertiliser storage shed was empty at the airstrip so was great to park both our floats and vehicles under cover for the duration of this trek...
I unrolled my swag and slept this first night in my float with Mary electing to sleep in the passenger seat of her ute...
I unrolled my swag and slept this first night in my float with Mary electing to sleep in the passenger seat of her ute...
Looking down the Clarence River valley...
An early start this cooler cloudy morning saw Mary and I saddle two pack and two riding horses with all our gear and tucker supply along with a reasonable amount of horse feed as at times after Christmas in this area, grass feed in parts can be scarce ...
Leaving the airstrip around 8am on the first day of our trek... The river was quite low making it easy to cross a couple of times enroute down river..
Leaving the airstrip around 8am on the first day of our trek... The river was quite low making it easy to cross a couple of times enroute down river..
Our first river crossing... 70 metres wide and not too deep....
After crossing the river onto Molesworth side and some 12 kilometres down river from the Airstrip, Marys pack load was constantly leaning to one side so we stopped to rebalance Rosy her pack horses load....
I lifted up one side of her pannier load to discover that both her pack saddle blankets had slid off leaving the poor girl with just two wooden boards attached to her pack saddle on her back.... darn...... where had they fallen off.....
I said to Mary I would go back and look for them, but had the two pack horses still fully loaded, so first elected to take the loads off both of them as its not fair to be standing around waiting fully loaded..
Mary took my pack scales and rebalanced her load as I mounted Giz and trailing me, the loose Bailey, we headed back along the same track looking for said saddle pads...
I retraced our path infact all the way back to the floats without finding either of them and once there got two spares that I had in the car, tied these on Bailey and headed back... an extra 24 kilometres travel to add to the 14 kilometres to the first night at Stoat Creek Hut over the hills..
Upon arriving back to Mary we reloaded the two pack horses and headed on down the track...
Mary put my pack scales in her saddle bag however they were sticking out either end and somewhere further along towards the hut, they must have hooked onto the lead rope to Rosy, and pulled out.. anyway they were lost.... another great start..... twelve days packing without scales to balance the loads..
I lifted up one side of her pannier load to discover that both her pack saddle blankets had slid off leaving the poor girl with just two wooden boards attached to her pack saddle on her back.... darn...... where had they fallen off.....
I said to Mary I would go back and look for them, but had the two pack horses still fully loaded, so first elected to take the loads off both of them as its not fair to be standing around waiting fully loaded..
Mary took my pack scales and rebalanced her load as I mounted Giz and trailing me, the loose Bailey, we headed back along the same track looking for said saddle pads...
I retraced our path infact all the way back to the floats without finding either of them and once there got two spares that I had in the car, tied these on Bailey and headed back... an extra 24 kilometres travel to add to the 14 kilometres to the first night at Stoat Creek Hut over the hills..
Upon arriving back to Mary we reloaded the two pack horses and headed on down the track...
Mary put my pack scales in her saddle bag however they were sticking out either end and somewhere further along towards the hut, they must have hooked onto the lead rope to Rosy, and pulled out.. anyway they were lost.... another great start..... twelve days packing without scales to balance the loads..
Down river nearing the Dillon River crossing....
The above photo shows us almost to the Dillon river, where we crossed it and rode up and over the little saddle above Marys head and out to our first nights accomodation.. the Stoat Creek Hut....
Over the saddle and down to Stoat Creek.....
Last time I was thru here several years ago the Stoat Creek hut was a little dirt floor old musterers hut, but to our surprise an almost new hut was in it place... Nice..!
The Stoat Creek Hut.......
This hut was super.... we both enjoyed our stay here and intended to return on the last day of our round trek and stay the night again...
As with all of the Molesworth.... and indeed the DoC huts in this area, all had good well fenced horse paddocks
As some of you will know Mary is a qualified Fine Dining Chef, and it was no surprise to see her produce Fillet steak and the regulation three veg for dinner this evening.... Nice..!
Permission is needed to travel over Molesworths farmed areas, and all huts on this farmed section are locked..this one included...!
As with all of the Molesworth.... and indeed the DoC huts in this area, all had good well fenced horse paddocks
As some of you will know Mary is a qualified Fine Dining Chef, and it was no surprise to see her produce Fillet steak and the regulation three veg for dinner this evening.... Nice..!
Permission is needed to travel over Molesworths farmed areas, and all huts on this farmed section are locked..this one included...!
The start of the Bullen Hills pack trail....
Leaving the hut again around 8am, we headed up the creek to pick up this Bullen hills pack track, however it was quite hard to find with having little use in the past while by the looks of it
This was our first encounter with Briar covering the hillsides
The pack track start was eventually located and headed up to the right hill spur..
This was our first encounter with Briar covering the hillsides
The pack track start was eventually located and headed up to the right hill spur..
Looking up towards the Stoat Creek saddle...
It was quite a climb this morning up to the saddle, following up this above spur to the vegetation near the top then sidling over to the right towards the saddle
The Bullen Hills......
Photo taken just on the saddle looking north....One pack track heads off to the left sidling along the hillside which we initially took but after a hundred metres or so heavy scrub stopped us in our tracks, so we elected to turn around and return to the saddle and head down around to the right on a second track, but on turning around Rosy got loose and charged back up and over the saddle and disappeared.. next for some reason Marys other horse she was leading also got loose and did the same...
A panicked Mary rushed to the top of the near by saddle and luckily both returned, she grabbed both as we then headed off to the right hillside in the above photo on another less overgrown track.
Around this hill saw the pack track climb and decend some quite steep hillsides, then further down we came to a scrubby gully that the pack track went thru but was far too thick for horses to get thru, so we had to retrace our steps back some 200 metres, then climb a further steep hill to the top where we could over look all the area down to the far below Clarence gorge area and work out a new route over the hills away from the original track as best as possible, avoiding the worst of the Briar and bluff areas..
Down that spur and thru some heavy briar, and further steep rocky decent we worked our way down hill....
A panicked Mary rushed to the top of the near by saddle and luckily both returned, she grabbed both as we then headed off to the right hillside in the above photo on another less overgrown track.
Around this hill saw the pack track climb and decend some quite steep hillsides, then further down we came to a scrubby gully that the pack track went thru but was far too thick for horses to get thru, so we had to retrace our steps back some 200 metres, then climb a further steep hill to the top where we could over look all the area down to the far below Clarence gorge area and work out a new route over the hills away from the original track as best as possible, avoiding the worst of the Briar and bluff areas..
Down that spur and thru some heavy briar, and further steep rocky decent we worked our way down hill....
Looking back across to the saddle we had come thru.....
The pack track sidled from the saddle around to the left in the above photo and cut thru a second saddle on the left where the hill is bare of vegetation and into that scrubby gully requiring us to ride up the left ridge and further up to the top of the hill behind this photo..
Views North East down over the Bullen hills.....
We had to carefully choose the way down towards the distant Clarence river to avoid the scrubby gullies and further down some bluffy areas .. no easy task as it turned out....
Halfway down having traversed the hard limestone rock decent......
The peaky hill upper left was where we surveyed a route down, so quite a rapid decent with the ever present Briar to negotiate.
In this photo we had to stop here and cut a track down thru a gully with the hand saw.. Briar becoming more of a problem as we descended....
In this photo we had to stop here and cut a track down thru a gully with the hand saw.. Briar becoming more of a problem as we descended....
After four and half hours we made it down to the Clarence River....
Around a kilometre from the river we found the going much easier when finding the lower end of the pack track had been sprayed as in the above photo.. so off down river we travelled towards the Cloudy Range Station track on the otherside..
The beautiful Clarence River Gorge......
This afternoon it became quite hot so for a distance we rode along in the river down towards to hut track... simply beautiful countryside.....
Views from the Cloudy Range track.....
From the river this track climbed some 500 metres in height and around a kilometre up to the Cloudy Hut we had permission to stay in this night but upon arrival up at the hut no water was flowing in the adjacent stream and no water in the hut tank..
Further more at the hut we couldn't see any horse paddock, so I rode on up past the hut up the hill a distance but still no paddock,,, so rode down past the hut again and did find a small paddock holding a handful of sheep.. this being the only fenced area that I could see, this became also the horse paddock but the fence was in poor condition and I spent a further hour patching it to hopefully hold horses overnight... again no water in here..
I then rode back up to the hut where Mary had unloaded the other three horses, then after unloading Gizz and emptying my saddlebags got four, two litres empty plastic bottles from the hut and we all strolled back down the track all the way to the river, to fill said bottles and give the boys a drink...
Then the second trudge in the heat of the afternoon back up to the hut once again... so all in all quite a challenging day overall....
Further more at the hut we couldn't see any horse paddock, so I rode on up past the hut up the hill a distance but still no paddock,,, so rode down past the hut again and did find a small paddock holding a handful of sheep.. this being the only fenced area that I could see, this became also the horse paddock but the fence was in poor condition and I spent a further hour patching it to hopefully hold horses overnight... again no water in here..
I then rode back up to the hut where Mary had unloaded the other three horses, then after unloading Gizz and emptying my saddlebags got four, two litres empty plastic bottles from the hut and we all strolled back down the track all the way to the river, to fill said bottles and give the boys a drink...
Then the second trudge in the heat of the afternoon back up to the hut once again... so all in all quite a challenging day overall....
The Cloudy Hut..... ( Like the pub with no beer......! )
This was a lovely old hut to stay in with beaut old fashion saggy beds that are divine to sleep in, and with the sun going down we ate dinner sitting on the veranda looking up at the Cloudy Range high above us... a nice way to end a rather challenging day....
A bit of a slap up meal tonight, but with some pudding followed by an Irish mint latte ...delicious...!
An earlier trek another rider bought along a packet of instant lattes and offered me some over that trek.. they were delicious so have started taking a couple boxes of them on treks.... just little treats as we travel along..!
A bit of a slap up meal tonight, but with some pudding followed by an Irish mint latte ...delicious...!
An earlier trek another rider bought along a packet of instant lattes and offered me some over that trek.. they were delicious so have started taking a couple boxes of them on treks.... just little treats as we travel along..!
The first of the two days trek down the Clarence River
Day Four... up at 7am and away by 9am heading north along the Cloudy Range Station track, which seemed to be just pushed thru heavy Broom..
As we left we could hear right up on the top of the mountain range someone driving a mob of sheep over into this river valley so we needed to move along so as not to tangle with the drove, as we needed to ride back down to the river, walk along half a kilometre and back up towards this mob a further kilometre before branching off north,,
By the time we got to that junction the mob were only a 100 metres away so just in time..
Around four kilometres north we came to the boundary of Cloudy Range Station and the Clarence Reserve and from here on all the way down the twenty odd kilometres we had to travel in the riverbed, often over quite rough and large boulders, crossing and recrossing the river lots and lots..
A little way down there was evidence of a pack track on the true right however it was totally covered in scrub..
It took us some 4.5 hrs to reach the Palmers hut, our half way point down this section
For the last half an hour I could hear that Giz had at least one rear loose shoe and was nursing him along keeping out of the worst of the riverbed boulders until the hut, to tend this problem
As we left we could hear right up on the top of the mountain range someone driving a mob of sheep over into this river valley so we needed to move along so as not to tangle with the drove, as we needed to ride back down to the river, walk along half a kilometre and back up towards this mob a further kilometre before branching off north,,
By the time we got to that junction the mob were only a 100 metres away so just in time..
Around four kilometres north we came to the boundary of Cloudy Range Station and the Clarence Reserve and from here on all the way down the twenty odd kilometres we had to travel in the riverbed, often over quite rough and large boulders, crossing and recrossing the river lots and lots..
A little way down there was evidence of a pack track on the true right however it was totally covered in scrub..
It took us some 4.5 hrs to reach the Palmers hut, our half way point down this section
For the last half an hour I could hear that Giz had at least one rear loose shoe and was nursing him along keeping out of the worst of the riverbed boulders until the hut, to tend this problem
Goat Country.............
Goats on the near vertical cliffs....
In the above photo you can pick out three mature goats climbing up the near vertical shingle face.. we watched them for ten minutes and was totally astounded where they managed to climb with ease
Are you our mum..........?
The mature goats that were in the riverbed hi tailed it over to the cliff and climbed straight up, but leaving all the kids to fend for themselves.. the kids didnt seem to care much about us intruders and for a while started following Mary and I along...Cute..!
Many river crossings needed to be done...!
It was a very hot day and the horses quite enjoyed the river work infact some of the places it was smoother to stay in the river..
Most of the many crossings were around 70 to 100 metres to cross ranging from chest height to around a metre... Bailey quite often had the bottom of the panniers in the water....
The further we got down towards the Palmers hut, the deeper the crossings became...two places in particular both had the river narrow up as it went around a rock outcrop both sides... the first one around half way thru this day left me scratching my head as to where to cross without turning the boys into submarines...
Most of the many crossings were around 70 to 100 metres to cross ranging from chest height to around a metre... Bailey quite often had the bottom of the panniers in the water....
The further we got down towards the Palmers hut, the deeper the crossings became...two places in particular both had the river narrow up as it went around a rock outcrop both sides... the first one around half way thru this day left me scratching my head as to where to cross without turning the boys into submarines...
A lot of the twenty odd kilometres travelled this day was in country like this...!
Near the Palmers Hut area...
Above photo around a couple of Kilometres before the Palmers Hut, we could finally get off that riverbed and able to follow a vehicle track..
Gizzys shoes were becoming looser and looser and didnt want him to loose any so taking it quitely for the rest of the distance.!
Gizzys shoes were becoming looser and looser and didnt want him to loose any so taking it quitely for the rest of the distance.!
Just stunning scenery in this very remote place..!
The Palmers Hut....!
Arriving in 30 plus deg of heat it was nice to be able to unsaddle, wash the boys down and get out of the heat for a while...
Early evening, I dug out my horse shoeing bag from one of the panniers and went around all the horses feet tightening and renailing where necessary..
Three of the four horses all had loose shoes after that long trip down the bouldery riverbed, but luckily none had dropped any shoes..
I put an extra nail in every shoe giving four each side to make sure they all stayed tight and on, and this ensured the rest of the trip was uneventful in the shoeing dept..
Later that night two DoC staff returned to the hut after a day Goat culling on the reserve, and after seeing the large numbers of goats in this area a very necessary job..
Ray and Doug from the South Marlborough DoC office were very good to talk to over the evening about work in this area..
Next morning Mary and I agreed to rise at 6am as we had a big days ride over hill country for 24 kilometres to the next hut, but next morning while still dark Mary said it was 6am and started to get breakfast and her gear sorted for todays ride, and do so quietly as Ray and Doug were asleep..
After half an hour or so and breakfast done it was still pitch black, and looking at my watch, and to my surprise it said 5.30am not 6.30am..... darn.....lol
So Mary and I sat on the porch of the hut for an hour until it was light enough to saddle and load the horses...
So away from there at 7.30am which was good as it turned initially into quite a hot day again, and we enjoyed the first climb to the saddle in cool early morning conditions..
Early evening, I dug out my horse shoeing bag from one of the panniers and went around all the horses feet tightening and renailing where necessary..
Three of the four horses all had loose shoes after that long trip down the bouldery riverbed, but luckily none had dropped any shoes..
I put an extra nail in every shoe giving four each side to make sure they all stayed tight and on, and this ensured the rest of the trip was uneventful in the shoeing dept..
Later that night two DoC staff returned to the hut after a day Goat culling on the reserve, and after seeing the large numbers of goats in this area a very necessary job..
Ray and Doug from the South Marlborough DoC office were very good to talk to over the evening about work in this area..
Next morning Mary and I agreed to rise at 6am as we had a big days ride over hill country for 24 kilometres to the next hut, but next morning while still dark Mary said it was 6am and started to get breakfast and her gear sorted for todays ride, and do so quietly as Ray and Doug were asleep..
After half an hour or so and breakfast done it was still pitch black, and looking at my watch, and to my surprise it said 5.30am not 6.30am..... darn.....lol
So Mary and I sat on the porch of the hut for an hour until it was light enough to saddle and load the horses...
So away from there at 7.30am which was good as it turned initially into quite a hot day again, and we enjoyed the first climb to the saddle in cool early morning conditions..
Leaving the Clarence for the day and heading into hill country..!
The next few below photos of the hill country trail..
All of the hills thru out our entire journey were covered in this yellow Briar... Like a rose bush, covered in sharp thorns making straight foward travel hard to do..
Even like the hill with the sun on it, lightly covered briar has to be worked around.... I wonder what it will be like in a number of years time...!
Even like the hill with the sun on it, lightly covered briar has to be worked around.... I wonder what it will be like in a number of years time...!
The Gore Stream........
Having completed the first third of todays journey coming down to the Historic Willows hut on the opposite bank of this stream...
The historic Willows Hut.....
Talking to Ray back at the Palmers Hut, he was saying DoC has had a U turn in its policy on historic buildings such as this hut.. at one time this type of derelect hut would have been removed, but now they are trying to preserve these structures..
Ray was saying he has coated the Willow Timber with borer retardent materal to try and help preserve it..
What a job it must have been to build this hut out of willow as its not renowned as a straight timber for wall construction, but nearly 150 year old, it has stood well thru the various seasons..
Originally a twelve bunk Musterers hut it is not really inhabitable today...
Ray was saying he has coated the Willow Timber with borer retardent materal to try and help preserve it..
What a job it must have been to build this hut out of willow as its not renowned as a straight timber for wall construction, but nearly 150 year old, it has stood well thru the various seasons..
Originally a twelve bunk Musterers hut it is not really inhabitable today...
A few further photos taken as we travelled along thru this hill country..!
It would be easy to get lost in this big country..!
Coming down towards the Seymour Stream far below....
After 24 kilometres of hill country we arrived at this Seymour Hut....
Arriving at 1.30pm to this hut to find it in a huge mess... rubbish, bottles, cans spent food, and the stink of having four likely lads camping like pigs since the previous several days on a pig shooting trip... it was the worst I have ever seen any back country hut...
We unloaded the horses, and took them down to the river to wash them down as the hut water tank was empty, and while down there the lads returned to the hut.. and did apologise and immediately cleaned up the hut and area... not long after they all decided to leave and head out...
This is typical of huts that the public can drive vehicles to....I have to say I am not in favour of this practise of being able to take vehicles to huts.... Scotties hut in the St James is another one that suffers as a result... a different type of person uses hut where they don't have to walk into it... !
Later as expected a southerly blast came thru with heavy rain and strong winds over night but next morning it had cleared
The following day was a scheduled day off for the horses having travelled over hard country for the previous few days..so a sleep in for us as well.. Nice.!
We unloaded the horses, and took them down to the river to wash them down as the hut water tank was empty, and while down there the lads returned to the hut.. and did apologise and immediately cleaned up the hut and area... not long after they all decided to leave and head out...
This is typical of huts that the public can drive vehicles to....I have to say I am not in favour of this practise of being able to take vehicles to huts.... Scotties hut in the St James is another one that suffers as a result... a different type of person uses hut where they don't have to walk into it... !
Later as expected a southerly blast came thru with heavy rain and strong winds over night but next morning it had cleared
The following day was a scheduled day off for the horses having travelled over hard country for the previous few days..so a sleep in for us as well.. Nice.!
Some tired boys enjoying a day off.!
The huts horse overnight holding paddock had been eaten out by previous riders so we rigged up a temp fence and paddock behind the hut here so the boys could get a decent feed.. this paddock was small so we rotated one horse to be left outside to avoid overcrowding.
Early evening..... next day took a stroll up to Quail Flat...
The Historic Quail Flat Homestead...
Only a couple of kilometres down river from the Seymour hut, we decided to take a look at this Historic site.. many building in this complex and all beautifully restored by staff and volunteers from DoC...
Note the outdoors Bake Oven and in the above photo a large boiling pot to make up the carrot poison potion back at the turn of the century when Rabbits were a problem
Note the outdoors Bake Oven and in the above photo a large boiling pot to make up the carrot poison potion back at the turn of the century when Rabbits were a problem
The Quail Flat horse stables / shearing shed, beautifully restored...
Loved our visit to this place, and reading of the vast history associated with this area and buildings.... I can certainly recommend if you are able to go there to do so.. wonderful experience..
Early evening returning to the Seymour Hut..
Leaving the Clarence Reserve and over onto Molesworth for the next week..!
I have been most impressed with Giz the young trekking horse... he is going from strength to strength, learning to cope with what ever is in front of him from deep wide rivers to sidling fully loaded on steep hillsides and all in between, and of course Bailey... what a horse he is carrying all the pack loads thru the hills on a daily basis without faulter...Makes for easy uneventful trekking...
Down here many of the river crossings were around 100 metres to cross and around a metre deep..
A little way further up the river this day I climbed up onto an upper river bank terrace to see wood debris that had been washed down river, probably back in spring, and estimated from where this debris was located and down to the current river level to be some eight metres above the flow shown here.. man that would be one deep river .. no way would one be able to cross it like that.. serious stuff..!
This morning we were up at 6.30and away up stream for the couple of kilometres by 8am to pick up a pack track heading north west thru the hills of Molesworth towards the distant Elliot Biv
Down here many of the river crossings were around 100 metres to cross and around a metre deep..
A little way further up the river this day I climbed up onto an upper river bank terrace to see wood debris that had been washed down river, probably back in spring, and estimated from where this debris was located and down to the current river level to be some eight metres above the flow shown here.. man that would be one deep river .. no way would one be able to cross it like that.. serious stuff..!
This morning we were up at 6.30and away up stream for the couple of kilometres by 8am to pick up a pack track heading north west thru the hills of Molesworth towards the distant Elliot Biv
Up river, and locating the north bound Pack Track..
We spotted the pack track from further back heading steeply up hill.. it was good that we found this as it would be hard to fight uphill with all the Briar present..
Views from the pack track looking back towards the hut in the far distance..!
Almost at the top of the first of two saddles enroute..!
Up this hill and further Valley the pack track was evident in places and other places especially in the next valley was non existent.. Its not had much use and with the light to moderate Briar present we did a lot of tooing and froing working around the scrub making our way along... I guess as this area is further opened up to the new public use area DoC will cut a track thru and polemark it
Hill Country as far as the eye could see.....in any direction....!
A top of the first saddle looking north...
We elected to use this valley to travel thru as I had heard that the normal route up the adjacient Elliot River has become impassable with dense Briar and scrub..
From this saddle we worked our way down thru the valley floor around the Briar and scrub, having some trouble in each of the gullies crossed, having to stop and cut tracks thru ..
I understood that some folks had turned left half way down and gone thru a little gorge and into the Elliot but we elected to stay in this valley and head out over the second far saddle...
We elected to use this valley to travel thru as I had heard that the normal route up the adjacient Elliot River has become impassable with dense Briar and scrub..
From this saddle we worked our way down thru the valley floor around the Briar and scrub, having some trouble in each of the gullies crossed, having to stop and cut tracks thru ..
I understood that some folks had turned left half way down and gone thru a little gorge and into the Elliot but we elected to stay in this valley and head out over the second far saddle...
Several of the below photos showing travel thru this valley...
Personally, this is my sort of trekking... nice remote areas requiring one to be able to" think on the horse" making our own tracks in many places...
Each of the 12 days travel was somewhat of a challenge ,having to make trail decisions often and go with that decision..with quite a few of the days not seeing anyone else.. just us two and our horses with hill country as far as the eye could see in any one direction... love it..!
Each of the 12 days travel was somewhat of a challenge ,having to make trail decisions often and go with that decision..with quite a few of the days not seeing anyone else.. just us two and our horses with hill country as far as the eye could see in any one direction... love it..!
Each of the gullies we had to stop and cut tracks thru...
Top of the second saddle looking north....
More heavy briar down near the next stream.. in parts Giz having to push thru this prickly vegetation..
Back further up this valley I lost my camera, and soon after realised it was missing.. I got off Giz and walked back looking for it... couldn't find it anywhere. so hopped on him to gain a higher view and retraced my steps back still without finding it.. Darn.....
Very annoyed with myself for loosing it we carried on this day all the way to the Lake McRae hut, and that night we had a further Southerly and heavy rain all night..
Next day was another rest day for the horses, but with fine weather Mary and saddled two horses and left the other two there and rode all the way back to this spot and carefully retraced our steps again and within fifteen mins found it under a tussock right beside a stream.. luck it hadnt fallen in, so now continuing the photo journey the next day..
Very annoyed with myself for loosing it we carried on this day all the way to the Lake McRae hut, and that night we had a further Southerly and heavy rain all night..
Next day was another rest day for the horses, but with fine weather Mary and saddled two horses and left the other two there and rode all the way back to this spot and carefully retraced our steps again and within fifteen mins found it under a tussock right beside a stream.. luck it hadnt fallen in, so now continuing the photo journey the next day..
Coming off the pack track towards the Elliot Biv in the tall black Poplars..
The Elliot Biv....
Back at the Palmers Hut Ray said the Elliot Biv is hard to find, and man he was right.. more heavy scrub, and dense willows concealed both the entry and exit tracks to this Biv
This photo was taken on the second time we had been here in two days and even on the second day had trouble locating the track out of the stream up to this hut..
This photo was taken on the second time we had been here in two days and even on the second day had trouble locating the track out of the stream up to this hut..
Upper Elliot Stream area..!
Without the GPS, it would be so easy to get lost in this area.. many small stream run into each other along this section of the pack track and it would be so easy to take the wrong turn and head off to god Knows where in here..
Poor Mary was convinced we were a bit lost in here and was doubting the direction needed to find the Lake McRae..
In this area we also encounters a lot of goats in little mobs in the riverbed and on the side hills..
Poor Mary was convinced we were a bit lost in here and was doubting the direction needed to find the Lake McRae..
In this area we also encounters a lot of goats in little mobs in the riverbed and on the side hills..
Where is that darn Lake...?
leaving the Elliot Biv and following up this stream, its course followed almost a complete half circle around towards the south again further confusing Mary as to the direction of the lake...
The country opened up somewhat from that ever present scrub, although some more bog was encountered up ahead..
The country opened up somewhat from that ever present scrub, although some more bog was encountered up ahead..
Cresting the saddle for our first views of Lake McRae....
No formed track along the lake so riding on the edge to the other end..!
We had to cut a track down thru further shore scrub to gain access to the lake shore, and then again cut a track at the bottom to get back onto the hillside....
Giz looking sideways as each little wavelet washed ashore ... luckily the lake was reasonably low making shore side travel quite easy except for the odd obstacle requiring us to ride in the lake around it..
It would be hard work with the lake full riding this route as there is no formed pack track other than this..
The south side has extensive swamp and this northern side up steep scrub covered hillside..
This lake sits in an unusual place up on a kind of vast saddle with a hill formed at either end..
Mary was saying the lake has two outlets, one at either end and both underground...
A couple of days later when leaving the hut at the lake we saw the western underground stream entry point to the surface again.. quite an impressive gush of water bubbling up out of a hillside and forming quite a stream ..
Giz looking sideways as each little wavelet washed ashore ... luckily the lake was reasonably low making shore side travel quite easy except for the odd obstacle requiring us to ride in the lake around it..
It would be hard work with the lake full riding this route as there is no formed pack track other than this..
The south side has extensive swamp and this northern side up steep scrub covered hillside..
This lake sits in an unusual place up on a kind of vast saddle with a hill formed at either end..
Mary was saying the lake has two outlets, one at either end and both underground...
A couple of days later when leaving the hut at the lake we saw the western underground stream entry point to the surface again.. quite an impressive gush of water bubbling up out of a hillside and forming quite a stream ..
Top of the Western saddle looking West towards the Lake Mcrae huts down in the Willow trees below..
This photo shows our first views of the rest of this valley as it heads west around to the Carter saddle just out of sight in the centre right...
The Lake McRae Huts.......
Arriving mid afternoon, to darkening skies we unloaded and washed the boys down and put them in the horse paddock with feed up to their waists, with a stream running thru and lots and lots of Willow trees for shelter..
Just as we finished the skies opened and it pi....ssed down all the rest of the day and all night and still some rain next morning..
We had a planned day off here and it was a good thing with the weather.. Snow fell overnight and the surrounding hills were white..
I was mildly concerned this morning as back while staying at the Seymour Hut a young American couple passed by with a pack and riding horses heading for Muzzle Station to pick up some gear and had asked Mary and I if they could accompany us thru Moleworth on their way south, and we agreed to all meet up here today, but they didnt show...
I was concerned that with wet weather the previous 12 hours if they were half way here....
The hut was a very cosy place with a roaring fire all day and night while the weather continued to rain..
As a treat I dug out of one of the panniers some bacon and a tin of corn this wet lunch time and Mary insisted in preparing corn and bacon fritters, with her also adding some other ingredients, combined to produce a beaut tasting lunch delight.. I needed a bit of a nana nap after this...lol
That night and still raining we were fast asleep around mid night when all of a sudden I was awoken to the sound of horse hooves outside the hut.... Man in this remote place the last thing we need is loose horses as there is nothing to stop them from going as far as they liked....and if they have been frightened they certainly will run..!
I knew the horse paddock was very secure and my first thought was PIGS in the horse paddock..... that's often enough to make any horse not used to them run thru a fence or jump out.....
I lept out of bed stumbling around looking for my torch and just threw my coat on and rushed out into the dark... the horse paddock is about 40 metres from the hut but arriving at the gate and shining the torch we still had four horses in the paddock...
We both scratched our heads as to what caused the noise.... was it another horse.. from where..?? next morning it was still raining and with long grass all around this hut it was impossible to pick up any tracks..... so a little mystery..!....... some might suggest " Night Mares"......???
Just as we finished the skies opened and it pi....ssed down all the rest of the day and all night and still some rain next morning..
We had a planned day off here and it was a good thing with the weather.. Snow fell overnight and the surrounding hills were white..
I was mildly concerned this morning as back while staying at the Seymour Hut a young American couple passed by with a pack and riding horses heading for Muzzle Station to pick up some gear and had asked Mary and I if they could accompany us thru Moleworth on their way south, and we agreed to all meet up here today, but they didnt show...
I was concerned that with wet weather the previous 12 hours if they were half way here....
The hut was a very cosy place with a roaring fire all day and night while the weather continued to rain..
As a treat I dug out of one of the panniers some bacon and a tin of corn this wet lunch time and Mary insisted in preparing corn and bacon fritters, with her also adding some other ingredients, combined to produce a beaut tasting lunch delight.. I needed a bit of a nana nap after this...lol
That night and still raining we were fast asleep around mid night when all of a sudden I was awoken to the sound of horse hooves outside the hut.... Man in this remote place the last thing we need is loose horses as there is nothing to stop them from going as far as they liked....and if they have been frightened they certainly will run..!
I knew the horse paddock was very secure and my first thought was PIGS in the horse paddock..... that's often enough to make any horse not used to them run thru a fence or jump out.....
I lept out of bed stumbling around looking for my torch and just threw my coat on and rushed out into the dark... the horse paddock is about 40 metres from the hut but arriving at the gate and shining the torch we still had four horses in the paddock...
We both scratched our heads as to what caused the noise.... was it another horse.. from where..?? next morning it was still raining and with long grass all around this hut it was impossible to pick up any tracks..... so a little mystery..!....... some might suggest " Night Mares"......???
Just in the hut as the weather turned wet..!
Starting up the Tweed River towards the Carter Saddle..
With the weather swinging around to the North West quarter, we were up early and away from the hut around 8am, for the long days ride up this Tweed river, then climbing to the top of the Carter saddle, down the other side and down to the riverbed of the Dillon which is some 35 kilometres long on this side..
Some swamp and some further scrub blocking the track here and there making slow progress in some places..
Some swamp and some further scrub blocking the track here and there making slow progress in some places..
Well up the Tweed looking SouthWest towards the Carter saddle area...
Half way up the Carter Saddle looking back to the distant Lake McRae......
We had made good progress covering to this point in two hours, but as we climbed nearer and nearer to the saddle I could see the weather deteriorating again with the wind swinging back around to the Southerly and light rain and sleet starting with a strengthening cold wind..
You can just pick out Lake McRae below that far snow covered mountain..!
You can just pick out Lake McRae below that far snow covered mountain..!
Looking back up towards the Carter saddle from the Dillon River headwaters side...
The boys were hungry so elected to stop here for 20 minutes for them but said to Mary we need to get off this mountain side as soon as possible with the Southerly closing in, temperatures plunging and light persistent rain now falling. The 4300ft Carter saddle we rode over an hour ago now covered in cloud..
My concern at this altitude with the drop in temperature is the risk of it starting to snow as we were close to the freezing level, and were a long way from any hut or shelter...
We made our way down river and by lunch time had reached the confluence of the Dillon and Halfmoon rivers in steady rain..having covered some 25 kilometres this morning.
We had been in the saddle for 4 hours now as we turned up into the shelter of the Halfmoon stream and under a willow tree to give the boys a further feed as well as lunch for ourselves..
My concern at this altitude with the drop in temperature is the risk of it starting to snow as we were close to the freezing level, and were a long way from any hut or shelter...
We made our way down river and by lunch time had reached the confluence of the Dillon and Halfmoon rivers in steady rain..having covered some 25 kilometres this morning.
We had been in the saddle for 4 hours now as we turned up into the shelter of the Halfmoon stream and under a willow tree to give the boys a further feed as well as lunch for ourselves..
Rain setting in at Halfmoon Stream..
I had to stop taking photos from here on as rain was becoming more and more persistent..
While eating lunch under the Willow tree I discussed what next with Mary... If the weather was fine we intended to tent camp here the night and continue next day for the second half of this two days down the Dillon..
Jim Ward had asked us not to use the Half Moon Hut which from here was only one kilometre up this stream as the horse paddock was already bare and he needed what little feed left for horses on the upcoming Autumn cattle muster, but with worsening weather I thought it was the better option, however Mary was growing more and more anxious about becoming overdue from her work and was quite adamant that she wanted to get out as soon as possible..
To keep the peace and against my better judgement I agreed to push on down the next 14 kilometres of the Dillon in straight riverbed with no track to follow and now driving cold rain straight in our faces, then a further two odd kilometres back over the Stoat Creek saddle and around to the hut again..
We walked a further 4 and half hour in cold wet weather down this river crossing it lots and lots, and thru more Briar, and swamp to add to the delights of this day.. all the horses hate walking straight into driving rain as they have no way to shelter the rain going into their eyes... a number of times Gizz forced a turn so he could shelter his face from the rain..
Finally at 5.30pm having covered 42 kilometres today we saw the Stoat Creek saddle and soon arrived at the hut to find another hiker had walked into earlier by the name of Dave... a farmer from North Canterbury in here to Climb Dillon Cone, but realising it now under snow was weighing up his further options..
Unloading the boys and turning them back out in the paddock the weather worsened with heavy rain now falling.. all night.. all next day, all that night and half the following day..
We could hear the once docile Stoat Creek now roaring down in flood past the hut..
Two days later after it stopped raining, I saddled Giz and rode back over the saddle and out to the Clarence to see waves and a very swollen river and knew we would not be going anywhere for a few days...
I rode around ten kilometres back up river on the Molesworth Side looking for a possible place to eventually cross when it went back down some and did find only one place... around 200 metres to cross that was at the head of a large rapid... Later I went back and carefully entered the river to gauge how deep it would be all the time knowing I could turn downriver and exit safely.
Giz was walking in around chest height water here, and thought tomorrow it should be possible to carefully cross..
So back to the hut overnight and next morning loaded all the gear and all headed off back to this point in the river..
This morning it had gone down a further 6 inches but still dirty, riding up river 50 metres so could enter and ride down at a 45deg angle I said to Mary to follow me as I entered the river with Bailey on the lead rope.. it was around 200 metres to cross in a semi circle around the head of the rapid and watched where I went with the view of still having a safe "out"by turning down river if in the middle it got too deep.. around half way across I had reached the point of no return but at around a metre to 1200mm deep it was passable safely...
These major rivers are dangerous, requiring experience to be able to read what the river current and bottom footing is like and to make a safe decision whether to wait further or in the right place with the right area to possibly cross safely.. like I said I chose an area that was wide and smooth but especially this area that also gave me a safe "out" if in the middle it was too deep to continue crossing....
So we got out.. one day overdue...... Fiona was very concerned about us being overdue and was at the point of contacting the Hanmer Police, but was reassured as we had talked about overdue before at home, and she knew I had a personal emergency locator beacon that had not been activated so she knew we weren't hurt, and she knew we had had a lot of rain..
In earlier discussions I had said that I always work on safety first in the Mountains even though we may become overdue. which is exactly what we did... stayed put in the hut until it was safe to continue....
So a long distance trek... a lot of scrub, swamp and very remote country travelled thru..
The Clarence reserve and this Section of Molesworth is simply beautiful countryside, and next season we intend to continue our look into this huge remote Station..
Jim flew in with his chopper a couple of times over our twelve days just to make sure we were ok.. He likes to know who is on the Station at any one time and where.
With the chopper he is able to keep an eye on this huge area with regular flights.. He was saying people who are in the area without asking permission p...ss him off as they can push cattle away out into different areas that he doesn't want to be grazed requiring time and effort to return them ..With his permission he can control where visitors travel to especially within the farmed sections of the Station.!
Many thanks to Jim Ward, manager of Moleworth for hut and access use,,, to Matt at Cloudy Range Station for hut and access use, and to DoC staff at South Marlborough for hut and track maintenance...
And to Mary, who enjoyed this remote trek, perhaps out of her comfort zone here and there, but for hanging in there when the weather chips were down ...
While eating lunch under the Willow tree I discussed what next with Mary... If the weather was fine we intended to tent camp here the night and continue next day for the second half of this two days down the Dillon..
Jim Ward had asked us not to use the Half Moon Hut which from here was only one kilometre up this stream as the horse paddock was already bare and he needed what little feed left for horses on the upcoming Autumn cattle muster, but with worsening weather I thought it was the better option, however Mary was growing more and more anxious about becoming overdue from her work and was quite adamant that she wanted to get out as soon as possible..
To keep the peace and against my better judgement I agreed to push on down the next 14 kilometres of the Dillon in straight riverbed with no track to follow and now driving cold rain straight in our faces, then a further two odd kilometres back over the Stoat Creek saddle and around to the hut again..
We walked a further 4 and half hour in cold wet weather down this river crossing it lots and lots, and thru more Briar, and swamp to add to the delights of this day.. all the horses hate walking straight into driving rain as they have no way to shelter the rain going into their eyes... a number of times Gizz forced a turn so he could shelter his face from the rain..
Finally at 5.30pm having covered 42 kilometres today we saw the Stoat Creek saddle and soon arrived at the hut to find another hiker had walked into earlier by the name of Dave... a farmer from North Canterbury in here to Climb Dillon Cone, but realising it now under snow was weighing up his further options..
Unloading the boys and turning them back out in the paddock the weather worsened with heavy rain now falling.. all night.. all next day, all that night and half the following day..
We could hear the once docile Stoat Creek now roaring down in flood past the hut..
Two days later after it stopped raining, I saddled Giz and rode back over the saddle and out to the Clarence to see waves and a very swollen river and knew we would not be going anywhere for a few days...
I rode around ten kilometres back up river on the Molesworth Side looking for a possible place to eventually cross when it went back down some and did find only one place... around 200 metres to cross that was at the head of a large rapid... Later I went back and carefully entered the river to gauge how deep it would be all the time knowing I could turn downriver and exit safely.
Giz was walking in around chest height water here, and thought tomorrow it should be possible to carefully cross..
So back to the hut overnight and next morning loaded all the gear and all headed off back to this point in the river..
This morning it had gone down a further 6 inches but still dirty, riding up river 50 metres so could enter and ride down at a 45deg angle I said to Mary to follow me as I entered the river with Bailey on the lead rope.. it was around 200 metres to cross in a semi circle around the head of the rapid and watched where I went with the view of still having a safe "out"by turning down river if in the middle it got too deep.. around half way across I had reached the point of no return but at around a metre to 1200mm deep it was passable safely...
These major rivers are dangerous, requiring experience to be able to read what the river current and bottom footing is like and to make a safe decision whether to wait further or in the right place with the right area to possibly cross safely.. like I said I chose an area that was wide and smooth but especially this area that also gave me a safe "out" if in the middle it was too deep to continue crossing....
So we got out.. one day overdue...... Fiona was very concerned about us being overdue and was at the point of contacting the Hanmer Police, but was reassured as we had talked about overdue before at home, and she knew I had a personal emergency locator beacon that had not been activated so she knew we weren't hurt, and she knew we had had a lot of rain..
In earlier discussions I had said that I always work on safety first in the Mountains even though we may become overdue. which is exactly what we did... stayed put in the hut until it was safe to continue....
So a long distance trek... a lot of scrub, swamp and very remote country travelled thru..
The Clarence reserve and this Section of Molesworth is simply beautiful countryside, and next season we intend to continue our look into this huge remote Station..
Jim flew in with his chopper a couple of times over our twelve days just to make sure we were ok.. He likes to know who is on the Station at any one time and where.
With the chopper he is able to keep an eye on this huge area with regular flights.. He was saying people who are in the area without asking permission p...ss him off as they can push cattle away out into different areas that he doesn't want to be grazed requiring time and effort to return them ..With his permission he can control where visitors travel to especially within the farmed sections of the Station.!
Many thanks to Jim Ward, manager of Moleworth for hut and access use,,, to Matt at Cloudy Range Station for hut and access use, and to DoC staff at South Marlborough for hut and track maintenance...
And to Mary, who enjoyed this remote trek, perhaps out of her comfort zone here and there, but for hanging in there when the weather chips were down ...
After the weather cleared on the final morning at Stoat Creek..!
As this photo shows... a nice frost first thing.. Molesworth Station being fairly high in altitude receives frosts some 300 days a year... both summer and other seasons..
Even though we had extensive wet weather, it was not particularly cold this time which was good, as again at this altitude the freezing level can easily lower below where we were causing snow to fall which would have added a new element to the delights of the weather that was thrown at us..
Mother nature always has the final say.......!
Even though we had extensive wet weather, it was not particularly cold this time which was good, as again at this altitude the freezing level can easily lower below where we were causing snow to fall which would have added a new element to the delights of the weather that was thrown at us..
Mother nature always has the final say.......!
On the Trail............
The Lake Sumner Summer camp..............
Friday, after Fiona got home from work, had a coffee and bite to eat we headed up to the paddock, loaded four horses and travelled on up for our first overnight at the Lake Taylor Station shearers quarters.
Arriving just on dark and having firstly stopped to talk and pay Dave and Rosemay for the accommodation we headed on up to the shearers Quarters, closed the gate behind us, unloaded and turned four very dusty horses out on the hillside paddock that surrounds our accommodation for this night..
Rosemary said they had others also staying, so walked up to the dining room at the quarters to find a gorse and broom spraying gang whom I met at this same place two years ago when last there, so it was great to have a yarn over some tea we made upon arrival
Arriving just on dark and having firstly stopped to talk and pay Dave and Rosemay for the accommodation we headed on up to the shearers Quarters, closed the gate behind us, unloaded and turned four very dusty horses out on the hillside paddock that surrounds our accommodation for this night..
Rosemary said they had others also staying, so walked up to the dining room at the quarters to find a gorse and broom spraying gang whom I met at this same place two years ago when last there, so it was great to have a yarn over some tea we made upon arrival
Day One.... Lake Taylor Station..
Next morning after a further yarn with the fellas and then saying our goodbyes, Fiona and I went about the job of saddling up four horses with riding and pack gear for our 9 day annual summer tent camp, this time at the head of Lake Sumner...
This trip is not so much a trek but more of a "holiday with horses" so to speak, with time for some camp life, relaxation and a few day..... and overnight treks all thrown in the mix
Being able to either ride or pack all of our horses, today Bailey and Gizzy were pack horses, leaving Mr Cons and Shae for riding...
Looking at Fiona on Mr Cons it looks like he was both a pack and riding horse all wrapped in one, as Fiona likes to take surplus items and supplies.....
This trip is not so much a trek but more of a "holiday with horses" so to speak, with time for some camp life, relaxation and a few day..... and overnight treks all thrown in the mix
Being able to either ride or pack all of our horses, today Bailey and Gizzy were pack horses, leaving Mr Cons and Shae for riding...
Looking at Fiona on Mr Cons it looks like he was both a pack and riding horse all wrapped in one, as Fiona likes to take surplus items and supplies.....
Beautiful Lake Taylor.....
Leaving Lake Taylor Station around 10am we headed up the road and as the above photo shows skirted the actual Lake Taylor, which today stood with a smooth mirror image, with not a cloud in the sky.. simply beautiful with the odd trout rising for surface flies as we ambled past..
Around half way around we turned away, and up the start of the vehicle hill track over the Woolshed Range, then along a little way left this track and headed up the steep hillside to skirt around a locked gate a little way up the vehicle track..
Riding Shae with Bailey behind me, followed closely by Fiona on Mr Cons, we turned up this hill, but further back, Gizz being also loose was just wandering along enjoying the nice day missed the hill turn off and walking further up the vehicle track instead ,and looking at us now up the hill, decided to try and climb the 1.5 metre vertical bank off the vehicle track up onto the hillside, but with a full pack load stumbled back..... he sort of panicked a little and a second attempt saw him scramble up onto the hillside, but where he did so was quite steep causing him to further panic.... he started bucking and next thing the pack load still firmly attached put him off balance and as a result he completed a very slow barrel roll down the hill.... in the process the pack load started coming undone as this force broke a brass clip attaching the tie rope to the cinch and all started dragging behind him further panicking him...
My new Chainsaw was strapped to the top and was looking a little second hand after a horse rolling on it, but apart from a broken handle still went ok..
All this time I was calling to him to steady but made little difference with us around 50 metres further up this steep hill...
After running back and forth across the hill jettisoning his load as he went and finally slowing to a stop I looked across at all the hard pannier gear and other stuff that was packed on this horse neatly scattered and thought........"Darn"......... or words to that effect..lol
Luckily both panniers remained intact as he threw them off onto the hillside and Fiona's first remark was..... I wonder how many eggs Gizz broke within the pannier..lol
Anyway, half an hour later, having calmed Gizz, and gathered all the bits scattered, we reloaded him, tying it all back on and then led him the further short distance up the hill and over to remeet the vehicle track above that locked gate..
Remounting Shae, and leading Gizz, no further problems were encountered over this range and down the other side
In hindsight, this train wreak was my fault in that I should have been leading the young pack horse on the hill and or difficult sections on his first season, and after this Fiona and I have decided to do just that with him until he gains a few miles under his belt so to speak..
This is one of six lakes in this area.....
Rejoining the vehicle track about here for the trip up over the saddle
Almost to the saddle on the Woolshed Range....
Looking back down at the distant Lake Taylor...
The station along with neighbouring The Lakes Station are battling encroaching native scrub covering their farm land, with vast areas being sprayed to try and control the spread...
The station along with neighbouring The Lakes Station are battling encroaching native scrub covering their farm land, with vast areas being sprayed to try and control the spread...
Over the saddle and down the steep decent....
Off the riding horses and walking down it was nice to get out of the hot sun descending the track down thru the beech forest and into the South Branch of the Hurunui River
Overlooking the South Branch of the Hurunui River..
I love this part of the country up towards and including Lake Mason.. Over this side it was a very hot and still air day...
Lake Mason looking North.....
As we approached the lake I couldn't believe my eyes.. there were tent camps all over the area.. Looked like a four wheel drive club rally into this area being Waitangi weekend..
The lake Mason pack track.......
As we entered this part of the old horse pack track we could see a lot of timber fall ahead of us on the track and it turned into a bit of a bush bash in parts...
Around half way along this section of the lake track it comes right down to the shore, and being a hot day all the horses were keen on a further drink.. I got off Shae and made him wait a minute while the others had a drink, but the big Irish lump was becoming more and more impatient so turned him loose towards his drink, however instead of quietly walking the few steps down to the water, Mr Shaes charged down pushing the others out of the way to find that in fact the lake edge was very soft shingle and further more dropped off sharply just a few metres out..... can you guess what happened next.......?????
You got it....! SPLASH.... . the big Irish lump slid straight in and next was swimming...... completely submerging all my saddle bags, day bag, first aid bag and bed roll all attached to this submarine..... Bloody Irish.. I dont know....lol
After taking to his paddle feet and swimming a slow circle around and back to shore had a bit of a job scrambling back to dry land thru the soft shingle just below the waterline
As he finally emerged he reminded me of seeing a car pulled from underwater with water pouring out all the doors as it surfaced...... with water pouring out of all my gear..... funny.. my bloody leather bags are all quite waterproof....... water staying full inside each one as I unhooked and tipped each one upside down...
O the adventures of horse trekking.
Around half way along this section of the lake track it comes right down to the shore, and being a hot day all the horses were keen on a further drink.. I got off Shae and made him wait a minute while the others had a drink, but the big Irish lump was becoming more and more impatient so turned him loose towards his drink, however instead of quietly walking the few steps down to the water, Mr Shaes charged down pushing the others out of the way to find that in fact the lake edge was very soft shingle and further more dropped off sharply just a few metres out..... can you guess what happened next.......?????
You got it....! SPLASH.... . the big Irish lump slid straight in and next was swimming...... completely submerging all my saddle bags, day bag, first aid bag and bed roll all attached to this submarine..... Bloody Irish.. I dont know....lol
After taking to his paddle feet and swimming a slow circle around and back to shore had a bit of a job scrambling back to dry land thru the soft shingle just below the waterline
As he finally emerged he reminded me of seeing a car pulled from underwater with water pouring out all the doors as it surfaced...... with water pouring out of all my gear..... funny.. my bloody leather bags are all quite waterproof....... water staying full inside each one as I unhooked and tipped each one upside down...
O the adventures of horse trekking.
Lunch time for Horse and Humans....
In the above photo you can see that the big Irish lump soon forgot about his swim and back to eating in the hot sun above the lake.. such stunning views from here..
The wind got up from the south around lunch time, and as you can see I had my chainsaw tied to Gizz on the top, and after lunch headed up to the saddle behind us when all of a sudden around half way up the wind got inside the chainsaw bag puffing it up and giving Gizz a huge fright... next I had a wild Gisborne Stationbred pack horse doing rapid circles around Shae and I on the end of the lead rope.. but managed to calm him down. then hopped off and tied it all down to stop the wind repeating the performance again...
The wind got up from the south around lunch time, and as you can see I had my chainsaw tied to Gizz on the top, and after lunch headed up to the saddle behind us when all of a sudden around half way up the wind got inside the chainsaw bag puffing it up and giving Gizz a huge fright... next I had a wild Gisborne Stationbred pack horse doing rapid circles around Shae and I on the end of the lead rope.. but managed to calm him down. then hopped off and tied it all down to stop the wind repeating the performance again...
Cresting the saddle for our first views of Lake Sumner......
From this point it was off the horses and walking them all down to the bottom and then the short distance around to the Lakes Station Hut area...
The Lakes Station Hut....
Fiona and I intended to just put up our tent shelter for a couple of days here behind the hut but earlier Fiona had pulled a muscle in her lower back and was in pain and two days later was just the same so decided to make camp here rather than the intended moving on half way thru to the Kiwi Pack track camp site..
In hindsight, this was a perfect site, as that night it clouded over and became cold..
We had the use of the horse paddock with shelter and water next to us, and putting the tent up behind the hut gave us good shelter from all wind direction..... added on a huge bonus of firewood in abundance just a few metres away in the neighbouring Beech forest....
I rang Ted, the owner of the Station prior to riding up and he was happy to let us do what we liked.. we could have used the hut, but once a year Fiona and I like to tent camp....
In hindsight, this was a perfect site, as that night it clouded over and became cold..
We had the use of the horse paddock with shelter and water next to us, and putting the tent up behind the hut gave us good shelter from all wind direction..... added on a huge bonus of firewood in abundance just a few metres away in the neighbouring Beech forest....
I rang Ted, the owner of the Station prior to riding up and he was happy to let us do what we liked.. we could have used the hut, but once a year Fiona and I like to tent camp....
Our tent camp site..............
By now it was early evening when arrived and started to set up the camp..... time for a snack.....The weather went from a beaut fine still day to quite a cold and overcast evening.....
My chainsaw as you can see didnt fair too badly from earlier Gizz rolling over on it.. the saw was great all week for keeping the firewood supply up to my wife the pyrotechnic.... I dont think she has heard of the little three stick camp fire like the western moves show... we had to have a bombfire all the time...lol
My chainsaw as you can see didnt fair too badly from earlier Gizz rolling over on it.. the saw was great all week for keeping the firewood supply up to my wife the pyrotechnic.... I dont think she has heard of the little three stick camp fire like the western moves show... we had to have a bombfire all the time...lol
I think you................ should add your own caption to this photo......
Now I have heard of rubbing two sticks together to start a fire, but beating the kindling with a long stick to start it........ not sure on that.....lol Writing here I think I better hide behind a large tree when she gets home from work and reads this...lol
The old Digger taking a rest....!
Day two,dawned cool and foggy, and with the remainder of the camp set up time to enjoy the mountain life for the day...
Camp baked fresh bread....
After preheating the oven, pop the bread dough in and 25 mins later.....!
Nice to see Fiona relaxing....
Having two pack horses carry in all the necessary supplies such as a couple of comfortable chairs with backs.... a real luxury item.....
Early evening meal preparations..........
Day two..... On the evening dinner menu... a chicken roast. with roast veges followed by peaches and custard dessert.....
To achieve the above menu at camp requires a bit of fore thought with the oven and heat supply..
As shown above first one needs to get a fire going, but not just any old burning fire... wood coals are needed and this in turn requires firewood of a smaller size to create the oven coals, both for the oven to sit on and also coals are added to the lid as seen above..
After some twenty mins and having prior installed the chicken and chunky veges in the camp oven, some wood coals are raked out of the fire to one side, the camp oven is then placed on these, with a further small shovel full of coals added to the lid..
The oven is turned a quarter of a turn every five mins during cooking time to alleviate hot spots which will burn inside food
To achieve the above menu at camp requires a bit of fore thought with the oven and heat supply..
As shown above first one needs to get a fire going, but not just any old burning fire... wood coals are needed and this in turn requires firewood of a smaller size to create the oven coals, both for the oven to sit on and also coals are added to the lid as seen above..
After some twenty mins and having prior installed the chicken and chunky veges in the camp oven, some wood coals are raked out of the fire to one side, the camp oven is then placed on these, with a further small shovel full of coals added to the lid..
The oven is turned a quarter of a turn every five mins during cooking time to alleviate hot spots which will burn inside food
What have we here then....?
Just 30 mins later, lifting the lid to the beaut smell of a nicely cooked chicken and vege roast..... yes that was 30 mins.. and chunky veges.. try and produce the same at home in that time frame...
Our weeks evening menu consisted of chicken roast tonight, camp made mince stew and veges next night, a roast of beef and veges to following, pasta the following, sausage and a gravy mix with spud next, another roast of beef, another mince stew, and final night curried sausages and spud.. so you can see the week was certainly boring bush tucker...lol we ate well...O and dont forget the nightly puddings to follow...
Its interesting, I make up our meals menu before treks and find that meat will keep for up to 9 days if frozen and well wrapped in newspaper and taped... Frozen chicken is the least able to be kept so eaten first, but I had two roasts of beef that were fine towards the end of the trek... sausages are the best to keep this way and are totally fine even at day 9..
Bacon that is vacuum packed will last two weeks ....other treks I have asked my local butcher to vacuum pack fillet steak in meal sizes for two and this will last 9 days as long as its unopened..
I also plan in taking whole spuds, carrots, kumura onions and pumpkin to have as the roast veges...Something I have been on the look out but to date have not found is a chilly bin and lid that would fit inside one of the hard panniers to take the frozen meat... work in progress..!
Each night we made up bread dough and each morning got the fire going and camp oven baked the lunch bread to have with the left over cold meals and pickles...
Pack horse travel gives us luxury living in the great outdoors...
On a funny note.. around mid week we had slept in some one morning and then decided to go for a day ride but had'nt baked the days bread, so in the rush got the fire going and then scrapped out a rather large pile of fire coals, sat the camp oven containing the bread dough on and heaped a bit of burning wood closer than normal to said camp oven to quicken the baking time... well about 15 mins later I witnessed blue smoke rising from inside said camp oven.. lifting the lid... a very burnt loaf of loosely described as bread.... that if the Queen was coming to lunch today it was fit for only holding the carriage door ajar.....lol
To add to Tony the Chefs culinary delights for this day, upon returning from our day ride decided to make a carrot cake in the camp oven.. something I have not made before. however with Gizz managing to break half the treks allocation of eggs with his roll down the hill with the pack load on day one. it only left me with two of the four eggs required so to try and compensate, I added an extra dollop of olive oil to help the ingredients stick together, but upon baking the cake.. it looked ok, but everyone in camp put on a brave face asking for a second slice I thought....lol another bit of a flop..... so not all camp cooking is pleasing to the palate....smilies...
Our weeks evening menu consisted of chicken roast tonight, camp made mince stew and veges next night, a roast of beef and veges to following, pasta the following, sausage and a gravy mix with spud next, another roast of beef, another mince stew, and final night curried sausages and spud.. so you can see the week was certainly boring bush tucker...lol we ate well...O and dont forget the nightly puddings to follow...
Its interesting, I make up our meals menu before treks and find that meat will keep for up to 9 days if frozen and well wrapped in newspaper and taped... Frozen chicken is the least able to be kept so eaten first, but I had two roasts of beef that were fine towards the end of the trek... sausages are the best to keep this way and are totally fine even at day 9..
Bacon that is vacuum packed will last two weeks ....other treks I have asked my local butcher to vacuum pack fillet steak in meal sizes for two and this will last 9 days as long as its unopened..
I also plan in taking whole spuds, carrots, kumura onions and pumpkin to have as the roast veges...Something I have been on the look out but to date have not found is a chilly bin and lid that would fit inside one of the hard panniers to take the frozen meat... work in progress..!
Each night we made up bread dough and each morning got the fire going and camp oven baked the lunch bread to have with the left over cold meals and pickles...
Pack horse travel gives us luxury living in the great outdoors...
On a funny note.. around mid week we had slept in some one morning and then decided to go for a day ride but had'nt baked the days bread, so in the rush got the fire going and then scrapped out a rather large pile of fire coals, sat the camp oven containing the bread dough on and heaped a bit of burning wood closer than normal to said camp oven to quicken the baking time... well about 15 mins later I witnessed blue smoke rising from inside said camp oven.. lifting the lid... a very burnt loaf of loosely described as bread.... that if the Queen was coming to lunch today it was fit for only holding the carriage door ajar.....lol
To add to Tony the Chefs culinary delights for this day, upon returning from our day ride decided to make a carrot cake in the camp oven.. something I have not made before. however with Gizz managing to break half the treks allocation of eggs with his roll down the hill with the pack load on day one. it only left me with two of the four eggs required so to try and compensate, I added an extra dollop of olive oil to help the ingredients stick together, but upon baking the cake.. it looked ok, but everyone in camp put on a brave face asking for a second slice I thought....lol another bit of a flop..... so not all camp cooking is pleasing to the palate....smilies...
Inside the tent shelter...........
The far end tent contains our supplies along with the firebox for inside cooking if the weather turns wet and also to keep the tent cosy overnight, with this end our sleeping quarters..
Both our swag rolls have inflatable lilos within and being both waterproof we enjoyed a weeks restful sleep apart from the odd opossum sniffing around after hours..
Both our swag rolls have inflatable lilos within and being both waterproof we enjoyed a weeks restful sleep apart from the odd opossum sniffing around after hours..
Day Three........
Out of bed bright and early...... (pissss... it was actually more like 10am ) we oven baked our lunch bread and the had the regulation bacon and eggs....... coincidently we bought a dozen eggs to camp and Gizz only managed to break half of them. so yes there was the odd mornings breakfast with just bacon and toast....
You may wonder about transporting eggs to camp on a horse, but this is the first time in the past three years that any eggs have been broken in transit... Nearly every trek I take them with me...
I package them in half dozen lots, keeping them in their egg cartons with these cartons fitting snugly inside my small plastic containers with tight fitting lids.. then placed in the top trays of my hard panniers and strapped down.. The eggs this way don't rattle at all and generally travel well...!
The added bonus having them inside plastic containers is if any do break, the egg contents stays within the plastic container and not oozing within the pannier...
You may wonder about transporting eggs to camp on a horse, but this is the first time in the past three years that any eggs have been broken in transit... Nearly every trek I take them with me...
I package them in half dozen lots, keeping them in their egg cartons with these cartons fitting snugly inside my small plastic containers with tight fitting lids.. then placed in the top trays of my hard panniers and strapped down.. The eggs this way don't rattle at all and generally travel well...!
The added bonus having them inside plastic containers is if any do break, the egg contents stays within the plastic container and not oozing within the pannier...
Time to take a hot bath..................
After that early breakfast a little bird told me that away up the river a nice warm bath awaited both of us........... so are we to ignore said little birds message...????? lol
We saddled Mr Cons and Bailey and headed west... up the river for a couple hours ride....
We saddled Mr Cons and Bailey and headed west... up the river for a couple hours ride....
Fairly well up river...!
Stopping up on top of a little hill all on its own we had a great view of the surrounding mountain country. again the weather turned on a very nice warm day...
Its interesting.. horses love trekking and along the various trails they have their ears pricked forward looking around that next corner.. like in the above photo. Mr Cons is very interested in his surroundings standing up on the hill..!
Its interesting.. horses love trekking and along the various trails they have their ears pricked forward looking around that next corner.. like in the above photo. Mr Cons is very interested in his surroundings standing up on the hill..!
By Golly that little bird was right..... our bath... and quite hot I have to add...!
This hot spring bath sits around four people max.. is quite warm in temp, and sitting on the bottom covers us right up to our neck.... Imagine sitting in here while it was snowing....!
Its situated around 50 to 70 metres up the hill off the riverbed, with a nice couple of shady trees to tie the horses up to..
Its situated around 50 to 70 metres up the hill off the riverbed, with a nice couple of shady trees to tie the horses up to..
The Mountain scenery as seen from the Hot pool...............
Just look at the stunning view from here across to the McKenzie Stream area... loved our visit to this slice of paradise...
The leaning tower of Dunny............!
The first time I went to use this Dunny I found myself falling back out of it again.... now without sounding groose or morbid one needs a seat belt when visiting... in the end one needed to stick ones feet up on the wall either side to remain seated..... It just tickled my fancy and needed to deperately share this with you all...lol
Some Dunnies have a view to die for.........
I just had to take my camera and snap this view.......... once of course one managed to remain seated first...lol ok ok.. enough on the Dunny subject......!
Time to hit the track in a different direction...!
I was sitting up by the hut eating breakfast and admiring the beautiful views when away over near the top corner of the lake, I thought I saw something moving.. this being some 2 and half kilometres away... at first I wondered if it were cattle on the move, but a further eye peeling study reconned on horses and riders.. a lot of them in fact... I called out to Fiona, and we watched as the cavalcade came closer.... it being the Alpine Safaris horses, coming out of the Kiwi Pack track and heading across the top of Lake Sumner, then up over the saddle where we had come from towards Lake Mason... It was quite a site to see so many horses.. some packed, some ridden some with nothing on, all loose...
It was good that we saw them earlier as Fiona and I intended to also travel thru the Kiwi Pack track in the opposite direction today ....
Discovered that Mr Cons had dropped a rear shoe somewhere in his paddock over night, Fiona found it and with a bit of a trim, and reshaping the shoe nailed it back on..
So after corn and bacon fritters for breakfast, we loaded Bailey with some essentials for an overnight or two, and put this all in a sack which I could rope on top of the pack saddle as i new in parts this Kiwi Pack Track is somewhat narrow for normal packhorse and wide panniers...
Just after reshoeing Mr Cons and while we packed some gear the horses were turned loose for a bite to eat and then a drink up near the hut, but a scrap broke out between Mr Cons and Shae around the water trough area, with Mr Cons catching the water feed pipe in his leg ripping it way from the trough.. demolishing it.... next we had water going everywhere... so with limited tools ( the chainsaw spanner cum screw driver and tools for shoeing horses) Fiona and I managed to reinstate everything and back to reasonably normal use again.... one needs to be resourceful at times.. good old number 8 wire....
It was good that we saw them earlier as Fiona and I intended to also travel thru the Kiwi Pack track in the opposite direction today ....
Discovered that Mr Cons had dropped a rear shoe somewhere in his paddock over night, Fiona found it and with a bit of a trim, and reshaping the shoe nailed it back on..
So after corn and bacon fritters for breakfast, we loaded Bailey with some essentials for an overnight or two, and put this all in a sack which I could rope on top of the pack saddle as i new in parts this Kiwi Pack Track is somewhat narrow for normal packhorse and wide panniers...
Just after reshoeing Mr Cons and while we packed some gear the horses were turned loose for a bite to eat and then a drink up near the hut, but a scrap broke out between Mr Cons and Shae around the water trough area, with Mr Cons catching the water feed pipe in his leg ripping it way from the trough.. demolishing it.... next we had water going everywhere... so with limited tools ( the chainsaw spanner cum screw driver and tools for shoeing horses) Fiona and I managed to reinstate everything and back to reasonably normal use again.... one needs to be resourceful at times.. good old number 8 wire....
The Kiwi Pack Track..........
Starting at the head of Lake Sumner, its a bit of a bog crossing and then a steep scramble up onto the start of this historic Pack track, originally built in the late 18oo to allow passage of sheep and cattle from Amuri district across here, up the Hurunui and out over the Harper Pass to the West Coast to sell to the Gold Prospectors etc for meat...
So several of the below photos are of our two hour ride over this trail... some areas a nice easy ride others, narrow wet and rocky.. a huge amount of tree fall and many thanks to whom keeps this track open....I would strongly recommend carrying a chainsaw if contemplating using this trail.. you may get thru but on the return after a couple days dont be surprised to find the track blocked here and there...
Talking to a ranger from DoC, he was saying it took three men two weeks after the recent winds to clear the fall... so enjoy the below photos...
So several of the below photos are of our two hour ride over this trail... some areas a nice easy ride others, narrow wet and rocky.. a huge amount of tree fall and many thanks to whom keeps this track open....I would strongly recommend carrying a chainsaw if contemplating using this trail.. you may get thru but on the return after a couple days dont be surprised to find the track blocked here and there...
Talking to a ranger from DoC, he was saying it took three men two weeks after the recent winds to clear the fall... so enjoy the below photos...
Some parts of the track left us scratching our head... a little rough to say the least..!
Emerging out of the Bush at the Kiwi River end.....
It took around two hours to climb from the Lake Sumner end thru to here, with a steep decent from the top of the Kiwi saddle down to where this photo was taken...
Striding out on the Flats of the beautiful Kiwi River area...........
Once out of the forest track I led Shae for remainder of todays ride to the Kiwi Hut as he is the Alpha horse in our pack and being that he may not want to follow is lesser peers... but is was a lovely and scenic ride....
Serious Sandfly Country..................
Its been quite a number of years since last in this area, and last time in here there was a horse paddock on the top side of this hut, so thought,, wont need any leg ties.. wont need any high Lines...... can you imagine the sentence I thought of arriving here to find no paddock...
Luckily i did bring some high lining gear.. well we had enough gear to make one, but for a while let the boys inside the hut fence and we just fed a couple at a time on hand lines outside, then high lined them all overnight after taking them down to the stream for a drink...
Not sure why but no water was available at this hut.. the water tank on the outside was dry with the tap on the ground
The sandflies in this area are thick... and was a good test for the sandfly horse covers that Fiona bought a few weeks back..
I have to say...... they worked well..... at one point I looked at the side of Bailey and it was thick with sandflies on the outside of the cover...
These covers are much longer over the tail and down the legs, they also have a under belly cover,and a full combo, so apart from the head and the bottom half of horses legs for sandfly dinner the rest was covered....Made by WeatherBeeta and available I think from Belfast Saddlery...
Perhaps the only down side is they are not wind or weather proof, and we found they needed to be taken off over night as the boys got cold wearing them then...
Luckily i did bring some high lining gear.. well we had enough gear to make one, but for a while let the boys inside the hut fence and we just fed a couple at a time on hand lines outside, then high lined them all overnight after taking them down to the stream for a drink...
Not sure why but no water was available at this hut.. the water tank on the outside was dry with the tap on the ground
The sandflies in this area are thick... and was a good test for the sandfly horse covers that Fiona bought a few weeks back..
I have to say...... they worked well..... at one point I looked at the side of Bailey and it was thick with sandflies on the outside of the cover...
These covers are much longer over the tail and down the legs, they also have a under belly cover,and a full combo, so apart from the head and the bottom half of horses legs for sandfly dinner the rest was covered....Made by WeatherBeeta and available I think from Belfast Saddlery...
Perhaps the only down side is they are not wind or weather proof, and we found they needed to be taken off over night as the boys got cold wearing them then...
Next day..... riding down the Hope River........
Next day I wanted to head down the Hope River for a look and especially to stop in at the Museum Hut after reading a book on the life of the Legendary Dick Morris who spent some twenty years of his life Deer Stalking here...
Riding along the high terrace we came across this giant caesium dissecting the terrace .. it was quite deep where this photo was taken but four times the depth at the lower end.... good thing we weren't cantering along here in the dark.....!
Riding along the high terrace we came across this giant caesium dissecting the terrace .. it was quite deep where this photo was taken but four times the depth at the lower end.... good thing we weren't cantering along here in the dark.....!
The Museum Hut.......
Dick Morris lived in a little hut made of simple local material for some twenty years on the very site this new hut is built on.. if one looks just to the far side it drops away down a steep bank onto a riverbed, and I bet in his day before the trees grew he would have had some splendid views out over the Kiwi and hope River areas..
Just after he died in 1957 his little hut burnt down, and as mark of respect some of his close friends built this little hut again in honour of his service to this area... I take my hat off to this man.....!
Just after he died in 1957 his little hut burnt down, and as mark of respect some of his close friends built this little hut again in honour of his service to this area... I take my hat off to this man.....!
In Memory of a Legend................
The junction of the Kiwi and hope Rivers.........
Next day, we rode back to the confluence of the Kiwi and Hope and then rode in thru the little gorge as seen in the above photo and out into the Hope but persistent rain saw us return, however later in the day the weather fined back up ..
Just this side of the gorge I had to ease a gate open with long grass up to the top of this gate and growing thru it and once thru let the Irish lump graze for a couple mins while I remounted the gate to the post, but sure enough........ leaving this Irish " delinquent " alone for two minutes..... trouble soon appeared... he decided that a scratch was in order, so sidled over to a tree and scratched away, but in doing so loosed my reins attached to the saddle.. said reins dropped to the ground and guess who then just couldn't resist standing on them??? "snap"... went my best ....years old ....supple long reins .....
I can tell you sometimes I have threatened to squeeze this lump into a small "windowless building" for the antics he gets up to... .. the small windowless building being a "dog roll" can......! lol
Just this side of the gorge I had to ease a gate open with long grass up to the top of this gate and growing thru it and once thru let the Irish lump graze for a couple mins while I remounted the gate to the post, but sure enough........ leaving this Irish " delinquent " alone for two minutes..... trouble soon appeared... he decided that a scratch was in order, so sidled over to a tree and scratched away, but in doing so loosed my reins attached to the saddle.. said reins dropped to the ground and guess who then just couldn't resist standing on them??? "snap"... went my best ....years old ....supple long reins .....
I can tell you sometimes I have threatened to squeeze this lump into a small "windowless building" for the antics he gets up to... .. the small windowless building being a "dog roll" can......! lol
The Hope River above the little Gorge............
Back Tracking towards the Kiwi.....
Later in the day back over the Kiwi Pack track..............
A narrow area on the Pack track.....
Someone has been watching and had a go herself.......
Once back at camp Fiona set to and built this beaut roast of Beef and veges .... I am happy to take second place in the cook line up.. delicious.........
After a Nine day holiday, we broke camp and headed out past Lake Katrine .....
What a neat Holiday and trail ride we had.. the weather was mostly kind and all the horses enjoyed their change of scenery.....
Now just before I sign off on this latest report which incidently has taken some ten hours to compress and sort photos, then upload and write about the trip.. anyways a funny little story unfolded up at the camp the last Friday..
Fiona and I were having lunch under a shady tree overlooking the lake when two lady riders came into view...
These two ladies had gained permission to stay in the hut and Ted had given them instructions as to where the key was hidden prior to leaving the Lakes Station...
I think Ted said where it was reasonably clearly but upon arriving the instructions became tangled....
We all helped look for said hut door key as per the young ladies instruction, but to no avail... not a key to be seen anywhere..
It was late afternoon by this stage, and knowing both the ladies, invited them to sleep in our tent with Fiona and me outside on the ground which was totally fine....
We all had our meal and enjoyed yarning about this and that around the camp fire till quite late..
Next morning the ladies went on a horse trail ride and returned later in the day sort of cursing that the key instructions were misleading and upon unsaddling I boiled the billy for a cupa..
Sitting down the key subject was raised again and I said.. did Ted mean it was actually in one of the trees rather than hanging where the ladies had thought... next one stands up and walks over to a tree that we had all walked around a hundred times looking for it in a different place and Bingo......... there it was....
And you know..... it was exactly where Ted had instructed.... I have been swarn to secrecy not to mention any names................................hehehe......!
Now just before I sign off on this latest report which incidently has taken some ten hours to compress and sort photos, then upload and write about the trip.. anyways a funny little story unfolded up at the camp the last Friday..
Fiona and I were having lunch under a shady tree overlooking the lake when two lady riders came into view...
These two ladies had gained permission to stay in the hut and Ted had given them instructions as to where the key was hidden prior to leaving the Lakes Station...
I think Ted said where it was reasonably clearly but upon arriving the instructions became tangled....
We all helped look for said hut door key as per the young ladies instruction, but to no avail... not a key to be seen anywhere..
It was late afternoon by this stage, and knowing both the ladies, invited them to sleep in our tent with Fiona and me outside on the ground which was totally fine....
We all had our meal and enjoyed yarning about this and that around the camp fire till quite late..
Next morning the ladies went on a horse trail ride and returned later in the day sort of cursing that the key instructions were misleading and upon unsaddling I boiled the billy for a cupa..
Sitting down the key subject was raised again and I said.. did Ted mean it was actually in one of the trees rather than hanging where the ladies had thought... next one stands up and walks over to a tree that we had all walked around a hundred times looking for it in a different place and Bingo......... there it was....
And you know..... it was exactly where Ted had instructed.... I have been swarn to secrecy not to mention any names................................hehehe......!
On the Trail............
A few days with Sean.............!
Sunday last week the telephone rings here at home, its Mary from Hanmer ...... a message from Sean..... he has the second horse holding paddock ready and wants a hand to just run the wires for it... everything is there in the way of materials and tools so you wont need to bring anything.... after further yarning about this and that I hang up the phone and thought.. ok.. this weekend is free... infact Friday is free also, so hatched a plan of riding in Friday and out Sunday..
Now Sean, for the folks who dont know him is a man who for the last four winters has based himself out at the StanleyVale Hut in the Mountains of St James and his 9 to 5pm office job is possum trapping..... thru all weathers over all terrain.. a tough way to make a living indeed....
I rang a good friend Simon to see if he wanted to join me with his horse for the weekend, and he asked would it be ok if his family who all ride could also come along... yes sure.. it would be great fun and experience for Simons girls and their ponys to ride out over the Fowler Pass and out to the hut..
Simon and his Family up at Fowlers saddling up for the ride in..!
Now Sean, for the folks who dont know him is a man who for the last four winters has based himself out at the StanleyVale Hut in the Mountains of St James and his 9 to 5pm office job is possum trapping..... thru all weathers over all terrain.. a tough way to make a living indeed....
I rang a good friend Simon to see if he wanted to join me with his horse for the weekend, and he asked would it be ok if his family who all ride could also come along... yes sure.. it would be great fun and experience for Simons girls and their ponys to ride out over the Fowler Pass and out to the hut..
Simon and his Family up at Fowlers saddling up for the ride in..!
Meeting up at Simons place 9.30am Friday morning we convoyed up to Hanmer, then up over the Jacks Pass and out following the beautiful Clarence River up to Fowlers Hut, reaching there around lunch time.....
After lunch and saddled up we all headed out and started up the hill pack track and got around half a kilometre when one of the girls turned around looking back down at the distant floats called out to Dad.............. Dad you left the door of the truck open.........! hehehe....
I think it might have been Nicola (Simons wife ) who actually left it open but good old Simon took it on the chin, turned his horse around without a word and headed back down the hill to secure said truck, returning 15 mins later with his usual smile then leading our cavalcade, trundled up to the top of the pass, dismounting , we walked down the steep decent of the Fowler zig zag..
This trek is also the first time Gizzy has been a pack horse fully loaded..... he had completed a couple of easy flat treks last season as a green pack horse with light loads and had been fine with it, so this time he had followed us loose up to the top and started down the steep side, but half way down decided to take a short cut, leaving the pack track dived over the side, but gravity soon took over on the 45deg slope, and next thing he was sliding down at quite a reasonable pace before coming to rest at a precurious spot and decided to halt there until Dad scrambled up from the pack track to rescue him...... clipping a lead rope on we encouraged him down and back onto the steep track, then led him the remaining distance...
He needed to work things out for himself that shortcuts on steep country may not be such a good idea, but by the end of the weekend he had got the idea that the pack track is the best, easiest, and safest option for travel..
Talking with Mary, she said that Sean had been busy over the winter opening up an early part of the existing pack track to bypass the second steep zig zag on the way down, so locating this new section decided to try it out.. Sean has made a sterling job of benching and cutting back the scrub, thus opening around half a kilometre of gentle decending track to now hook up with the track again at the head of the little gorge on the way down.... Fantastic work Sean....
Sean has also been busy further down shifting the pack track to the otherside of the Smyth Stream where the original track climbed over a bit of a washout on a clay bank which can be a little hair raising for horse transport in wet conditions..... this man is a legend I can tell you....!
On the Fowler Pass
After lunch and saddled up we all headed out and started up the hill pack track and got around half a kilometre when one of the girls turned around looking back down at the distant floats called out to Dad.............. Dad you left the door of the truck open.........! hehehe....
I think it might have been Nicola (Simons wife ) who actually left it open but good old Simon took it on the chin, turned his horse around without a word and headed back down the hill to secure said truck, returning 15 mins later with his usual smile then leading our cavalcade, trundled up to the top of the pass, dismounting , we walked down the steep decent of the Fowler zig zag..
This trek is also the first time Gizzy has been a pack horse fully loaded..... he had completed a couple of easy flat treks last season as a green pack horse with light loads and had been fine with it, so this time he had followed us loose up to the top and started down the steep side, but half way down decided to take a short cut, leaving the pack track dived over the side, but gravity soon took over on the 45deg slope, and next thing he was sliding down at quite a reasonable pace before coming to rest at a precurious spot and decided to halt there until Dad scrambled up from the pack track to rescue him...... clipping a lead rope on we encouraged him down and back onto the steep track, then led him the remaining distance...
He needed to work things out for himself that shortcuts on steep country may not be such a good idea, but by the end of the weekend he had got the idea that the pack track is the best, easiest, and safest option for travel..
Talking with Mary, she said that Sean had been busy over the winter opening up an early part of the existing pack track to bypass the second steep zig zag on the way down, so locating this new section decided to try it out.. Sean has made a sterling job of benching and cutting back the scrub, thus opening around half a kilometre of gentle decending track to now hook up with the track again at the head of the little gorge on the way down.... Fantastic work Sean....
Sean has also been busy further down shifting the pack track to the otherside of the Smyth Stream where the original track climbed over a bit of a washout on a clay bank which can be a little hair raising for horse transport in wet conditions..... this man is a legend I can tell you....!
On the Fowler Pass
Giz deciding that short cuts on steep country isn't always a good idea.....
Photo of Petra on her horse "Foxy" quite happy on the steep hillside track
It is around twelve kilometres of this sort of country between the Fowler and StanleyVale huts....
This and below photos,... In the upper Stanley River area....
Gizz, the young pack horse leading the way.....
Just coming up to the little gorge in the top of the Smyth Stream.....
Meet Sean Jamison.......
On several previous trips into StanleyVale Sean has always asked me not to take any photos of himself, so have abliged his request but have always wanted to do a story on him and his life so asked him again at a rear weak moment over the weekend if he would let me do a story with a few photos........
His reply..... you are so persistent arnt you..! lol yep.......! ok.. if you must.. but make it true with no exagerations....... yes sure Sean...lol
Now to the best of my knowledge I will run thru a little of Seans past...
Leaving school at 16, he joined the Forest Service and did a variety of jobs but had always had a liking for being out in the mountains for extended periods...
Eventually becoming a young Deer Culler both in the Nelson and West Coast regions honed is mountain suvival skills so much that he prefered this simple way of life..
Working for the Forest Service in the 1960 s he learnt a lot about the bush and wild animal behaviour, along with working with fellow cullers......
Later Sean became an instructor for new recruits, drumming into them firstly the basics of mountain suvival, hut building, cooking, fire lighting in all weathers, showing these lads how to precure wood that would burn even in soaking wet bush, hygene importance, monthly food rashon management, and if the recruit passed the tests after the first few weeks todate, were then introduced to deer stalking firstly, then firearm safety and target practice..
Cullers were expected to reach targets per month and I think were expected to hit targets per number of bullet rounds issued and were paid by the number of tail handed in..
Many cullers worked on there own out of a simple small hut in various remote mountain locations, and produced some massive tallies of tails... talking with Sean the deer numbers were staggering, with nothing to see twenty of so all grazing out in a small clearing in the bush.. there were deer everywhere..
These days Sean spends his winters in at StanleyVale possum trapping, thru all weathers, and prefers the colder part from June to the end of August as the possum skins are at their best then and produce the best prices.... Sean has a secure contract with a buyer who knows the quality skins he produces and can earn quite a substancial amount from a top grade line
Looking at the above photo of Sean in the doorway of the StanleyVale hut look on the right side wall at the black markings of 2011 and 2012...... thats the height of the perminant winter snow around the hut.. imagine having to work in snow that deep all day everyday for a living
And this man travels long distances in the area.. all on foot.. at times he may have traps away out over the other side of the Waiau such as the Jones stream which is some 3.5 hours horse ride in summer away.. often he will walk over thru this depth of snow on his own with a pack on his back and stay perhaps in a tent.. yes a tent, or perhaps the tiny Jervous Hut leaving before day light and often back well after dark....
Sean is a super fit man who is well into his 60s and thinks nothing of this sort of travel and work..
Sean last weekend Skinning possums....
Now a further funny little story attached to this photo....... it was late afternoon saturday, Sean had been out to check on a few of his traps in the local area, had returned and as the photo shows was in the process of skinning the days tally when he looked over to see John running flat out around half a kilometre away up the flats towards the hut...
John Hope is a regular pig shooter who rode in on his horse a few hours earlier than us over the pass for the weekend and on the previous friday night had caught up with a wild pig with his dogs and had it hanging in a tree around the hut....... content with his catch and amount of meat was bidding his time with us enjoying the rest of the weekend before riding back out Sunday..
So picture this.. it was about 5pm I guess, John was in the hut yarning away to Simon, had put the billy full of water on his gas burner, turned it on and said to Simon, I will just take my dogs for a five minute stroll to let them off the chain while the billy boils..
So away he goes with his dogs just wandering along, and some minutes later I walked into the hut to find it full of steam.. billy boiling its head off and no one around, so thinking this a bit odd turned it off and walked out to door to hear Simon mention that from a distance John looks to be running back to the hut..
A couple minutes later when in yelling distance Simon called out whats wrong John........? Bloody dogs have bailed up another pig and I havnt got either a knife or rifle, so Simon quickly grabs the rifle and runs down to meet John with it ,and in turn poor old John turns and had to run the kilometre or so back to the squealing pig bailed up in the bush...... o the joys of a day in the countryside...lol
Fifteen mins later an exhausted john is seen returning up the flats towards the hut dragging said dead pig...... too funny I can tell you... Picture above shows Sean watching the performance....
Some of Seans high quality Skins dryed and ready to be taken out next trip......
John Hope is a regular pig shooter who rode in on his horse a few hours earlier than us over the pass for the weekend and on the previous friday night had caught up with a wild pig with his dogs and had it hanging in a tree around the hut....... content with his catch and amount of meat was bidding his time with us enjoying the rest of the weekend before riding back out Sunday..
So picture this.. it was about 5pm I guess, John was in the hut yarning away to Simon, had put the billy full of water on his gas burner, turned it on and said to Simon, I will just take my dogs for a five minute stroll to let them off the chain while the billy boils..
So away he goes with his dogs just wandering along, and some minutes later I walked into the hut to find it full of steam.. billy boiling its head off and no one around, so thinking this a bit odd turned it off and walked out to door to hear Simon mention that from a distance John looks to be running back to the hut..
A couple minutes later when in yelling distance Simon called out whats wrong John........? Bloody dogs have bailed up another pig and I havnt got either a knife or rifle, so Simon quickly grabs the rifle and runs down to meet John with it ,and in turn poor old John turns and had to run the kilometre or so back to the squealing pig bailed up in the bush...... o the joys of a day in the countryside...lol
Fifteen mins later an exhausted john is seen returning up the flats towards the hut dragging said dead pig...... too funny I can tell you... Picture above shows Sean watching the performance....
Some of Seans high quality Skins dryed and ready to be taken out next trip......
Sean was saying his overseas buyer is paying up to $40 per skin for premium quality..... thats quite a substancial amount... but its hard work all the same..
About once a month Sean bundles his batch of skins onto his horse and heads out of the mountains over the Fowler pack track if not too deep in snow and down to Hanmer, often staying a couple nights with Mary and Jeff in Hanmer to catch up on what the rest of the world has been doing and some company....
This winter has been the first year that he has had a horse winter over with him and this horse must be of a very hardy nature to suvive in there in the snow..
Sean initially didnt care to much about this horse as from reading between the lines the two of them had had a chequered past, and all Sean wanted was to have it transport his gear in at the start of the season, and once in at the hut turned it loose to fend for itself, but with a little advice and help from Mary, encouraged Sean to take a little more care of him... Mary found a cover for it and also provided some hard feed for Sean to take in, so the horse stayed.. roaming a wide area during the day but every morning snow in all was standing at the door of the hut for his morning hot mash of speedy beet...
Talking to Sean and listening to some of the stories regarding the tenacity of this horse...... for example the horse in the early months taking off and heading out over the pass to the other side and Sean walking over to pick him up again at the fence line happened more than once..lol
Sean with the horse loaded with skins in waist deep snow trying to walk out over the pass with the horse pushing loose in front of him up thru the snow is astonishing.... once they got within a hundred metres of the top but the snow was just to deep, so turned around and trudged back to the hut and next day walked the horse down the Stanley River in the same waist deep snow to be confronted with the Waiau river in flood, so unloaded skins, walked across the little gorge and around via the Edwards returning for the second bundle the next day and walking back out to Hanmer as his car altho based at the Fowler hut was buried in snow also and useless...... and of course the horse........ whom by the way Sean calls "No Name" was just left once again to fend for himself, and returned to the hut to await Seans return a few days later.... amazing what this man achieves on a day to day basis....
Sean the true bushman entertaining Mecala and sister Petra.....
About once a month Sean bundles his batch of skins onto his horse and heads out of the mountains over the Fowler pack track if not too deep in snow and down to Hanmer, often staying a couple nights with Mary and Jeff in Hanmer to catch up on what the rest of the world has been doing and some company....
This winter has been the first year that he has had a horse winter over with him and this horse must be of a very hardy nature to suvive in there in the snow..
Sean initially didnt care to much about this horse as from reading between the lines the two of them had had a chequered past, and all Sean wanted was to have it transport his gear in at the start of the season, and once in at the hut turned it loose to fend for itself, but with a little advice and help from Mary, encouraged Sean to take a little more care of him... Mary found a cover for it and also provided some hard feed for Sean to take in, so the horse stayed.. roaming a wide area during the day but every morning snow in all was standing at the door of the hut for his morning hot mash of speedy beet...
Talking to Sean and listening to some of the stories regarding the tenacity of this horse...... for example the horse in the early months taking off and heading out over the pass to the other side and Sean walking over to pick him up again at the fence line happened more than once..lol
Sean with the horse loaded with skins in waist deep snow trying to walk out over the pass with the horse pushing loose in front of him up thru the snow is astonishing.... once they got within a hundred metres of the top but the snow was just to deep, so turned around and trudged back to the hut and next day walked the horse down the Stanley River in the same waist deep snow to be confronted with the Waiau river in flood, so unloaded skins, walked across the little gorge and around via the Edwards returning for the second bundle the next day and walking back out to Hanmer as his car altho based at the Fowler hut was buried in snow also and useless...... and of course the horse........ whom by the way Sean calls "No Name" was just left once again to fend for himself, and returned to the hut to await Seans return a few days later.... amazing what this man achieves on a day to day basis....
Sean the true bushman entertaining Mecala and sister Petra.....
Sean is a man of high values, morals and is clean living despite his exterior looks,, he doesnt smoke or drink, and insists on cleanliness around the hut.. he is highly educated and has travelled the world in his earlier days and takes a keen interest in what is going on around him.... he loves the solitude but also loves the endless number of hut visitors and is quick to entertain all who are willing to listen with his tales of bush life...
He has strong views on politicians and infact authority in general, but I can tell you is a great asset to have up at this hut..... Doc are happy for him to be in there and Sean does not abuse the situation by becoming a perminant resident etc...
Sean is keen to see the St James Conservation park managed properly, and does a lot to help out.... for example when he has spare time he is often out helping clear tracks of overgrown scrub, has weed sprayed a lot of the encroaching gorse and broom in the area all free of any charge, and his presence has kept some sort of lid on the endless folks who abuse the rules of no vehicles in parts of the park and moreover these people using vehicles to spotlight at night... this is dangerous in a public park as people are all around camping, and along with this ,horses can become confused for wild animals and be shot at.... DoC cant be everywhere all the time but Sean being in there has detered a lot of this activity.... he welcome all comers from walkers to bikers, kayakers to us horse riders......
Seams I am not the only one keen to make camp oven bread......
He has strong views on politicians and infact authority in general, but I can tell you is a great asset to have up at this hut..... Doc are happy for him to be in there and Sean does not abuse the situation by becoming a perminant resident etc...
Sean is keen to see the St James Conservation park managed properly, and does a lot to help out.... for example when he has spare time he is often out helping clear tracks of overgrown scrub, has weed sprayed a lot of the encroaching gorse and broom in the area all free of any charge, and his presence has kept some sort of lid on the endless folks who abuse the rules of no vehicles in parts of the park and moreover these people using vehicles to spotlight at night... this is dangerous in a public park as people are all around camping, and along with this ,horses can become confused for wild animals and be shot at.... DoC cant be everywhere all the time but Sean being in there has detered a lot of this activity.... he welcome all comers from walkers to bikers, kayakers to us horse riders......
Seams I am not the only one keen to make camp oven bread......
Saturday morning Sean with the help of Mecala and Petra made up bread doe and then after preheating the camp oven popped it in and on the low heat of the fire..
He is very keen to show the young ladies skills in mountain life and hut cooking...
The smell was devine within the hut as the bread baked...
He is very keen to show the young ladies skills in mountain life and hut cooking...
The smell was devine within the hut as the bread baked...
Pig Hunters are notorious for having their dogs inside huts and some are not the most house trained to say the least, so to help this situation Sean built this set of Dog Motels out of scraps of material around the hut..
"No Name" on the left and Johns Mare were bossom buddies over the weekend and were often playing loose around the hut....
"No Name" on the left and Johns Mare were bossom buddies over the weekend and were often playing loose around the hut....
The Green Family enjoying a little of the camp life....
Camp Oven cooked bread.. well done girls.....
We had beautiful warm weather the entire weekend...
Sean taking care of my riding horse while i load Gizz with the pack gear on the Sunday..
Now Sean is a bit of a trickster... the original message from Mary was that Sean had planted all the posts for the new second horse paddock up at the hut and wanted me to ride in to just give him a hand to run the wires for it..
Can you all imagine my surprise when arriving up there, to see not one post at all planted...
Upon talking to Sean he said well you cant leave now, handing me a shovel and old and bent crowbar........ start digging....lol... Very conveniently Sean threw his back pack on and indicated that he had a few traps to tend and would be back to help shortly...... Seans "shortly" turned out to be missing all day as we clanged the crowbar into very rocky ground..... I recon the score to date is .... one to Sean.. none to us....... and Sean you were very lucky I didnt get you back by broadcasting some of the fun things we all know about you...(wink).....
Myself on the left, Simon and John post planting.......
Can you all imagine my surprise when arriving up there, to see not one post at all planted...
Upon talking to Sean he said well you cant leave now, handing me a shovel and old and bent crowbar........ start digging....lol... Very conveniently Sean threw his back pack on and indicated that he had a few traps to tend and would be back to help shortly...... Seans "shortly" turned out to be missing all day as we clanged the crowbar into very rocky ground..... I recon the score to date is .... one to Sean.. none to us....... and Sean you were very lucky I didnt get you back by broadcasting some of the fun things we all know about you...(wink).....
Myself on the left, Simon and John post planting.......
Looking out the hut door over towards Seans horse"No Name" wandering around after the snow....
A nice shot Sean.......
Thank you to the Green Family and to Mary for your contributions of various photos in the production of this page on Sean....!
On the Trail............
To find a wild horse..... or not............!
A week or two ago Mary emailed me that the snow had receded enough to have a go at catching up with the Grey wild St James Gelding we had seen back in the winter so hatched a plan of meeting up in Hanmer and travelling up to the Fowler Hut , basing ourselves there, which is the only hut in the area even tho it still required quite a daily ride from there into the last known area of the wild horse.
Being early spring it is way too cold to be tent camping in the horse facinity, and I can tell you it was dam cold even in the hut with the entire few days up there the temperature didnt hover much above 0 degs during the day and night time was very cold..
So Sunday morning Mary loaded her horse onto her float and had invited a friend of hers Arnie to come along on his borrowed horse, but Arnies horse had other ideas about floating....... two hours of trying saw Mary decide that enough was enough and asked Arnie to ride his horse up the new horse Pack track from Hanmer up over Jacks Pass and out to the St James homestead while she floated her horse all the way up to Fowlers hut and on return picked up Arnie at St James homestead where he left his horse overnight...
Being early spring it is way too cold to be tent camping in the horse facinity, and I can tell you it was dam cold even in the hut with the entire few days up there the temperature didnt hover much above 0 degs during the day and night time was very cold..
So Sunday morning Mary loaded her horse onto her float and had invited a friend of hers Arnie to come along on his borrowed horse, but Arnies horse had other ideas about floating....... two hours of trying saw Mary decide that enough was enough and asked Arnie to ride his horse up the new horse Pack track from Hanmer up over Jacks Pass and out to the St James homestead while she floated her horse all the way up to Fowlers hut and on return picked up Arnie at St James homestead where he left his horse overnight...
Dropping Arnie and his gear off at St James Homestead....
Arriving up at the Homestead it was good to see Mags still in the yards there overnight as just behind him one of the four mobs of wild horses had arrived and Mags being a decendant of the St James horse line was quite interested in their movements around him...
So Arnie saddled him and loaded his gear on then set sail for the four hours ride up to the hut while Mary and I took the vehicle up..
Mary said to Arnie,we would saddle our horses when up there and go take a look up to the last know wild horse habitat and meet him back at the hut that night...
From what she had known, the wild horse was last seen in its same location some three weeks earlier by a local helicopter pilot friend who had flown over him so things were looking good...
Mary and I had a plan of riding up into his habitat each day, teathering our horses and encouraging the wild horse to come over and mingle with ours, then we quitely saddle ours and walk off down country with hopefully the wild horse following us..
We intended to ride up each day and repeat this proceedure until the wild horse would follow us right down to the hut and in further days eventually down to the lower yards at St James Homestead.
We had permission both from DoC and from the Original herd owners to try and get this lone horse out of the mountains....
So Arnie saddled him and loaded his gear on then set sail for the four hours ride up to the hut while Mary and I took the vehicle up..
Mary said to Arnie,we would saddle our horses when up there and go take a look up to the last know wild horse habitat and meet him back at the hut that night...
From what she had known, the wild horse was last seen in its same location some three weeks earlier by a local helicopter pilot friend who had flown over him so things were looking good...
Mary and I had a plan of riding up into his habitat each day, teathering our horses and encouraging the wild horse to come over and mingle with ours, then we quitely saddle ours and walk off down country with hopefully the wild horse following us..
We intended to ride up each day and repeat this proceedure until the wild horse would follow us right down to the hut and in further days eventually down to the lower yards at St James Homestead.
We had permission both from DoC and from the Original herd owners to try and get this lone horse out of the mountains....
Up at the hut with Gizz enjoying his lunch snack.......
This was my new horse Gizzys first riding trek having started him under saddle only a couple months ago, so an ideal way to introduce further education to him without the need for saddle bags and pack horse accompanyment..
Being a young horse and still developing I intend to trek him for this entire season without the extra weight of saddlebags until he becomes an adult ... its far better to let him develop his muscle tone and frame size first..
Todate I am wrapped how he has changed from an initial scared and sensitive nature into this quite, calm and cool headed guy, willing to just hang around us loose and enjoy his new and exciting life as one of our trekking horses..
Being a young horse and still developing I intend to trek him for this entire season without the extra weight of saddlebags until he becomes an adult ... its far better to let him develop his muscle tone and frame size first..
Todate I am wrapped how he has changed from an initial scared and sensitive nature into this quite, calm and cool headed guy, willing to just hang around us loose and enjoy his new and exciting life as one of our trekking horses..
First time ridden out on the real mountain country.......
So after lunch for both Human and our equine friends, Mary and I headed up the road and out across country to the last known habitat of the wild Grey, but upon arriving up there, it was kind of strange as no sighting of him was made...
We rode right into the headwaters of the gully this horse was last seen in but nothing... no fresh sigh.. no fresh poo... nothing... strange we thought..
So heading back down we rode back one gully and rode up this one as well, but nothing,..... by this time it was getting on in the afternoon and still had a far distance to ride back to the hut so left it there and headed back...
We rode right into the headwaters of the gully this horse was last seen in but nothing... no fresh sigh.. no fresh poo... nothing... strange we thought..
So heading back down we rode back one gully and rode up this one as well, but nothing,..... by this time it was getting on in the afternoon and still had a far distance to ride back to the hut so left it there and headed back...
Home sweet Home...........
Arnie was happy to see us return and immediately wanted to know all about our afternoons ride... but bad news.. no horse sighting....
Now for those who dont know Mary, she is Monday to Friday a fully qualified "Fine Dining Chef"....... and had taken upon herself to prepare the two evening meals up at the hut, which just left Arnie and myself to fend for ourselves for breakfast and lunch feeds
The Hut has had its fireplace removed for some stupid political Doc reason so I loaded my packhorse firebox and a couple bags of firewood to take up to the hut for heating and cooking on and boy was it needed.... every night we experienced severe frosts, and kept the fire stoked up to ward off some of the cold..
The first night Mary produced a banquet for our dinner, with a roast of veges done in the camp oven and some of the most tender, thick juicy fillet steak I have ever tasted.. all marinated in her secret wine and herb mix the previous days.. the meal was delicious Mary.........
After the evening sitting around the camp fire with the odd spot of bourbon and whiskey we unrolled our swags and hit the hay....
All night there was the constant sounds of three cold human bodies tossing and turning in their respective sleeping bags trying to each find some warmth within, but man it was bloody cold.....
Mary was first up at 5.30am stoking the fire up and had it roaring to try to warm the place a bit with ice on the inside of the windows and everything that was liquid in our food frozen solid inside the hut...
So breakfast done, and warmed up we went out saddled all the horses and today decided to ride a number of kilometres further on up past the usual wild horses home gully and slowly work our way back down towards the hut direction..
Now for those who dont know Mary, she is Monday to Friday a fully qualified "Fine Dining Chef"....... and had taken upon herself to prepare the two evening meals up at the hut, which just left Arnie and myself to fend for ourselves for breakfast and lunch feeds
The Hut has had its fireplace removed for some stupid political Doc reason so I loaded my packhorse firebox and a couple bags of firewood to take up to the hut for heating and cooking on and boy was it needed.... every night we experienced severe frosts, and kept the fire stoked up to ward off some of the cold..
The first night Mary produced a banquet for our dinner, with a roast of veges done in the camp oven and some of the most tender, thick juicy fillet steak I have ever tasted.. all marinated in her secret wine and herb mix the previous days.. the meal was delicious Mary.........
After the evening sitting around the camp fire with the odd spot of bourbon and whiskey we unrolled our swags and hit the hay....
All night there was the constant sounds of three cold human bodies tossing and turning in their respective sleeping bags trying to each find some warmth within, but man it was bloody cold.....
Mary was first up at 5.30am stoking the fire up and had it roaring to try to warm the place a bit with ice on the inside of the windows and everything that was liquid in our food frozen solid inside the hut...
So breakfast done, and warmed up we went out saddled all the horses and today decided to ride a number of kilometres further on up past the usual wild horses home gully and slowly work our way back down towards the hut direction..
Mary with her winter woolies and riding her St James horse "Mistletoe"......
So this morning the three of us rode up every gully, across every saddle, down the next gully, around the side of the hills and up the next gully to its headwaters over the next saddle down the next gully all the way back to the Molesworth / St James Boundary fence, with still no sight of the horse.. not even any sigh of fresh hoof prints or recent horse poo... nothing....
We couldnt work it out... the horse had been in the same area for the past three years and hadnt ventured further than a kilometre either side of his home gully, Mary and I have been up to visit him back in the winter, and her helicopter pilot friend had flown over him a number of times since winter and he had still been there...... thoughts started to enter our minds.... did someone find him and shoot him....? did someone or something scare him and forced him to flee...? questions we talked over and over...!
Having done a further full day of searching we sort of kidded ourselves that he hadnt been shot as we would probably have found a body, as currently just after the winter snow, all the grass and tussock in his area was lying flat on the ground so anything would have been easy to see but still nothing.....!
We couldnt work it out... the horse had been in the same area for the past three years and hadnt ventured further than a kilometre either side of his home gully, Mary and I have been up to visit him back in the winter, and her helicopter pilot friend had flown over him a number of times since winter and he had still been there...... thoughts started to enter our minds.... did someone find him and shoot him....? did someone or something scare him and forced him to flee...? questions we talked over and over...!
Having done a further full day of searching we sort of kidded ourselves that he hadnt been shot as we would probably have found a body, as currently just after the winter snow, all the grass and tussock in his area was lying flat on the ground so anything would have been easy to see but still nothing.....!
Pic shows some of the areas we covered looking for the horse.......!
Over the three days I recon we covered some 70 to 80 kilometres in this sort of country, up each of the gullies.... where has he gone.....???
Back down the long road at the end of the second day........!
pic taken about half way back to the hut, which is away around the end of the middle hill spur coming down behind the right hand power pylon, so a long ride each way, each day...
Not knowing where the horse was, ment we needed to spend the days on the riding horses even tho it turned out a long ride to the search area and back.. we could have floated two of the horses up there a way, but then if we had caught up with the horse we would have had a vehicle left up there, so a catch 22 situation...!
The next morning after a further feast of marinated chicken and beautiful side dish of veges the previous night and bacon and toast for breakfast we all hopped in the car and drove further up to the boundary of St James and around into a further afield large gully, got out and walked a distance up into it just as a hunch he may have climbed out over the tops and down into this remote area, but again no sight or sign........
Disapointed we returned to camp, had a cuppa and made some lunch then saddled the horses and rode out across the Clarence River onto Molesworth and up one of the gullies over there for a half day ride, back to the camp, then Mary and Arnie rode there two horses back down to St James homestead, and myself thinking that Gizz wouldnt be too happy being left with me decided to turn him loose after a nosebag feed of chaff and oats and he followed them for the 3 odd hours back, leaving me to pack all the gear into the vehicle, tidy the hut and drive back also...
Not knowing where the horse was, ment we needed to spend the days on the riding horses even tho it turned out a long ride to the search area and back.. we could have floated two of the horses up there a way, but then if we had caught up with the horse we would have had a vehicle left up there, so a catch 22 situation...!
The next morning after a further feast of marinated chicken and beautiful side dish of veges the previous night and bacon and toast for breakfast we all hopped in the car and drove further up to the boundary of St James and around into a further afield large gully, got out and walked a distance up into it just as a hunch he may have climbed out over the tops and down into this remote area, but again no sight or sign........
Disapointed we returned to camp, had a cuppa and made some lunch then saddled the horses and rode out across the Clarence River onto Molesworth and up one of the gullies over there for a half day ride, back to the camp, then Mary and Arnie rode there two horses back down to St James homestead, and myself thinking that Gizz wouldnt be too happy being left with me decided to turn him loose after a nosebag feed of chaff and oats and he followed them for the 3 odd hours back, leaving me to pack all the gear into the vehicle, tidy the hut and drive back also...
Arriving back at the Homestead to be greeted by some of the locals.....!
Mary and Arnie were around a kilometre from the homestead when they came upon this mob of wild horses, so quickly put a lead rope on Gizz for the final stretch..
This mob of eight horses often hangs in and around the homestead area, and were the horses that were used in the last days of the St James Station riding horse days, so are quite used to humans as the pic shows...
This mob of eight horses often hangs in and around the homestead area, and were the horses that were used in the last days of the St James Station riding horse days, so are quite used to humans as the pic shows...
Go Gizz.................!
Smilies... I think Gizz has decided that joining the wild horse mob is not for him.... life with Dad is far better....lol
So a disapointing trip in some respects at not finding our horse, but next morning Mary txt me saying someone had come into her Cafe in Hanmer for a coffee and upon talking to Mary indicated that he had seen a grey lone horse away further back some 15 to 20 kilometres away from his previous gully habitat..
I said to her, I wonder firstly what caused him to move,, and..... was he still on the move up there... if we have any chance of finding him now he will have to have settled to a new area as its now very remote country..
Mary said she will ask her helicopter pilot friend to take a look up there next time he is in the area to see if he can spot him...
If he stays up there, Mary and I will need to take the pack horse and tenting gear as no huts anywhere near him, so fingers crossed that he settles down to one area and doesnt keep moving...
To be continued....
Update......
The Grey has been missing for three of four weeks since someone tried to capture him and obviously ruined any trust we had built with him over the previous 6 months, however just last Friday he was seen in the headwaters of the Waiau River by one of the DoC Rangers, so he must have climbed out over the ranges from his last habitat of three years, and the good new is there is a mob of wild horses in this same area who are the bachelors cast off from last years mares and foals mob, so hopefully the Grey will join up with these fellows..
This is a great result as now he should be safe from being shot, which was the reason Mary and I were trying to shift him in the first place, so we will leave him "be" to get on with being a wild horse..... Thank you to all the folks who followed us on this little adventure, with all your great comments and wishes... we couldnt have wished for a better outcome....
So a disapointing trip in some respects at not finding our horse, but next morning Mary txt me saying someone had come into her Cafe in Hanmer for a coffee and upon talking to Mary indicated that he had seen a grey lone horse away further back some 15 to 20 kilometres away from his previous gully habitat..
I said to her, I wonder firstly what caused him to move,, and..... was he still on the move up there... if we have any chance of finding him now he will have to have settled to a new area as its now very remote country..
Mary said she will ask her helicopter pilot friend to take a look up there next time he is in the area to see if he can spot him...
If he stays up there, Mary and I will need to take the pack horse and tenting gear as no huts anywhere near him, so fingers crossed that he settles down to one area and doesnt keep moving...
To be continued....
Update......
The Grey has been missing for three of four weeks since someone tried to capture him and obviously ruined any trust we had built with him over the previous 6 months, however just last Friday he was seen in the headwaters of the Waiau River by one of the DoC Rangers, so he must have climbed out over the ranges from his last habitat of three years, and the good new is there is a mob of wild horses in this same area who are the bachelors cast off from last years mares and foals mob, so hopefully the Grey will join up with these fellows..
This is a great result as now he should be safe from being shot, which was the reason Mary and I were trying to shift him in the first place, so we will leave him "be" to get on with being a wild horse..... Thank you to all the folks who followed us on this little adventure, with all your great comments and wishes... we couldnt have wished for a better outcome....
On The Trail.....
Looks like those Horse Rustlers are back...!
A bit of a different trek this time.... in a car...
As you may already know on an earlier trek we came across an orghaned 3 week old foal out on a remote hillside all alone and this foal attached itself to us for an entire week... said foal is doing very well and growing fast.. check out the latest photo taken of him today in the "Our Horses" Section..
My riding friend Mary went thru all the official channels with regard to Jimmy the foal, and while talking to one of the main Officials he indicated that there was another lone horse out in a corner of a mountain area above a lake that DoC wanted gone...and to the extent that if it wasnt gone it would be culled..
To fill you in on the history of this horse, back when Doc took over St James, the place had way too many wild horses on it, and as a result several mobs were rounded up and put up for sale, of which quite a few were sold, but a lot didnt, so someone in the head office ordered a cull of the wild horses that remained down to a manageable herd size, (which is fair enough).
Helicopters came in with shooters and conducted a cull program (that later the public found out about and as a result was eventually haltered ) and during part of this cull this horse and several others broke away and headed out over the Maling Pass, but were eventually caught up with, up a gully and all were culled except this one who had become stuck in a bog and was left...
Obviously this horse extracted itself and ever since has lived a lone life in the area..
I have seen from a distance this horse before, along with a number of other people, and several times we have talked of going into the area with horses and camping there and just letting this horse become familiar with us, but never got around to actually doing anything about it..
A wee while ago Mary and her husband were in this area, and while her husband was busy doing other things, Mary went walking up into the known horse area a distance, and there before her eyes this horse appeared.. Mary sat down and just watched for a while as this horse checked out this stranger in his turf area, but he wouldnt have a bar of coming anywhere near, so she left it..
Over the past month or so Mary has been back up there and recently took a book, sat on a rock with this horse half a kilometres away, and as she read her book, ignoring said horse it started to move cautiously closer, and after a period came right up to her..Mary just continued to ignore its presence, as the horse circled around behind her, came up , sniffed her and grabbed her hat... she just stayed still as the horse then moved around to the front and tried to crab her boot... so all good...
As you may already know on an earlier trek we came across an orghaned 3 week old foal out on a remote hillside all alone and this foal attached itself to us for an entire week... said foal is doing very well and growing fast.. check out the latest photo taken of him today in the "Our Horses" Section..
My riding friend Mary went thru all the official channels with regard to Jimmy the foal, and while talking to one of the main Officials he indicated that there was another lone horse out in a corner of a mountain area above a lake that DoC wanted gone...and to the extent that if it wasnt gone it would be culled..
To fill you in on the history of this horse, back when Doc took over St James, the place had way too many wild horses on it, and as a result several mobs were rounded up and put up for sale, of which quite a few were sold, but a lot didnt, so someone in the head office ordered a cull of the wild horses that remained down to a manageable herd size, (which is fair enough).
Helicopters came in with shooters and conducted a cull program (that later the public found out about and as a result was eventually haltered ) and during part of this cull this horse and several others broke away and headed out over the Maling Pass, but were eventually caught up with, up a gully and all were culled except this one who had become stuck in a bog and was left...
Obviously this horse extracted itself and ever since has lived a lone life in the area..
I have seen from a distance this horse before, along with a number of other people, and several times we have talked of going into the area with horses and camping there and just letting this horse become familiar with us, but never got around to actually doing anything about it..
A wee while ago Mary and her husband were in this area, and while her husband was busy doing other things, Mary went walking up into the known horse area a distance, and there before her eyes this horse appeared.. Mary sat down and just watched for a while as this horse checked out this stranger in his turf area, but he wouldnt have a bar of coming anywhere near, so she left it..
Over the past month or so Mary has been back up there and recently took a book, sat on a rock with this horse half a kilometres away, and as she read her book, ignoring said horse it started to move cautiously closer, and after a period came right up to her..Mary just continued to ignore its presence, as the horse circled around behind her, came up , sniffed her and grabbed her hat... she just stayed still as the horse then moved around to the front and tried to crab her boot... so all good...
After the snow storm we went for a look...
We figured it would be much easier to spot the lone horse once the snow arrived and this snow in turn would help bring it down from the more remote parts he has frequented near a lake...
Picture Postcard Scenery.........
Looking up towards Peters Pass, St James Conservation Park...
Fowlers Hut in white..........
We arrived up into the recently known area, left the vehicle and started walking, at first no sign so continued in when all of a sudden we stumbled into a recent horse track thru the snow... so followed this a distance, and upon rounding a low spur, there across the other side around a kilometre away... a horse...!
We spotted the horse about here, way across the other side under the hill not far from the lake......
Mary called to him and his ears pricked up, so we sat down and waited.....
Slowly, slowly...
What have we here then...?
The wild horse stayed about here for ages and wouldnt come any closer... I didnt want to walk up and invade his space, so just stood up slowly and started talking softly to him.... Yabbering away sweet nothings to him, he was curious but understanderbly cautious..
Mary said she would quietly walk back down the hill a distance so just one of us was there... I continued to quietly talk to him and then....!
Mary said she would quietly walk back down the hill a distance so just one of us was there... I continued to quietly talk to him and then....!
Standing still, he came right up within around metre.....
I stood still and just continued to quitely talk to him... he stopped and ate that little bit of hay we took up for him, then he walked up behind me around 5 metres away, and I made a mistake of trying to turn slowly around.. the crunch my foot made with the turning step frightened him and he high tailed out of here... and kept going until he was away up round the corner and out of sight...
Exit...... stage left......!
He will rememeber us.... more snow is forecast and will make it difficult to revisit him, but we will return....
In spring we will take a couple of horse up and camp for a few days with him.... someone has suggested in lasooing him and that would be one option, but we are in his turf, and he is a strong boy... no..... to my mind there are more than one ways to skin a rabbit so to speak..
Trying to lasso and possibly not being able to hold him would distroy any trust we might have.
I would like to quitely work on him, gain some more trust and adopt a different approach to getting him down to the yards... an interesting project..!
Watch this space..!
In spring we will take a couple of horse up and camp for a few days with him.... someone has suggested in lasooing him and that would be one option, but we are in his turf, and he is a strong boy... no..... to my mind there are more than one ways to skin a rabbit so to speak..
Trying to lasso and possibly not being able to hold him would distroy any trust we might have.
I would like to quitely work on him, gain some more trust and adopt a different approach to getting him down to the yards... an interesting project..!
Watch this space..!
On The Trail......
The St James / Magdalen Valley Round trek....
Distance trekked 146 kilometres..(hut to hut ) not including back tracking to pick up shae.(GPS recording)
Pic shows Mary climbing on Mistletoe with Marys friends horse Rosie her pack horse for this trek on day one....
What an ADVENTURE (in capitals ) we had on this trek....I said to Mary after the first few days with everyday things happening to our suprise or out of our control when is it all going to smooth out..?
Mary and I agreed to initially meet at the Fowler hut for the start of this 9 day trek into the heart and then into the remote corners of the St James Conservation Park trekking basically a large loop thru the mountains and valleys returning to this start point..
This trek needed careful planning and preparation as we were heading into very remote country, which not too many horse folk have ridden thru before, but before we even got started Marys horse had slipped a shoe on her ride up to the Fowler Hut from Hanmer, so it was emptying one of my hard pannier boxes to gain my horse shoeing bag, then finding a shoe near to the foot size, trimming her horses foot and nailing on a new shoe.... Great... all done and looking good..
What an ADVENTURE (in capitals ) we had on this trek....I said to Mary after the first few days with everyday things happening to our suprise or out of our control when is it all going to smooth out..?
Mary and I agreed to initially meet at the Fowler hut for the start of this 9 day trek into the heart and then into the remote corners of the St James Conservation Park trekking basically a large loop thru the mountains and valleys returning to this start point..
This trek needed careful planning and preparation as we were heading into very remote country, which not too many horse folk have ridden thru before, but before we even got started Marys horse had slipped a shoe on her ride up to the Fowler Hut from Hanmer, so it was emptying one of my hard pannier boxes to gain my horse shoeing bag, then finding a shoe near to the foot size, trimming her horses foot and nailing on a new shoe.... Great... all done and looking good..
Meet "Hobbit"... a Man who seems to be hiding from Society..
Arriving at the Fowler Hut Hobbit seemed to have taken up residence in the hut for a while... A colourful chap who was very interested in our horse travels and especially Bailey and his pack gear... I am not sure where or when he was headed in any one direction, but word has it that Hobbit was down in Hanmer a week or so earlier trying to sell pony rides for one dollar in the centre of town..all good..(smilies)
He had a small 13 hand Kaimanaiwa young colt as his pack horse that he packed and lead on his mountain journeys..... an interesting Character...!
Update..Hobbit was stopped at the Rainbow station, riding his little skinny 13 hand horse with all his load in the horse as well... The horse had no shoes on and was lame..
Not good enough Hobbit......!
He had a small 13 hand Kaimanaiwa young colt as his pack horse that he packed and lead on his mountain journeys..... an interesting Character...!
Update..Hobbit was stopped at the Rainbow station, riding his little skinny 13 hand horse with all his load in the horse as well... The horse had no shoes on and was lame..
Not good enough Hobbit......!
Over the Fowler Pass with no issues and heading towards the StanleyVale Hut..
Mary is another frequent visitor to these parts and as a result her horse knows where he is going and steps on the gas at a fast pace towards the hut..lol
Following down the Stanley River trail......
Next morning, again in perfect cloudless warm skies, we left the StanleyVale Hut and headed off down this trail for an easy 3.5 hours ride to the Pools Hut on the other side of the Waiau River..
The Stanley Gates...
On previous treks I have posted photos of this beautiful River gorge so in this only posted a couple more pics..
The trail climbs and decends as we make our way along the river..
The trail climbs and decends as we make our way along the river..
Overlooking the Waiau River...
On the down river side of the Stanley Gates Gorge, we climbed up onto a high flat terrace and rode along it for around 2 kilometres towards the Waiau River , then down this cutting, crossed the bouldery Waiau to be confronted with the first of this treks overgrown tracks heading back up onto the west side terrace, so it was out with the chainsaw and track clearing, before resuming our ride out to the Pools hut, our next overnight destination...
The Pools Hut.........
Its probably the worst kept secret, but rumour has it that this hut is soon to be replaced by a new hut further north on the Waiau pack trail to be located on the north side tucked up under the hill beside Camping Stream..
Mary and I were only a very short distance from arriving at the hut with me in front, and because we were so close Mary took her feet out of the stirups and was relaxing on her horse, when a mountain biker came hurtling down the trail behind her and pulled on his brakes which squeeled, causing Marys horse to take fright and jumped forward, and in turn Mary toppled off the back onto the ground hurting her wrist...
We bandaged it up and no further damage occured... I wish bikers would call out when they come upon horseriders as this is the one thing that often startles horses..
When we arrived here the hut was swarming with wasp activity, so I elected to unload my gear and leave it a short distance from the hut so we didnt tangle with the little critters..
They had taken up residency in the ceiling cavity of the hut, but as the evening arrived they were happy to leave us alone and largely disapeared into their nest...
This hut has no horse paddock, so its on the leg tie and high lined at night, although there are no substancial trees to tie the high line to so just tied one end to the hut roof frame and the other end out to a large matagouri bush...
An unexpected interesting horseman arrives.................
It was around 3pm in the afternoon when this traveller passed by the hut....
Meet Peter Langford............. the man riding from Bluff to Cape Regina, on a charity ride for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service...
He was heading for the Ada Homestead as his tonights overnight stop but we managed to pursade him to stop and spend the night with us...
Another interesting fellow rider..... born of English Decent, and having a speaking tongue of a mix of Pommie and Kiwi accents... was rather amusing to listen to his
terminalogy of place names and things along his journey..
He loved a good joke and was quick to reply to my teasing him about pronouncing kiwi words with his mix of accents..
What an interesting journey he has been on to date, with one or two bum steers along the mountain trails...... One in particular, someone giving him a bum steer from Lake Coleridge, up the Harper/ Avoca rivers and taking two horse up the very very rough area and over the Cass Saddle, with him telling a tale of bush bashing to the Cass saddle to find just on the other side the trail decends a set of steps cut into a rock face of some 3 metre drop, and him telling us of unloading his pack and riding horse and encouraging them both to leap over this share drop...
Both horses made it unharmed, him then loading the gear back on and proceding his bush bash down to Grassmere Station.....WOOOOOOOOOOOW...... that is one piece of rough mountain trail and I think he would take the prize for the first person to take a horse over that saddle and survive... he said he pulled into Grassmere Station well after dark and didnt want to disturb anyone so just turned his horses loose behind a gate, and slept under his raincoat under a pine hedge row.. he said this sleeping style was common along his trail..
Another quick story he told,of was crossing the mighty Rakaia river out opposite Manuka Point Station to almost loose his riding horse in quicksand...
Pete was asking questions regarding security of horses where no horse paddock was available around huts and learnt about high lining his horses from us.... He is hoping now that with this aid he wont be needing to walk back kilometres to catch up with his horses that got loose during the night and headed back the way they came from that day..
Twice it happened to him, both times it was an all day walk back to the last closed gate he went thru that day..
Take a look at his website of his travels to date, for pictures of the two above incidences and other adventures at www.freewitheveryhorse.com
Anyway on with our own travels...
We were all sitting outside the Pools hut enjoying a yarn when three young men came hurrying up to the hut asking us if we had seen three lady horse riders who had been dropped off up at the Maling Pass area around 10am and were to meet up away down by Charlies saddle around 1pm but hadnt shown up..
I asked the guys if the ladies had a map, to the reply, yes they did and someone had told them that they could ride horses down the east side of the Waiau all the way to Charlies saddle....
This is not true.......... even the St James Brochure says to ride the west side...
It was 6 pm when the three guys arrived at the hut and I knew it would be dark by 8.30pm, so said I would saddle Shae and go look for them.. Pete said he would come as well...Just lucky for all them their party had a two way radio each, but with rising ground neither had been able to communicate, so I took the guys radio, and we made a fast ride for miles up the Waiau Pack track all the way to saddle spur, and was half way up this hill, when I tried to contact the ladies..
Success.... being high up on the hillI managed to communicate with them but they were lost and somewhere in the deep gorge which is around 8 kilometres in length and in no way could I get down the 400 metre drop off the terrace into the bottom of the gorge to look for them..
The ladies said they had been riding in there for quite a while and had one rider with a broken nose as a result of her horse walking over her as she tripped , leading it over rough riverbed, and also two of the horses had sore feet and were also being led..
I knew we didnt have much time as it was well after 7pm, when we reached saddle spur, but got a bit of a break thru when the lady on the other phone said they were standing in a sunny spot in the gorge..
I could see well down the area from up on the hill, and there looked to be only two places left in sunshine as the sun was going down, so took a punt,..... that they said they had been in the gorge for a long time, so Pete and I rode back down the hill and onto the terrace and bush bashed our way out to the Waiau some kilometre away and looked over the side at the second of two sunshine areas and hit the jackpot... away down some 400 metres drop into the river floor were three horses and riders..
With the help of the radio I was able to guide them where to cross the river onto my side and was also able to look ahead and guide them thru the scrub down there..
We worked along for another 40 odd mins until I was able to direct them up thru the scrub onto a next higher terrace and pick up a stock track thru further scrub heading towards the one and only cutting that stock used to use to get out of the area.. they made it up and I rode around the various gullies till we met up, then guided them back to the pools hut arriving around 8.15pm..
The guys wanted to then head back to their camp in darkening time but they said they knew the way for the further 45 odd minutes back..... A good result.... as the ladies were heading into a narrow area of the gorge and wouldnt have had day light much further if we hadnt have found them..
"O" the adventures of horse trekking...lol
Foot note......
Over the past two trekking seasons, there have been quite a number of horse riding folks who venture into this park under prepared.. both with gear they travel with, and having little idea of where they are heading...
This park is a remote, big area, and let me tell you that its lovely to ride on nice warm calm days but this area can quickly change to experience very cold wet weather
This example above of three ladies with light clothes, unshod horses and only a general description brochure on St James as their map got lost late in the afternoon in a deep gorge, they had no idea that a little way further on the gorge narrows up to wall to wall river water and even in summer around a metre deep.. so their choices would be....... turn back or risk riding in this bouldery river gorge for the remaining distance... its nuts......they only had around one further hour of daylight then would have had to contend with a night out in there..... Lucky.. this time..
Another party of riders arrived at Scotties hut hoping to do a day ride to Lake Tennyson and back to Scotties.... They intended leaving most of their gear at the hut...
Never never do this.... take your gear with you.... as this case. its a two day ride from here to lake Tennyson and two days back...Its a 5 to 6 hour ride from Scotties just to StanleyVale Hut and thats only half way there.. be sensible.... allow for weather to change.. take provision for an unexpected overnight out in the open.... shoe your horse,.... plan your rides better as sooner or later if you dont, it will come around and bite you in the behind..!
A good riding friend was telling me of a hunter using a small horse as a packhorse arrived on the west side of the Waiau River in flood and needed to get across said river but his little horse (quite rightly ) refused to enter the river,....... with this mans growing frustrations he took out a knife and stabbed this little horse in the shoulder...
My friend said he unsaddled the horse and walked down and across the swing bridge and back along the east side to where my friend was and in passing indicated he was going to get a long rope and his landcruiser and pull this horse across..
This behaviour as everyone in a sane mind would agree is down right cruel... He would drown that horse if he tried to physically pull it across..
My friend was saying this man has been back in St James again recently with this same little pack horse.. honestly there is an element of horse owners who should sell their horse and buy a push bike..
Meet Peter Langford............. the man riding from Bluff to Cape Regina, on a charity ride for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service...
He was heading for the Ada Homestead as his tonights overnight stop but we managed to pursade him to stop and spend the night with us...
Another interesting fellow rider..... born of English Decent, and having a speaking tongue of a mix of Pommie and Kiwi accents... was rather amusing to listen to his
terminalogy of place names and things along his journey..
He loved a good joke and was quick to reply to my teasing him about pronouncing kiwi words with his mix of accents..
What an interesting journey he has been on to date, with one or two bum steers along the mountain trails...... One in particular, someone giving him a bum steer from Lake Coleridge, up the Harper/ Avoca rivers and taking two horse up the very very rough area and over the Cass Saddle, with him telling a tale of bush bashing to the Cass saddle to find just on the other side the trail decends a set of steps cut into a rock face of some 3 metre drop, and him telling us of unloading his pack and riding horse and encouraging them both to leap over this share drop...
Both horses made it unharmed, him then loading the gear back on and proceding his bush bash down to Grassmere Station.....WOOOOOOOOOOOW...... that is one piece of rough mountain trail and I think he would take the prize for the first person to take a horse over that saddle and survive... he said he pulled into Grassmere Station well after dark and didnt want to disturb anyone so just turned his horses loose behind a gate, and slept under his raincoat under a pine hedge row.. he said this sleeping style was common along his trail..
Another quick story he told,of was crossing the mighty Rakaia river out opposite Manuka Point Station to almost loose his riding horse in quicksand...
Pete was asking questions regarding security of horses where no horse paddock was available around huts and learnt about high lining his horses from us.... He is hoping now that with this aid he wont be needing to walk back kilometres to catch up with his horses that got loose during the night and headed back the way they came from that day..
Twice it happened to him, both times it was an all day walk back to the last closed gate he went thru that day..
Take a look at his website of his travels to date, for pictures of the two above incidences and other adventures at www.freewitheveryhorse.com
Anyway on with our own travels...
We were all sitting outside the Pools hut enjoying a yarn when three young men came hurrying up to the hut asking us if we had seen three lady horse riders who had been dropped off up at the Maling Pass area around 10am and were to meet up away down by Charlies saddle around 1pm but hadnt shown up..
I asked the guys if the ladies had a map, to the reply, yes they did and someone had told them that they could ride horses down the east side of the Waiau all the way to Charlies saddle....
This is not true.......... even the St James Brochure says to ride the west side...
It was 6 pm when the three guys arrived at the hut and I knew it would be dark by 8.30pm, so said I would saddle Shae and go look for them.. Pete said he would come as well...Just lucky for all them their party had a two way radio each, but with rising ground neither had been able to communicate, so I took the guys radio, and we made a fast ride for miles up the Waiau Pack track all the way to saddle spur, and was half way up this hill, when I tried to contact the ladies..
Success.... being high up on the hillI managed to communicate with them but they were lost and somewhere in the deep gorge which is around 8 kilometres in length and in no way could I get down the 400 metre drop off the terrace into the bottom of the gorge to look for them..
The ladies said they had been riding in there for quite a while and had one rider with a broken nose as a result of her horse walking over her as she tripped , leading it over rough riverbed, and also two of the horses had sore feet and were also being led..
I knew we didnt have much time as it was well after 7pm, when we reached saddle spur, but got a bit of a break thru when the lady on the other phone said they were standing in a sunny spot in the gorge..
I could see well down the area from up on the hill, and there looked to be only two places left in sunshine as the sun was going down, so took a punt,..... that they said they had been in the gorge for a long time, so Pete and I rode back down the hill and onto the terrace and bush bashed our way out to the Waiau some kilometre away and looked over the side at the second of two sunshine areas and hit the jackpot... away down some 400 metres drop into the river floor were three horses and riders..
With the help of the radio I was able to guide them where to cross the river onto my side and was also able to look ahead and guide them thru the scrub down there..
We worked along for another 40 odd mins until I was able to direct them up thru the scrub onto a next higher terrace and pick up a stock track thru further scrub heading towards the one and only cutting that stock used to use to get out of the area.. they made it up and I rode around the various gullies till we met up, then guided them back to the pools hut arriving around 8.15pm..
The guys wanted to then head back to their camp in darkening time but they said they knew the way for the further 45 odd minutes back..... A good result.... as the ladies were heading into a narrow area of the gorge and wouldnt have had day light much further if we hadnt have found them..
"O" the adventures of horse trekking...lol
Foot note......
Over the past two trekking seasons, there have been quite a number of horse riding folks who venture into this park under prepared.. both with gear they travel with, and having little idea of where they are heading...
This park is a remote, big area, and let me tell you that its lovely to ride on nice warm calm days but this area can quickly change to experience very cold wet weather
This example above of three ladies with light clothes, unshod horses and only a general description brochure on St James as their map got lost late in the afternoon in a deep gorge, they had no idea that a little way further on the gorge narrows up to wall to wall river water and even in summer around a metre deep.. so their choices would be....... turn back or risk riding in this bouldery river gorge for the remaining distance... its nuts......they only had around one further hour of daylight then would have had to contend with a night out in there..... Lucky.. this time..
Another party of riders arrived at Scotties hut hoping to do a day ride to Lake Tennyson and back to Scotties.... They intended leaving most of their gear at the hut...
Never never do this.... take your gear with you.... as this case. its a two day ride from here to lake Tennyson and two days back...Its a 5 to 6 hour ride from Scotties just to StanleyVale Hut and thats only half way there.. be sensible.... allow for weather to change.. take provision for an unexpected overnight out in the open.... shoe your horse,.... plan your rides better as sooner or later if you dont, it will come around and bite you in the behind..!
A good riding friend was telling me of a hunter using a small horse as a packhorse arrived on the west side of the Waiau River in flood and needed to get across said river but his little horse (quite rightly ) refused to enter the river,....... with this mans growing frustrations he took out a knife and stabbed this little horse in the shoulder...
My friend said he unsaddled the horse and walked down and across the swing bridge and back along the east side to where my friend was and in passing indicated he was going to get a long rope and his landcruiser and pull this horse across..
This behaviour as everyone in a sane mind would agree is down right cruel... He would drown that horse if he tried to physically pull it across..
My friend was saying this man has been back in St James again recently with this same little pack horse.. honestly there is an element of horse owners who should sell their horse and buy a push bike..
Heading North on the Waiau Pack track..........
Next morning after a shared cup of Petes "Cowboy" coffee he makes and some breakfast, we all packed our various horses etc and set off north along the Waiau pack track we had ridden in haste last evening..
Around 4 or 5 kilometres out, Pete stopped us as one of his horses strap on boots was causing a problem, so he fixed that and suddenly remembered he had left his ipod back at the hut, so we said our good byes and continued on while he rode back..
Both Mary and I enjoyed our brief time talking to Pete... It takes guts to do what he is doing all in unfamiliar country...!
Around 4 or 5 kilometres out, Pete stopped us as one of his horses strap on boots was causing a problem, so he fixed that and suddenly remembered he had left his ipod back at the hut, so we said our good byes and continued on while he rode back..
Both Mary and I enjoyed our brief time talking to Pete... It takes guts to do what he is doing all in unfamiliar country...!
Pete with his pack horse rig...
Almost cresting Saddle Spur .......
Almost on the ridge of Saddle Spur with stunning views north out to the Ada Homestead in the far trees, and also in the middle of this photo the confuce of the Henry and Waiau rivers...
Saddle Spur Ridge....
I was over this pack track earlier this season in a strong north west wind.. let me tell you it knows how to blow up here when it wants too...lol
I said to Mary.... whats that over there on its own beside that bush..?
You will never guess what sort of "can of worms" (so to speak ) I opened with the above picture question....!
This is what was under that above bush.....
One lone Colt foal about 3 weeks old..........
He called out with such a tiny naaaaaaa and started following Mary and I along the trail
I said keep a look out Mary, his mum wont be far away and be prepared to get off your horse in a hurry if the mob approach..... but nothing..... he continued to naaaaa out but no mum...
And he kept following us....infact he followed us all the way up to the new Anne Hut where just around the corner about 50 metres away was the main mob of mares and foals, so I pushed this little tacker out in front and very quietly Mary and I withdrew, he called out to us but no wild mare came to collect her son, instead the mob turned and galloped further up the valley,,
He called out with such a tiny naaaaaaa and started following Mary and I along the trail
I said keep a look out Mary, his mum wont be far away and be prepared to get off your horse in a hurry if the mob approach..... but nothing..... he continued to naaaaa out but no mum...
And he kept following us....infact he followed us all the way up to the new Anne Hut where just around the corner about 50 metres away was the main mob of mares and foals, so I pushed this little tacker out in front and very quietly Mary and I withdrew, he called out to us but no wild mare came to collect her son, instead the mob turned and galloped further up the valley,,
The mob of mares and foals stopped on the other side of this Anne Hut....
Again we pushed him out front and withdrew and waited for quite a long time.. the mares came back somewhat but still no takers..
I knew this was one of the wild horses grazing areas and today Mary and I intended to tent camp only one further kilometre up river so with still no takers we all headed up to the old Anne hut site and our tent camp which still has a fence around it so put our horses inside the fence and left the foal outside...
Mary was sure the mares would come pick him up in the night...... but next morning bright and early we heard that familiar little wee "naaaa" from the little tacker still on the outside of the fence....darn......
In light of the situation we were faced with,we decided to have an unexpected day off and stayed in camp hoping something would give and the foal find his mum, but all day, and all that night....... he stayed...... darn again...
Next day we didnt want to move on as we were heading into the remote mountains and no way would the little guy handle things. so we put him in the paddock with Rosie the mare, and Mary and I went for a day ride up the beautiful Anne River..
I knew this was one of the wild horses grazing areas and today Mary and I intended to tent camp only one further kilometre up river so with still no takers we all headed up to the old Anne hut site and our tent camp which still has a fence around it so put our horses inside the fence and left the foal outside...
Mary was sure the mares would come pick him up in the night...... but next morning bright and early we heard that familiar little wee "naaaa" from the little tacker still on the outside of the fence....darn......
In light of the situation we were faced with,we decided to have an unexpected day off and stayed in camp hoping something would give and the foal find his mum, but all day, and all that night....... he stayed...... darn again...
Next day we didnt want to move on as we were heading into the remote mountains and no way would the little guy handle things. so we put him in the paddock with Rosie the mare, and Mary and I went for a day ride up the beautiful Anne River..
Our tent camp site..... The old Anne hut site..!
The beautiful Anne river valley....
Flooding earlier in the season saw several areas of the trail washed out so in parts had to make our own trail..
Further up around the bend in the river in this photo, the trail starts to climb a rise, and here for horse folk, its a no go as up on the rise is an extensive swamp, so Mary and I elected to follow the rough narrow river gorge up it to by pass the swamp area..
Further up around the bend in the river in this photo, the trail starts to climb a rise, and here for horse folk, its a no go as up on the rise is an extensive swamp, so Mary and I elected to follow the rough narrow river gorge up it to by pass the swamp area..
Rough riding the little Anne Gorge............
This area is a stretch of around 2 kilometres in length and with low river flows its not too bad to navigate..
Half way up the Anne river valley.........
We stopped for a bite to eat for horse and human...lol
Approaching the head of the Anne River...
Just stunning scenery as we rode along towards the low Anne saddle a short distance from here..
As the sign says.... the Anne saddle summit...
This is where we turned around and headed back to camp.. a stunning days ride..
With the little tacker still in our presence, Mary said she would abort the rest of the trip and take the tacker back down to the Ada to retry to reunite his mum, leaving me to venture forth on my own, back over the todays trail and down into the head of the boyle River..
With the little tacker still in our presence, Mary said she would abort the rest of the trip and take the tacker back down to the Ada to retry to reunite his mum, leaving me to venture forth on my own, back over the todays trail and down into the head of the boyle River..
The head of the Boyle River............
This was one hell of an area to negotiate.. we were around 30 metres above the river as we came off this end of the Anne saddle so going down to the river was out.. next we had a lot of swamp on the trail ahead of us.... decisions decisions,, I elected to try the swamp as the easier of my two forward options..
I got off Shae and started to lead him thru the first part, but on the narrow ledge, he slipped..... and over the edge he crashed........... down thru regenerated young bush and onto the riverbed edge some 25 metres below... my heart was in my mouth.... Bailey became agitated with the disappearance of his mate, but managed to halt his progress..
Looking over the side, Shae stood up,, shock himself off and started calling out to Bailey,,,
Luck upon luck, he fell down in swampy ground that cushioned his fall, combined with all my gear on his back saved any damage to him or the saddle gear,,, slightly covered in mud and brush was all that happened...
I elected to lead Bailey very slowly over two narrow board walks on the trail and he managed to stay on them, then reuniting him with Shae a bit further down finally in the river bed.....
I got off Shae and started to lead him thru the first part, but on the narrow ledge, he slipped..... and over the edge he crashed........... down thru regenerated young bush and onto the riverbed edge some 25 metres below... my heart was in my mouth.... Bailey became agitated with the disappearance of his mate, but managed to halt his progress..
Looking over the side, Shae stood up,, shock himself off and started calling out to Bailey,,,
Luck upon luck, he fell down in swampy ground that cushioned his fall, combined with all my gear on his back saved any damage to him or the saddle gear,,, slightly covered in mud and brush was all that happened...
I elected to lead Bailey very slowly over two narrow board walks on the trail and he managed to stay on them, then reuniting him with Shae a bit further down finally in the river bed.....
Upper Boyle River.......
More swamp ahead, so forced into the rough riverbed a lot of the time in this upper area to work our way down river.....
Half way down the Boyle river valley........
I I have to say I have wanted to ride this river valley for a long long time, and now that I have finally achieved it I was a little disappointed with the scenery, in contrast with the likes of the Anne, the Ada or even the Stanley river valleys....
The Rokeby hut............
Picture this.... arrived here, hopped off Shae with my lunch bag, selected a spot to sit with a magic view... opened the lunch bag, sliced up the mornings fresh made bread and was about to put some jam on the top when I was beseiged a by serious sandfly invasion... I mean hundreds all over me and buzzing around for their own lunch.... me..!
So I thought.. bugger this... Shae..... we are leaving..... eating my sandwich as i climbed back on Shae.... lovely spot for a camera snap.. not keen to stay long..lol
So I thought.. bugger this... Shae..... we are leaving..... eating my sandwich as i climbed back on Shae.... lovely spot for a camera snap.. not keen to stay long..lol
The Boyle Flats Hut....
Quite undulating and swampy ground to negotiate.....
My next problem on this trail was I couldnt use the walking track to get down thru the lower gorge firstly because flooding earlier had changed the walking trail making it too narrow to get thru on a horse, also there are two streams enroute with steep decents with steps onto narrow walking bridges and steep accents up steps back out, so my only other option was to tackle ( to my knowledge unridden before ) the rough narrow riverbed gorge.... so here goes...!
My next problem on this trail was I couldnt use the walking track to get down thru the lower gorge firstly because flooding earlier had changed the walking trail making it too narrow to get thru on a horse, also there are two streams enroute with steep decents with steps onto narrow walking bridges and steep accents up steps back out, so my only other option was to tackle ( to my knowledge unridden before ) the rough narrow riverbed gorge.... so here goes...!
Entering the narrow rough lower gorge ......
This proved to be the most taxing and challenging section of the entire trip.. even worse than the dense broom to be encountered in a couple days time further down the trail..
I had to negotiate around 2.5 kilometres of this sort of rock riding..
I had to negotiate around 2.5 kilometres of this sort of rock riding..
The going was slow and challenging....
Using my GPS to tell me how far we were thru here, it told me around half way thru when we started to encounter solid rock areas... I didnt have much time to take photos in here, but just around the corner from here was solid rock on both sides and a narrow flow of all the river water over a small waterfall of around a metre high and plunging into a little pool on the down side, so thought.. I wonder how far up the side is the walking track..
I got off Shae and bush bashed my way up to find the track about 5 metres above the river bed, so out with the chainsaw and cut a track up onto it.....
The funiest thing then happened.. I took the reins off shae and smacked him on the bum and he climbed up and onto the track, but Bailey shot straight ahead, complete with full pack load in between the two rocks in the river and plunged down into the pool on the other side.......shi.....t..... next he was calling out for shae... so armed with the saw again went down stream from Baileys waterfall and had to cut another track back down into the river again for shae..... Trekking can be such fun....... NOT..!
Looking at the GPS again we still had a further one kilometre to go, and saw the walking track was only a metre above the riverbed, so thought, its time to hit the easy walking trail and out of here............. WRONG>>>>>
We all climbed onto the walking trail and I set off happliy for a hundred metres or so, but encountered further swamp... I went thru it, but the trail started to climb up over a narrow area above a washout, to get to the top leading shae to find at the top, steps cut into the clay on the other side.. no way would we get down there, but then..how do I turn two horses around at the top of this very narrow trail... slowly slowly turned shae around,,, then Bailey... and led Bailey back down to a safer area, but didnt want to go back thru the swampy area again.. so out with the chain saw again, and cut another track down the 5 odd metres back into the riverbed, then slowly led Bailey down the bank and into the river, turned him loose there, walked back up to get Shae, to find Bailey running back straight up the bank.... and it was steep.. fully loaded and back onto the track again..... dam........... so had to re led him back down again, tie him up and then bring Shae down.....
I can tell you, by the time we got thru this section I had had enough...lol
Foot note...
If you... find yourself, like me faced with having to turn your horse around on the trail that is very narrow, such as above at the top of the washout, it is important that the horse is asked firstly to do so shifting one foot at a time...do this very slowly.... and that the horse is ALWAYS turned in the direction so its head is on the outside, or the open side as opposed to turning him with his head into the hillside....
He needs to be able to see that the trail is narrow and adjust his turn accordingly.....
I got off Shae and bush bashed my way up to find the track about 5 metres above the river bed, so out with the chainsaw and cut a track up onto it.....
The funiest thing then happened.. I took the reins off shae and smacked him on the bum and he climbed up and onto the track, but Bailey shot straight ahead, complete with full pack load in between the two rocks in the river and plunged down into the pool on the other side.......shi.....t..... next he was calling out for shae... so armed with the saw again went down stream from Baileys waterfall and had to cut another track back down into the river again for shae..... Trekking can be such fun....... NOT..!
Looking at the GPS again we still had a further one kilometre to go, and saw the walking track was only a metre above the riverbed, so thought, its time to hit the easy walking trail and out of here............. WRONG>>>>>
We all climbed onto the walking trail and I set off happliy for a hundred metres or so, but encountered further swamp... I went thru it, but the trail started to climb up over a narrow area above a washout, to get to the top leading shae to find at the top, steps cut into the clay on the other side.. no way would we get down there, but then..how do I turn two horses around at the top of this very narrow trail... slowly slowly turned shae around,,, then Bailey... and led Bailey back down to a safer area, but didnt want to go back thru the swampy area again.. so out with the chain saw again, and cut another track down the 5 odd metres back into the riverbed, then slowly led Bailey down the bank and into the river, turned him loose there, walked back up to get Shae, to find Bailey running back straight up the bank.... and it was steep.. fully loaded and back onto the track again..... dam........... so had to re led him back down again, tie him up and then bring Shae down.....
I can tell you, by the time we got thru this section I had had enough...lol
Foot note...
If you... find yourself, like me faced with having to turn your horse around on the trail that is very narrow, such as above at the top of the washout, it is important that the horse is asked firstly to do so shifting one foot at a time...do this very slowly.... and that the horse is ALWAYS turned in the direction so its head is on the outside, or the open side as opposed to turning him with his head into the hillside....
He needs to be able to see that the trail is narrow and adjust his turn accordingly.....
Finally we saw the walk wire bridge..... We had made it...........!
I cant tell you enough how happy I was to round the final corner in the river to see this bridge..........
Further down the river again became rough to negotiate.........!
The GPS was showing that I was close to my next overnight Hut... The Magdalen Hut, and sure enough around another couple of corners there it was up in the bush, but................a school party of many many kids had beaten me to it.. there were tents like mushrooms all over the enclousure around the hut.... Darn... I had thought I was going to put the horse inside the hut paddock and turn them loose, but no way...
Where next I thought.......???
I had permission to enter GlenHope Station for the Magdalen Valley section, so thought I may as well ride on up to the station outpost building some 2 or 3 kilometres further on, and if anyone was there ask if I could bed down even in one of the sheds,,, anywhere, I wasnt fussy...
Where next I thought.......???
I had permission to enter GlenHope Station for the Magdalen Valley section, so thought I may as well ride on up to the station outpost building some 2 or 3 kilometres further on, and if anyone was there ask if I could bed down even in one of the sheds,,, anywhere, I wasnt fussy...
The Glen Hope Station Outpost Hut..........
This is the St Andrew Hut, which was all locked up but had a nice covered verandah, so this was my motel for the night.. I closed the front gate as I rode in and after undressing the two boys turned them loose in around a hundred acre paddock surrounding the outpost..
I made dinner and sat up on here and could see for miles both up and down the valley.... The evening was still and warm as the sun slowly sank behind the mountains.... total peace after todays hard ride down to here...
I made dinner and sat up on here and could see for miles both up and down the valley.... The evening was still and warm as the sun slowly sank behind the mountains.... total peace after todays hard ride down to here...
Evening views overlooking the beautiful Magdalen Valley.........
The Magdalen Valley.............
This station was clean of weed, brush and gorse.. a real credit to the owners,, the valley is vast and took around an hour and a half to ride to the top boundary gate...
Half way down the valley..........
Just around behind the right side hill, a cold clear water spring hard against the hill starts the steyning stream off.... this place is gorgous....!
The Lower Magdalen Valley..........
Almost just thru the boundary gate the landscape changes dramatically... and wasps..... this country down here is serious wasp country... Shae was hungary, but each time we stopped within a couple of minutes wasps arrived and were attracted to the horses.... I have experienced a horse being stung before and its not a pretty sight, so kept them moving with quick stops every ten mins or so...
The remote Steyning Hut............
Our bed for the night... this remote hut doesnt get many visitors according to the hut log book...
The native bird life was amazing, bell birds singing all around at this peaceful spot.. loved my stay here....
The native bird life was amazing, bell birds singing all around at this peaceful spot.. loved my stay here....
Trail problems of a different kind.............
After leaving the Steyning Hut, the track deteriated extensively, with the closer I got back to the Waiau River the more dense the broom.. this used to be a vehicle track, but much of it is disappearing under thick broom..
The Tin Jug Hut.............
This hut has been replaced from the original one which was initially called the Stone Jug Hut...
Surrounded in broom, it is'nt the most scenic of spots....
Surrounded in broom, it is'nt the most scenic of spots....
This is the view of the trail.............
High dense scrub... this area would be so easy to get bush wacked,,,(lost )...
The trail is very hard to see where it went as its totally overgrown... I stopped and got my GPS going.. this aid is invaluble in this sort of country.. I followed its direction where the vehicle track was marked on its map and at times was pushing thru scrub way over my head on Shae and thinking, I hope we have a good result here..
On the GPS, I turned on the tracker and narrowed up the field on screen to 1; 50 metres, so in the event of becoming bush wacked I could turn around and follow the track created onscreen back out again.. the broom was that dense, and this section was some 2.5 to 3 kilometres in length to reach the Waiau River again....
A bit further on we came to a couple of small clearings and had trouble seeing where the trail continued around the edges but again thanks to the GPS, found our way..
Further on someone has cut back some of the thicker Manuka gaining access along the trail but still this could be easily missed with the result of being bush wacked..
The trail is very hard to see where it went as its totally overgrown... I stopped and got my GPS going.. this aid is invaluble in this sort of country.. I followed its direction where the vehicle track was marked on its map and at times was pushing thru scrub way over my head on Shae and thinking, I hope we have a good result here..
On the GPS, I turned on the tracker and narrowed up the field on screen to 1; 50 metres, so in the event of becoming bush wacked I could turn around and follow the track created onscreen back out again.. the broom was that dense, and this section was some 2.5 to 3 kilometres in length to reach the Waiau River again....
A bit further on we came to a couple of small clearings and had trouble seeing where the trail continued around the edges but again thanks to the GPS, found our way..
Further on someone has cut back some of the thicker Manuka gaining access along the trail but still this could be easily missed with the result of being bush wacked..
Further on... the scrub gives way to dense Manuka trees....
Thanks to who ever cut this trail it was easier going,.I got off shae and led Bailey thru here as he was charging at scrub earlier and hitting this stuff it wouldnt yeild to his antics..
Finally we emerged back into the Waiau River......
I thought the worst was over but this riverbed in a lot of areas is very rough with large boulders to negotiate...
We had to stay in this river bed for some 3 or 4 kilometres until was able to get back past charlies saddle area and up onto the terraces... this section of river was terrible to traverse....
We had to stay in this river bed for some 3 or 4 kilometres until was able to get back past charlies saddle area and up onto the terraces... this section of river was terrible to traverse....
Heading for Charlies Saddle in clean easy country....
The middle right in the above photo was the valley I had come down thru today and from the bottom of that valley to opposite right here was all in rough bouldery riverbed travel...
I was glad to have all that behind me...
I was glad to have all that behind me...
Scotties Hut..........
Picture shows a dejected horseman, knowing his horse is in a bad way, wondering how to get him out safely to a vet..!
After all that the boys and I had been thru over the previous week and a bit, disaster struck us...........
We arrived here at Scotties to find three women riders with three horses in the one and only hut paddock, and upon unloading and washing the two boys down I asked one of the women if any of their horses were mares..?... yes two were,, I asked were any in season..? no...... I asked do any kick...... ? no..... so put my two in the same paddock and immediately one of the mares rushed up turned around and kicked out collecting Shae on the inside near hind... next he was on three legs.... bugger.. bugger....... I have kicked myself from that moment.......... to today........ for putting them in with that lot...
I disinfected and bandaged his wound and immediately took both them back out but the damage was done...
Next morning the women left, and shae was a cripple... I changed his bandage and stayed the next two days hoping he would come right enough to be able to walk him out then on the morning of the third day, a cool day decided I need to go for help.. I was very reluctant to leave them as they had no water in their paddock but needed to do something..
So left a canvas water bucket in the hut with a note on the bed for anyone passing to please give the boys some water..
So off I went.. and walked the four hours out to the road and then back up the road all the way to The Fowlers hut, to meet Jeff Spiers who is one of the local DOC rangers , who said Mary and her husband Jeff Dalley another DOC ranger, had gone over Fowlers Pass to bring a foal back that had followed Mary all the way out....
That darn Foal again...
They all returned and after telling Mary and Jeff of my dilemma, put the foal and another horse on my float and took them down to Hanmer....
Mary went thru all the right channels in telling the DOC boss what and why, and told the horse herd owners what had happened and why and everyone is happy with the outcome rather than having left a three week old foal out to fend for its self..Foal is doing well and is being bottle fed...
This was not the ideal situation and Mary and I went to length to try and reunite the foal with its mother but the rest of the herd just rejected him..
My next problem was to try and get my lame horse out from the mountains and as quickly as possible to a vets attention..
Mary rang around several folks to try and arrange a 4x4 heavy enough to tow my float all the way into scotties over a rough unformed track, thru rivers and rock areas, and especially on the way out up the steep and rocky Peters Pass ( this pass was the one area I was concerned a vehicle would have trouble pulling the float back out of..)she finally found Alby, an ex high country man who said he would help.. early next morning hooking the float to his vehicle Alby, Mary and I headed back into the mountains all the way into Scotties to find that Shae was in a bad way.. his wound had blown out and was ozzing puss hugely... he couldnt walk at all,,
It took me around ten to fifteen minutes to walk him the 50 metres out of the paddock to the float, loaded all my tack into the vehicle, turned Bailey loose, then started the slow and rough trip for poor shae out..
I stayed in the float and held his head from hitting either the middle post or the wall as the float bounced over boulder after boulder on the way out..
It took Almost all day to get him out, and after thanking Alby and paying him for his effort hooked the float on and headed home..
I called Mike Brown my vet on the way and he met me as soon as i arrived home...
Shae is still on three legs but with a bit of luck will be ok...
Alby, Mary and Jeff..... all three of you are bloody legends.......... I cant thank you enough for all your help in getting Shae safely out and home....
What a trip ,and an adventure this trek has been... some stunning scenery... a lot of hard work by the two boys in negotiating the difficult terrain...
I am very very proud of my two horses, for both of them... their calm in the face of danger at times, their common sense, and just getting on with the job calmly and orderly... Bailey the small pack horse, but with huge guts, determination and tenacity, didnt faulter once.... the majority of the time, loose fully loaded, just left him to pick his own way along the trail..All that bouldery riverbed, swamp..... all that high and tough broom to have to push his wide load thru....STANDARDBRED horses rock.......!
And Shae.... what a horse he has turned out to be... in the difficult terrain, I dont try to steer him, he has huge common sense, and picks his own course thru heavy going, like Bailey, calm and rational... you cant buy this sort of thing.. it comes from time on the trail....At camp, I just turn him loose and he just hangs around.. not once has he tried to take off and head home... he is a totally trustworthy and an easy horse to share our trail adventures with......
Foot notes
This trek route should not be attempted by anyone other than very experienced people and horses....
Mary and I along with the blessing from Doc did this route, to see how feasable it would be to in future time DOC widening the trail to allow horse trekking alongside the walking folks... I think it is feasable... challenging but feasable..
This trail I travelled on should not be attempted in times of anything but low river flows and in serveral places it would have stopped our travel if much more water was flowing....
Its been a few days home now, the vet has been to see Shae twice, and I am happy to inform that he is on the mend....!
After all that the boys and I had been thru over the previous week and a bit, disaster struck us...........
We arrived here at Scotties to find three women riders with three horses in the one and only hut paddock, and upon unloading and washing the two boys down I asked one of the women if any of their horses were mares..?... yes two were,, I asked were any in season..? no...... I asked do any kick...... ? no..... so put my two in the same paddock and immediately one of the mares rushed up turned around and kicked out collecting Shae on the inside near hind... next he was on three legs.... bugger.. bugger....... I have kicked myself from that moment.......... to today........ for putting them in with that lot...
I disinfected and bandaged his wound and immediately took both them back out but the damage was done...
Next morning the women left, and shae was a cripple... I changed his bandage and stayed the next two days hoping he would come right enough to be able to walk him out then on the morning of the third day, a cool day decided I need to go for help.. I was very reluctant to leave them as they had no water in their paddock but needed to do something..
So left a canvas water bucket in the hut with a note on the bed for anyone passing to please give the boys some water..
So off I went.. and walked the four hours out to the road and then back up the road all the way to The Fowlers hut, to meet Jeff Spiers who is one of the local DOC rangers , who said Mary and her husband Jeff Dalley another DOC ranger, had gone over Fowlers Pass to bring a foal back that had followed Mary all the way out....
That darn Foal again...
They all returned and after telling Mary and Jeff of my dilemma, put the foal and another horse on my float and took them down to Hanmer....
Mary went thru all the right channels in telling the DOC boss what and why, and told the horse herd owners what had happened and why and everyone is happy with the outcome rather than having left a three week old foal out to fend for its self..Foal is doing well and is being bottle fed...
This was not the ideal situation and Mary and I went to length to try and reunite the foal with its mother but the rest of the herd just rejected him..
My next problem was to try and get my lame horse out from the mountains and as quickly as possible to a vets attention..
Mary rang around several folks to try and arrange a 4x4 heavy enough to tow my float all the way into scotties over a rough unformed track, thru rivers and rock areas, and especially on the way out up the steep and rocky Peters Pass ( this pass was the one area I was concerned a vehicle would have trouble pulling the float back out of..)she finally found Alby, an ex high country man who said he would help.. early next morning hooking the float to his vehicle Alby, Mary and I headed back into the mountains all the way into Scotties to find that Shae was in a bad way.. his wound had blown out and was ozzing puss hugely... he couldnt walk at all,,
It took me around ten to fifteen minutes to walk him the 50 metres out of the paddock to the float, loaded all my tack into the vehicle, turned Bailey loose, then started the slow and rough trip for poor shae out..
I stayed in the float and held his head from hitting either the middle post or the wall as the float bounced over boulder after boulder on the way out..
It took Almost all day to get him out, and after thanking Alby and paying him for his effort hooked the float on and headed home..
I called Mike Brown my vet on the way and he met me as soon as i arrived home...
Shae is still on three legs but with a bit of luck will be ok...
Alby, Mary and Jeff..... all three of you are bloody legends.......... I cant thank you enough for all your help in getting Shae safely out and home....
What a trip ,and an adventure this trek has been... some stunning scenery... a lot of hard work by the two boys in negotiating the difficult terrain...
I am very very proud of my two horses, for both of them... their calm in the face of danger at times, their common sense, and just getting on with the job calmly and orderly... Bailey the small pack horse, but with huge guts, determination and tenacity, didnt faulter once.... the majority of the time, loose fully loaded, just left him to pick his own way along the trail..All that bouldery riverbed, swamp..... all that high and tough broom to have to push his wide load thru....STANDARDBRED horses rock.......!
And Shae.... what a horse he has turned out to be... in the difficult terrain, I dont try to steer him, he has huge common sense, and picks his own course thru heavy going, like Bailey, calm and rational... you cant buy this sort of thing.. it comes from time on the trail....At camp, I just turn him loose and he just hangs around.. not once has he tried to take off and head home... he is a totally trustworthy and an easy horse to share our trail adventures with......
Foot notes
This trek route should not be attempted by anyone other than very experienced people and horses....
Mary and I along with the blessing from Doc did this route, to see how feasable it would be to in future time DOC widening the trail to allow horse trekking alongside the walking folks... I think it is feasable... challenging but feasable..
This trail I travelled on should not be attempted in times of anything but low river flows and in serveral places it would have stopped our travel if much more water was flowing....
Its been a few days home now, the vet has been to see Shae twice, and I am happy to inform that he is on the mend....!
On the Trail............
The Ashburton Gorge Trek.....
Distance trekked... Approx 44 Kilometres.....
This trek was just a one overnighter, to introduce Gizzy to the next phase in his learning development....
This was also his first longer distance float trip being some two and a quarter hours long and here the photo shows us just arrived at Hakatere Station..
I wanted to get here a bit earlier than the planned meeting time with my riding friend for this trek Vicki, to firstly give my two boys their hard feed and also having time to tack up firstly Shae with the riding saddle and gear and to take my time tacking Gizzy with the pack saddle and for the first time introducing the soft pack panniers to him..
This was also his first longer distance float trip being some two and a quarter hours long and here the photo shows us just arrived at Hakatere Station..
I wanted to get here a bit earlier than the planned meeting time with my riding friend for this trek Vicki, to firstly give my two boys their hard feed and also having time to tack up firstly Shae with the riding saddle and gear and to take my time tacking Gizzy with the pack saddle and for the first time introducing the soft pack panniers to him..
Breakfast for the boys.....
On treks I like to give the boys hard feed an hour or so before heading out on the trail each morning.... a mix of 50 / 50 chaff and oats...
I find they handle the trail a lot better and are more content, not wanting to stop and eat all the time.. it works for me..!
I find they handle the trail a lot better and are more content, not wanting to stop and eat all the time.. it works for me..!
The young man all loaded with his first pack load......
Taking my time tacking him up and introducing the panniers, then the pack cover and finally tying the box hitch rope system to the load Gizzy was totally unphased by all this new stuff...
Lunch time.............
I led Gizzy for the first hour up the trail until we came to a fence and just on the otherside as the photo shows was a nice spot to have lunch...
Trust Shae to try and nick, Vickis horse Buddys patch of grass... next on Shaes list was my lunch, when he spotted me up here eating a sandwiche.. he is like a blow fly around me at lunch times.. I shooo him away and he is back directly and wont move until I give him some..lol
Trust Shae to try and nick, Vickis horse Buddys patch of grass... next on Shaes list was my lunch, when he spotted me up here eating a sandwiche.. he is like a blow fly around me at lunch times.. I shooo him away and he is back directly and wont move until I give him some..lol
First time on the trail "loose".....
I said to Vicki after lunch, we have a fence behind us, how about I turn Gizzy loose and see what he does as we move off on the next section of the trail...
Vicki rode ahead and Gizzy just started to follow, so here we are for the first time as a packhorse loose on the trail...
Nothing seemed to phase him at all, happy and content in his new job..
Vicki rode ahead and Gizzy just started to follow, so here we are for the first time as a packhorse loose on the trail...
Nothing seemed to phase him at all, happy and content in his new job..
An afternoon drink..........
Vicki and I have ridden a lot together over the years and she was today very patient with the time taken introducing Gizzy to his new job..
One of the things Vicki and I like to do when out riding around the local home trails, is where possible stop at a shop and buy an icecream each..
About here and being smart I asked Vicki how far to the nearest Icecream shop is it as I felt like one this hot afternoon...... her reply was.... the nearest one is at the hut.... I said are you sure...(wink).... "yes" she said... (laughing) and they have all of your favourite flavours tooooooo....
Come on Shae, let go.... the icecream shop is only an hour up the trail..lol
One of the things Vicki and I like to do when out riding around the local home trails, is where possible stop at a shop and buy an icecream each..
About here and being smart I asked Vicki how far to the nearest Icecream shop is it as I felt like one this hot afternoon...... her reply was.... the nearest one is at the hut.... I said are you sure...(wink).... "yes" she said... (laughing) and they have all of your favourite flavours tooooooo....
Come on Shae, let go.... the icecream shop is only an hour up the trail..lol
Vickis "Icecream Shop"..... But someone has taken the icecream sign down off the roof.......!
As we neared the hut Vicki said.. look there is your icecream shop........
But I said to her as we rode up to it... look someone has obviously taken the icecream sign down off the roof... and the shop keeper must be out as I looked inside but couldnt see any..... I was so so disapointed.... next Vicki said the shopkeeper must have moved over to Lake Clearwater, so I said.. well tomorrow we need to ride over the hills and see if that was the case..lol...
You know... I think Vicki might have been leading me up the garden path so to speak.. what do you recon..?..(smilies)
But I said to her as we rode up to it... look someone has obviously taken the icecream sign down off the roof... and the shop keeper must be out as I looked inside but couldnt see any..... I was so so disapointed.... next Vicki said the shopkeeper must have moved over to Lake Clearwater, so I said.. well tomorrow we need to ride over the hills and see if that was the case..lol...
You know... I think Vicki might have been leading me up the garden path so to speak.. what do you recon..?..(smilies)
First day done and dusted........
Pic shows Shae and Gizzy loose , along with Buddy enjoying a snack at the end of the days trail...
The ride out to the overnight hut was fairly uneventful apart from one section we rode thru on the trail with high snowgrass tussocks with a lot of cricket insects that had reached the flying stage.. there were hundreds of them and they would fly at you with a loud drooning sound and just stick to all of us.. well the first one that landed on Gizzy, happened to land on his face, giving him a fright.. next he was galloping over the tall tussocks bucking and kicking out as he tried to jettison the unwanted guest.. good thing the eggs werent in the pack load and it was well roped down...lol
The ride out to the overnight hut was fairly uneventful apart from one section we rode thru on the trail with high snowgrass tussocks with a lot of cricket insects that had reached the flying stage.. there were hundreds of them and they would fly at you with a loud drooning sound and just stick to all of us.. well the first one that landed on Gizzy, happened to land on his face, giving him a fright.. next he was galloping over the tall tussocks bucking and kicking out as he tried to jettison the unwanted guest.. good thing the eggs werent in the pack load and it was well roped down...lol
Boundary Stream...........
The stream that flows near the hut..
Relaxing after the days ride.....
Vicki found this rock above the hut that was just the right shape like an arm chair to rest her weary bones after the days ride...
This morning dawned Foggy.........
After yesterday riding up here in hot still weather we decided to get tacked up and going early before the heat of the day got too hot, as today we intended to climb up onto the Dogs Range, ride along it a distance and sidle down the otherside to Mistery Lake and then down and follow the trail out to Lake Clearwater and back to Hakatere
So a nose bag for Shae and Gizzy as I tacked them both...
So a nose bag for Shae and Gizzy as I tacked them both...
I wonder what Gizzy is thinking...?
Working quietly tacking Gizzy, he just stands loose as load him.. not bad for a young man to accept all this new stuff.......
View up the river from near the hut..
The morning fog densified as we started out.....
Where are we.. I cant see a thing...!
As we climbed the track up onto the Dogs Range the fog became more dense.....
Gizzy stopping for a breather on the hill trail.......
Both panniers weighted exactly the same and couldnt work out why his load kept leaning over to one side, until further up the hill I had Gizzy in front of me and noticed that one of the breach harness straps was pulling tighter with each step Gizzy took. I stopped him and checked the straps to find that one side.. the side that the load was leaning down had the buckle hole one hole tighter than the other side. so loosened it to match the otherside and the load balanced..
I buckled the breaching this way this morning as with both sides done to the same hole.. up was too tight and down was too loose, so just let out the one hole on one side.....one never stops learning....!
Good thing we know where we are going...
Almost up on the Dogs range and looking for the turn off from the track to head out across the hillside and find our way down in this dense fog to Mistery Lake, which today it certainly was... a mystery where it was located..lol
This sort of travel condition is where the GPS is a good tool to carry...
This sort of travel condition is where the GPS is a good tool to carry...
Situated up on the side of the Dogs Range is this lake...
Not such a postcard picture today...
I wonder what Vicki is thinking....?
Ten to fifteen metres was our total forward visability here...
The trail continues
This pic says it all.. "which way now.?"... Vicki and Buddy look in opposite directions....!
We came to a fence line which had a nice walkers "stile" to cross it, but nothing for horse travellers to cross.. but for some reason Doc had knocked in direction markers on both sides of the fence here. so we elected to carry on up the hill. but soon the pegs stopped on our side , so had to retrace our steps back down the hill and follow the fence line down until we found a gate to get on the rite side...Good thing we were below the fog line here...!
Overlooking Lake Clearwater from the saddle we just passed over...
Just in front of us was a steep decent down onto the next terrace shown in the photo, but had further problems as the track suddenly started out with markers now on the otherside of the fence down below.. not easy travel for horse folks here..
Following down an old horse Pack track....
Down off the end of this pack track we had further problems with fencelines.. the trail again crosses a fence "stile" for walkers but no provision for horses to cross.. we had to leave the trail and followed this new fence line down looking for a gate, but not a one in sight for miles, finally with the fence line starting to head back up the mountain side we found in the fenceline where "hays wire strainers" were installed to tighten the fence and had to undo each one to create a way across this fence...
Obviously since Doc took over this area, they are still working on making access points for all users but hav'nt completed this area for horse travel access..
Obviously since Doc took over this area, they are still working on making access points for all users but hav'nt completed this area for horse travel access..
Lake Clearwater Village.........
Lake Clearwater.........
Finally..... Lunch time......
Smile Vicki.....
After our well deserved lunch at 2.30pm, we rode the roadside for the ten odd kilometres back to Hakatere Station and the completion of Gizzys first trek as our pack horse...
Vicki, thank you for your patience in waiting the extra time to tack up two horses and for helping look after Gizzy on this outing...
Pity there not an icecream shop anywhere to be seen here at Lake Clearwater either....! (smilies)
After our well deserved lunch at 2.30pm, we rode the roadside for the ten odd kilometres back to Hakatere Station and the completion of Gizzys first trek as our pack horse...
Vicki, thank you for your patience in waiting the extra time to tack up two horses and for helping look after Gizzy on this outing...
Pity there not an icecream shop anywhere to be seen here at Lake Clearwater either....! (smilies)
On the Trail.......
The Ada Valley Trek.....
Distance trekked...147 kilometres (GPS reading)
pic shows the boys just arrived at the St James Homestead, having lunch..
.Leaving home with all the gear and two horses loaded on the float, for a nine day trek right up into the headwaters of the famous Ada river......I checked the ten day weather forecast, which indicated a light southerly later this morning and dying out tomorrow, then basically fine for the remainder of the ten days so thought.. light southerly... probably wont be much.... yer right...!
It started quite a heavy downpour just as I loaded the boys onto the float, and thought by the time I reach Hanmer it probably would have petered out... again ...yer right..!
We arrived at St James with weather slightly threatening, and was in a dilemma, wheather to saddle the boys and head out to Scotties Hut, or stay at the homestead till the following morning..????????
I decided after half an hours feed for the boys and the weather still not too bad to go for it, so loaded the pack and riding horse and set off up the Styx River trail on the way out to the Edwards River and ultimately down to Scotties Hut some 4 hours riding distance..
We got about half an hour out along the Styx River when I turned around to check on Bailey following along and got the suprise of my life to see a very very black southerly cloud closing in, and thought..... I think I might dig out my oil skin rain coat and put it on.. well, I had it on about 5 minutes, when the heavens opened.... it p.....ssed down, and continued for the next 3.5 hrs ride....
Earlier in the week previous it had been raining quiet a bit from the norwest and already when arrived at the Edwards River it was still in flood, with the first crossing coming down off Peters Pass up to the horses bellies, and by the time we finally reached Scotties it was around a metre deep in the little gorge directly opposite Scotties hut..
It was good to get unloaded and the gear inside with it still raining heavily....... about this point.... I suddenly realised I had made a slight "blue".....
I had bought a cover each for the horses as knew the weather wasnt going to be too flash initially but instead of bringing little Baileys cover i accidently bought Shaes heavy winter cover along with another cover of shaes, and when I threw Shaes winter cover on Bailey.. well lets just say it could have gone around him twice... I did up all the adjustment as far as I could but with it raining the back was almost dragging on the ground,. poor boy... it was better than nothing, but only just....
.Leaving home with all the gear and two horses loaded on the float, for a nine day trek right up into the headwaters of the famous Ada river......I checked the ten day weather forecast, which indicated a light southerly later this morning and dying out tomorrow, then basically fine for the remainder of the ten days so thought.. light southerly... probably wont be much.... yer right...!
It started quite a heavy downpour just as I loaded the boys onto the float, and thought by the time I reach Hanmer it probably would have petered out... again ...yer right..!
We arrived at St James with weather slightly threatening, and was in a dilemma, wheather to saddle the boys and head out to Scotties Hut, or stay at the homestead till the following morning..????????
I decided after half an hours feed for the boys and the weather still not too bad to go for it, so loaded the pack and riding horse and set off up the Styx River trail on the way out to the Edwards River and ultimately down to Scotties Hut some 4 hours riding distance..
We got about half an hour out along the Styx River when I turned around to check on Bailey following along and got the suprise of my life to see a very very black southerly cloud closing in, and thought..... I think I might dig out my oil skin rain coat and put it on.. well, I had it on about 5 minutes, when the heavens opened.... it p.....ssed down, and continued for the next 3.5 hrs ride....
Earlier in the week previous it had been raining quiet a bit from the norwest and already when arrived at the Edwards River it was still in flood, with the first crossing coming down off Peters Pass up to the horses bellies, and by the time we finally reached Scotties it was around a metre deep in the little gorge directly opposite Scotties hut..
It was good to get unloaded and the gear inside with it still raining heavily....... about this point.... I suddenly realised I had made a slight "blue".....
I had bought a cover each for the horses as knew the weather wasnt going to be too flash initially but instead of bringing little Baileys cover i accidently bought Shaes heavy winter cover along with another cover of shaes, and when I threw Shaes winter cover on Bailey.. well lets just say it could have gone around him twice... I did up all the adjustment as far as I could but with it raining the back was almost dragging on the ground,. poor boy... it was better than nothing, but only just....
Scotties Hut.....
pic shows the following morning after all night rain, although the river had gone down quite a lot over night. Flooding of high country rivers is mainly due to rain and snow from the northwest weather quarter.. this weather was from the southwest quarter and does'nt affect rivers the same....
This morning, I decided to stay here at Scotties Camp, as my next section of the trek was up over the Racecourse and had to follow up the Stanley River and cross it a number of times and knew this river had a larger catchment and wasnt sure how flooded it would be.....
Mid morning the rain stopped, so saddled the boys and rode back up the Edwards a few ks to Cow Stream, and followed that up into the hills to find the hot pools that someone had said were up there...
This morning, I decided to stay here at Scotties Camp, as my next section of the trek was up over the Racecourse and had to follow up the Stanley River and cross it a number of times and knew this river had a larger catchment and wasnt sure how flooded it would be.....
Mid morning the rain stopped, so saddled the boys and rode back up the Edwards a few ks to Cow Stream, and followed that up into the hills to find the hot pools that someone had said were up there...
On tour up towards the hills of Cow Stream
It was great having no load on the horses, and being able to canter along racing the loose Bailey beside me..lol
The Cow Stream Hot Pools.........
Only sort of knowing roughtly where the hot pools were I came initially up on the wrong side of the river terrace, and run into swamp about a kilometre from where I reconed they were, so had to back track down the terraces, ford the river and ride up on the other side, then for the last half a kilometres had to bush bash our way up the edge of the narrow river terrace, and finally we found them...
Being a big kid I couldnt resist taking all my clothes off and going for a dip.....lol
I did set up my camera on a post and on a ten second delay and set it in motion, but upon viewing the snap it took, it showed someones naked "posterier", still above the water line as I rushed to beat the time allowed... one to the camera, none to me.... so.... thought it might not be such a flash photo to include in here. lol....
Being a big kid I couldnt resist taking all my clothes off and going for a dip.....lol
I did set up my camera on a post and on a ten second delay and set it in motion, but upon viewing the snap it took, it showed someones naked "posterier", still above the water line as I rushed to beat the time allowed... one to the camera, none to me.... so.... thought it might not be such a flash photo to include in here. lol....
Confuce of the Cow Stream and the Edwards Rivers...
On the way back from the hot pools the Edwards River had gone down more, so decided that next morning I would resume my journey..
More horse riding folks.....
After finding the hotpools and returning to Scotties Hut, two further horsewomen turned up later in the afternoon, a mother and daughter team, Charlotte and Kirsty..
The a bit later a father and son shooting party arrived and then a further two hunters also turned up so the camp was full...
Next morning the two lady riders decided to accompany me on part of my next leg, up to Charlies saddle, then up the ridge and over into a place called the Racecourse, which is a high mountainside plateau..
Looking back up the Edwards from Charlies saddle area...
pic shows Scotties Hut just above where the river disapears from view halfway up this photo...
Scotties Hut is a nice place to ride out to from St James Homestead for perhaps horsefolks learning the art of trekking.... its a fairly flattish ride of around 17 kilometres and around 4 hours at a walk..
The Hut has a large secure horse paddock as well as a nice hitching rail just at the back of the hut....
Scotties Hut is a nice place to ride out to from St James Homestead for perhaps horsefolks learning the art of trekking.... its a fairly flattish ride of around 17 kilometres and around 4 hours at a walk..
The Hut has a large secure horse paddock as well as a nice hitching rail just at the back of the hut....
The ridge ride up to the top "Racecourse" area.....
Around two summer seasons ago I trekked up this area, and since then Doc have rerouted the track ..... in hindsight, and soon about to find out, this was a mistake to follow the new route.....
Last time I now remember I climbed straight up this ridge to the top in clear of scrub riding, but now the new track heads off sidling across the the left hillside....
The new side track is fine for just a riding horse , but with a wide pack horse over a metre wide and the bush track cut way less than a metre in many places.. I will leave it to your imagination to the difficulty encountered...
Last time I now remember I climbed straight up this ridge to the top in clear of scrub riding, but now the new track heads off sidling across the the left hillside....
The new side track is fine for just a riding horse , but with a wide pack horse over a metre wide and the bush track cut way less than a metre in many places.. I will leave it to your imagination to the difficulty encountered...
Trouble in the gully trail........
Just prior to taking this photo on the trail, Bailey with his wide load came upon a narrow one metre wide area between two large Manuka trees.. I watched him and before I had a chance to stop him Bailey centrered himself up and charged at the gap......... o dear...... the hard panniers were well roped down and as a result the entire load including pack saddle slid back so the saddle cinch was just in front of Baileys diddle...
So on this side of the hill in this photo, we had to take all the load and saddle off him and reposition and re tie it back in the right place, with this time his breast plate done up tight..
At this stage I asked Charlotte if she would ride her horse directly up the gully as from here it looked steep but clear of bush.. she did so and soon returned with the bad new... more heavy bush further up... next I asked her to ride ahead on the trail we had been following to see how much further the narrow hill side track continued.....
She returned with good news that it was only one other narrow area then opened up so I took the reins off Shae , turned him loose and led Bailey slowly along the remaining narrow trail holding back the manuka as best as I could...
So on this side of the hill in this photo, we had to take all the load and saddle off him and reposition and re tie it back in the right place, with this time his breast plate done up tight..
At this stage I asked Charlotte if she would ride her horse directly up the gully as from here it looked steep but clear of bush.. she did so and soon returned with the bad new... more heavy bush further up... next I asked her to ride ahead on the trail we had been following to see how much further the narrow hill side track continued.....
She returned with good news that it was only one other narrow area then opened up so I took the reins off Shae , turned him loose and led Bailey slowly along the remaining narrow trail holding back the manuka as best as I could...
Just turned the camera around from the last above shot....
As you can see the trail is quite narrow for the pack horse...
After this encounter with scrub on trails with the pack horse made a mental note to self.... Time to throw the chain saw on top of the pack load from now on in St James... Many of the trails are becoming overgrown in places...
After this encounter with scrub on trails with the pack horse made a mental note to self.... Time to throw the chain saw on top of the pack load from now on in St James... Many of the trails are becoming overgrown in places...
Up near the top of the "Racecourse" Hill
Eventually we cleared the heavy scrub but as this photo shows there is no real cut track up hill, its just a matter of siddling along as best as possible, again, this is fine for just a riding horse but hard work for Bailey with his load..
This was also the first time that both Charlotte and Kirsty had ridden a horse on the earlier steep, hill side track, so they both did very very well....
This was also the first time that both Charlotte and Kirsty had ridden a horse on the earlier steep, hill side track, so they both did very very well....
The "Racecourse".....
We crested the saddle to this splendid view across this high plateau, a strange piece of countryside up on the side of a mountain range...
Time for a photo....
or two..........
Pic, looking back up the racecourse and of Daughter Kirsty in the front, with Mum, Charlotte behind.....trust Bailey to walk into the middle of the shot..lol
Overlooking the lower Stanley River Gorge...
pic shows the trail off the bottom end of the Racecourse ..... one of stunning scenery..
It was around lunch time as we all arrived down beside the Stanley River, so off the horse with the Thermette and had a boil up and cup a tea with our lunch....
After lunch we said our good byes as the girls were heading back to Scotties while I was heading on up thru the scenic "Stanley Gates" and on up the river a further 2 hours ride to the StanleyVale hut.....
It was around lunch time as we all arrived down beside the Stanley River, so off the horse with the Thermette and had a boil up and cup a tea with our lunch....
After lunch we said our good byes as the girls were heading back to Scotties while I was heading on up thru the scenic "Stanley Gates" and on up the river a further 2 hours ride to the StanleyVale hut.....
Onwards........
Charlotte and Kirsty were nice company on this section of the trail.....
The lower Stanley River Gorge......
As you can see the Stanley River was still in flood and was fairly deep to cross..... in this lower section, up to the Stanley Gates, a narrow high walled gorge, we had to cross and recross this river five times .... on the horse its fine and safe, but did watch where I crossed as Bailey is a smaller horse and carrying the packload has the potential to off balance him as he places his footing while crossing the current, but he is an amazingly tough and surefooted little guy...
The Stanley Gorge area...
pic shows the trail as we approach the lower end of the Stanley Gates....In this photo you can see the trail on the left as it climbs and decends.. stunning scenery, even with the river in flood..!
The "Stanley Gates"......
Just stunning natural scenery...
On the other side of the hill top trail the river has washed away the bottom 5 metres or so of the track, so just after cresting the hill, there is a stream bed that runs down the hill to the river, and one needs to follow this down and cross and recross the stanley to get back onto the original trail. As you can see much of the trail is semi covered in scrub and the trail is easlly missed at this point, with the consequences of having to suddenly bush bash ones way up the river side...
On the other side of the hill top trail the river has washed away the bottom 5 metres or so of the track, so just after cresting the hill, there is a stream bed that runs down the hill to the river, and one needs to follow this down and cross and recross the stanley to get back onto the original trail. As you can see much of the trail is semi covered in scrub and the trail is easlly missed at this point, with the consequences of having to suddenly bush bash ones way up the river side...
The Trail continues..........
The (historic) StanleyVale Hut....
After 6.5 hours riding and negotiating, overgrown trails and flooded rivers we finally arrived up at the StanleyVale hut and as this photo shows our arrival coinsided with the arrival of another horse riding party of three, Mum Raewyn, in the centre, Tarma (hope I spelt your name correctly) to the left holding Bailey and Sue to the right..so it was a fairly full hut overnite..
The trek continues.........
The ladies wanted to know all about my travels and wanted to know where I was headed today....
When they heard I was headed for the Ada River today, two asked if they could accompany me till around lunch time on this section, so here we are headed towards Lake Guyon initially, in clear skies for a change....Raewyn on the left, Sue on the right...
I left some of the surplus supplies and horse covers at the StanleyVale to be picked up on my return a few days later..
When they heard I was headed for the Ada River today, two asked if they could accompany me till around lunch time on this section, so here we are headed towards Lake Guyon initially, in clear skies for a change....Raewyn on the left, Sue on the right...
I left some of the surplus supplies and horse covers at the StanleyVale to be picked up on my return a few days later..
Beautiful Lake Guyon...
Around 4 kilometres from StanleyVale on the trail is this beautiful lake that we rode around the edge of...
The Ada Valley..........
We decided to pretend we didnt see the signs saying keep out of the historic Ada Homestead area, but wanted to have a look at the complex that once was the hub of the St James outpost... Sue said smile... as she snapped this pic...
Shae spotted a small herd of wild horses that appeared just as this photo was taken...
Shae spotted a small herd of wild horses that appeared just as this photo was taken...
The historic Ada Homestead outpost......
We decided to have lunch here and have a bit of a look around some of the history on show... I remember reading somewhere of one of the two permanent staff that used to winter over in this house and his tale of the bone chilling place it was... just to the right of the house you can see on top of the fence a huge line up of spent horse shoes.. amazing..!
Behind the horses is a historic implement shed that I had heard about and was keen to take a look....
The sight was amazing... a lot of early machinery just pushed into the shed and left...
Behind the horses is a historic implement shed that I had heard about and was keen to take a look....
The sight was amazing... a lot of early machinery just pushed into the shed and left...
The Ada Implement shed.....
All horse drawn machinery, even to the centre right a horse drawn hay sweep.... amazing.. and behind the photo at the other end of this shed is a huge line up of old pack and riding saddles.. all deteriating now and still showing the work the horse did in running this outstation......
The Trail continued...........
The ladies wanted to continue riding some way up this Ada river, and here we can see the Christopher hut on the other side of the river.. I wanted to keep well off the St James walking trail so elected to stay on this side of the river as we rode along...
After leaving the Ada, Raewyns horse, and to a lesser degree Shae was bitten by some insect we thought .....and was playing up terribly for quiet a while...
It was on my return several days later that I found the answer to what caused the problem.. around the Ada area was a plague of "Bot Flies"
I stopped to open a gate on my return to gain access back into the Waiau River area around the Ada and both Shae and Bailey were attacked by very very persistant Bot Flies...
These flies are large, around the same size as a bee, and have a defined hook on the rear of their body, and its that hook that can spit out huge numbers of light yellow coloured eggs that stick like glue to the horses hair...
I was riding along and could hear this constant buzzing sound and looked down to see several flies around shae front legs, I started to trot along in the wind but after several kilometres they were still flying along. I got off and swatted several of them around both horses... not nice...
When I got back to stanleyVale both horses had extensive eggs laid on there legs...
After leaving the Ada, Raewyns horse, and to a lesser degree Shae was bitten by some insect we thought .....and was playing up terribly for quiet a while...
It was on my return several days later that I found the answer to what caused the problem.. around the Ada area was a plague of "Bot Flies"
I stopped to open a gate on my return to gain access back into the Waiau River area around the Ada and both Shae and Bailey were attacked by very very persistant Bot Flies...
These flies are large, around the same size as a bee, and have a defined hook on the rear of their body, and its that hook that can spit out huge numbers of light yellow coloured eggs that stick like glue to the horses hair...
I was riding along and could hear this constant buzzing sound and looked down to see several flies around shae front legs, I started to trot along in the wind but after several kilometres they were still flying along. I got off and swatted several of them around both horses... not nice...
When I got back to stanleyVale both horses had extensive eggs laid on there legs...
The upper Ada River.....
I said my goodbyes to the ladies earlier on and made my way up around the main bend in the Ada untill I came to the bush covering right across the valley floor and set up my tent camp which was going to be my base for the couple of days as i explored this region...
All the rivers and streams in this area are crystal...... clear sparkling blue waters.....
All the rivers and streams in this area are crystal...... clear sparkling blue waters.....
My Ada River tent camp.............
Tea time here.... sausages, fresh onsite mushrooms, peas, green beans, carrots and mashed spud with gravy, followed by fruit salid for desert..
Beside the fire you can see the fire brigade in the form of a nosebag full of water, but with calm and green conditions it was safe to have the small open fire....
After tea I made up bread dough and put the dough in the camp oven beside the fire overnite to rise.. next morning, punched the dough back down, kneeded it and after preheating the camp oven again popped it in for 25 minutes..
The horses up here were leg tied during the day and then high lined not far from the tent overnite..
I had a bit of a dilemma up here so so far away from civilisation.. two week earlier I replaced my riding boots that were only a couple months old with the heel coming off them and the same thing happened to this new pair.. the sole this time came almost right off, and I thought... I could well be in trouble up here without the basics of decent footwear..
So I tied a leather packsaddle tie around the back and under the damaged sole several times and it did the trick.. it held together for the remainder of the trek..
Beside the fire you can see the fire brigade in the form of a nosebag full of water, but with calm and green conditions it was safe to have the small open fire....
After tea I made up bread dough and put the dough in the camp oven beside the fire overnite to rise.. next morning, punched the dough back down, kneeded it and after preheating the camp oven again popped it in for 25 minutes..
The horses up here were leg tied during the day and then high lined not far from the tent overnite..
I had a bit of a dilemma up here so so far away from civilisation.. two week earlier I replaced my riding boots that were only a couple months old with the heel coming off them and the same thing happened to this new pair.. the sole this time came almost right off, and I thought... I could well be in trouble up here without the basics of decent footwear..
So I tied a leather packsaddle tie around the back and under the damaged sole several times and it did the trick.. it held together for the remainder of the trek..
Ones daily bread............
Each night I made up bread dough, and each morning the first job of the day was get the fire going and bake the lunch bread... camp ovens are a very useful appliance to have up here.. all the comfort foods of home..!
The upper Ada river area.....
This morning I was up early, baked the lunch bread and set out on Shae and the loose Bailey beside me as we headed up to the Ada Pass for a day ride..
At first the going was easy river flats with again stunning scenery, but then we came to fairly dense forest right across the valley floor and not wanting to use the walking track bush bashed our way half up the river and close terraces for around 4 kilometres to emerge out the top end in swampy ground, so for a stretch did use the walking track here and there, but made it up to the pass.. it took quiet a bit longer than I thought it would so instead of my intended going on over the pass and down towards the Cannaball gorge Hut area, decided to return to my tent base camp, arriving about 3.30pm... a hard days ride I have to say, one I dont care to repeat in the near future, but enjoyed to look into some new country...
At first the going was easy river flats with again stunning scenery, but then we came to fairly dense forest right across the valley floor and not wanting to use the walking track bush bashed our way half up the river and close terraces for around 4 kilometres to emerge out the top end in swampy ground, so for a stretch did use the walking track here and there, but made it up to the pass.. it took quiet a bit longer than I thought it would so instead of my intended going on over the pass and down towards the Cannaball gorge Hut area, decided to return to my tent base camp, arriving about 3.30pm... a hard days ride I have to say, one I dont care to repeat in the near future, but enjoyed to look into some new country...
Paradise...........
The return Journey........
Next morning after a bit of a lie in, packed up the camp and loaded the pack and riding horse, then made our leasurely way back down the river stopping in for lunch sitting in the shade under the outside veranda of the Christopher hut.. the views sitting here were outstanding, being able to see for miles both up and down the river...
Camp cooked fresh bread and apricot Jam sammies, followed by a cupa tea thanks to the thermette.. couldnt ask for better..lol
After lunch, back on the horse and retracing my steps back down the the Waiau, crossing it and on back to the StanleyVale Hut reaching it around 4pm...
Camp cooked fresh bread and apricot Jam sammies, followed by a cupa tea thanks to the thermette.. couldnt ask for better..lol
After lunch, back on the horse and retracing my steps back down the the Waiau, crossing it and on back to the StanleyVale Hut reaching it around 4pm...
Inside, looking out at StanleyVale Hut...........
Day Eight..........
Today was a rest day, as the horses had travelled many many kilometres over the previous 7 days..
On departing, the previous lady riders remarked that a hitching rail would have been a great asset for the hut, so after a leasurely breakfast, I went up and got a few posts, dug a couple of holes and built this hitching rail for all horse folks to use....
Next morning. it was time to start heading out, so loaded the boys and setting off around 10am making our way up over the Fowler pass and out to the Fowler hut for the night....
On departing, the previous lady riders remarked that a hitching rail would have been a great asset for the hut, so after a leasurely breakfast, I went up and got a few posts, dug a couple of holes and built this hitching rail for all horse folks to use....
Next morning. it was time to start heading out, so loaded the boys and setting off around 10am making our way up over the Fowler pass and out to the Fowler hut for the night....
The last days ride out............
leaving the Fowler hut for the final 4 hours ride back to the St James Homestead...
What a great 9 days trek.....
What a great 9 days trek.....
On the Trail...........
Summer Camp..........
Boxing day, Fiona and I decided this year instead of going away up country for our Christmas week away with the horses, we liked the idea of loading up a couple of pack horses and a riding horse each, and just heading out from the paddock, up the road, and at the end of the road, into the local river and just stop where we liked..
So here we are,..... week long supplies bought..... and carefully packed in the hard pannier, and the firebox and tent etc in the soft panniers..
Shae got to travel fairly lightly this trek and only had the four load straps that fit on the pack saddle, my thought with these was that if we found a nice camp spot which didnt have sufficient handy firewood, we could saddle one of the horses with a pack saddle and head out to a firewood source, chain saw up a couple of bundles and with those load straps bundle the firewood up, load it on the horse and back to camp... A good scout always goes prepared..lol..
So here we are,..... week long supplies bought..... and carefully packed in the hard pannier, and the firebox and tent etc in the soft panniers..
Shae got to travel fairly lightly this trek and only had the four load straps that fit on the pack saddle, my thought with these was that if we found a nice camp spot which didnt have sufficient handy firewood, we could saddle one of the horses with a pack saddle and head out to a firewood source, chain saw up a couple of bundles and with those load straps bundle the firewood up, load it on the horse and back to camp... A good scout always goes prepared..lol..
Bailey the Pack horse....
This is my old original pack saddle, its as old as the hills and still works just fine.
These older saddles have a high wither clearance, and unlike my more modern traditional saddle the rear hooks are set down around 50 mm from the front set, this so because a packsaddle sitting on an average horse is usually front down as he walks along and with hooks at the same height the panniers often ride to far forward, no matter now well you tie the load down, so this old saddle holds the load fairly level..
A couple of years ago I started having trouble with its original harness, which was on its last legs so went up to Les Wilkins in Harwarden, a pack saddle and harness leather specialist, and he built me this new set shown here... nice..!
In this photo also, Les is a believer in double purchase saddle girths,as it needs to be done up fairly tight to hold loads the right way up, this system makes this job easy..
One safety tip I use with a pack saddle, is all the harness on the near side that is normally undone to take the saddle off is only buckled, and the end of each strap is not put into its keeper, so in an emergency, I only have to release the breast plate, and breach plate buckles undo the girth and its off... trust me there are times in every pack persons life when you will come across situations where speed in getting the saddle undone and off your horse will arise.. sooner of later..
These older saddles have a high wither clearance, and unlike my more modern traditional saddle the rear hooks are set down around 50 mm from the front set, this so because a packsaddle sitting on an average horse is usually front down as he walks along and with hooks at the same height the panniers often ride to far forward, no matter now well you tie the load down, so this old saddle holds the load fairly level..
A couple of years ago I started having trouble with its original harness, which was on its last legs so went up to Les Wilkins in Harwarden, a pack saddle and harness leather specialist, and he built me this new set shown here... nice..!
In this photo also, Les is a believer in double purchase saddle girths,as it needs to be done up fairly tight to hold loads the right way up, this system makes this job easy..
One safety tip I use with a pack saddle, is all the harness on the near side that is normally undone to take the saddle off is only buckled, and the end of each strap is not put into its keeper, so in an emergency, I only have to release the breast plate, and breach plate buckles undo the girth and its off... trust me there are times in every pack persons life when you will come across situations where speed in getting the saddle undone and off your horse will arise.. sooner of later..
The Box hitch rope tie...
Packers have all sorts of differing ties to hold loads on a horse, but when in my young days the "packie" who caught me, said, .. Boy.......! all you need to tie any bag or box load on a horse is the box hitch... you know.. he was right.. it takes a bit of mastering to get the ropes in the right place as the knots are firmed up but once there, your horse can trot.. and in my case Shae even cantered fully loaded.. mind you,, I strongly recommend only walking..lol
Bailey all loaded and ready to travel...(Wake up Bailey...!)
On Bailey, I have a maximum pack weight of 60 kgs... it doesnt sound much but when he has climbed up over some of our mountain passes with 60 kgs "he" can tell you that is quiet enough..lol
Next, its Mr Cons turn....
You may be able to see parts of the box hitch tie circling each box (or soft pannier bag), when pulled up tight this section of rope actually helps hold the load out a little way from the horse and makes breathing a bit easier in the tougher going, instead of his lungs having to also push out a couple of laidened boxes with each breath.
I need an 18 metre long rope to tie the box hitch on the average hard pannier plus top pack load..and around a 12 to 13 metre long rope to box hitch the soft panniers..
I need an 18 metre long rope to tie the box hitch on the average hard pannier plus top pack load..and around a 12 to 13 metre long rope to box hitch the soft panniers..
The balance test....
After each horse is loaded I just check that the load is sitting comfortable and balanced on each horse...Again... words from the old" Packie" who taught me.... Son..... if your load is still upright and balanced after the first 50 yards then it will sit all day...
He is right... if the load is going to shift it will do so straight away as soon as you move off on the trail....
After balancing each pannier, I load them onto the pack horse and any top pack load and before starting to tie the box hitch will walk the horse a few steps out watching the position of the load... sometimes shifting items to aid a correct balance.. then tie it all on..
Keep an eye on the pack horse load as you travel along as at times even a very small difference in weight either side can cause the "ship to lean"..lol Its been said that its a poor packie who has to resort to picking up the odd rock and sliding it under the ropes to aid balance... to me I have often resorted to this trick and it works well...
Funny enough.. at quite a few high country station huts over the years, quite a pile of rocks have gathered in and around the unloading areas... so I am not the only one..!
This photo shows the new Phillips Form fitter pack saddle that i imported, it only takes a clip undone for the breast and breach plates and a quick release on the cinch and its off.. I like this system in emergencies..
He is right... if the load is going to shift it will do so straight away as soon as you move off on the trail....
After balancing each pannier, I load them onto the pack horse and any top pack load and before starting to tie the box hitch will walk the horse a few steps out watching the position of the load... sometimes shifting items to aid a correct balance.. then tie it all on..
Keep an eye on the pack horse load as you travel along as at times even a very small difference in weight either side can cause the "ship to lean"..lol Its been said that its a poor packie who has to resort to picking up the odd rock and sliding it under the ropes to aid balance... to me I have often resorted to this trick and it works well...
Funny enough.. at quite a few high country station huts over the years, quite a pile of rocks have gathered in and around the unloading areas... so I am not the only one..!
This photo shows the new Phillips Form fitter pack saddle that i imported, it only takes a clip undone for the breast and breach plates and a quick release on the cinch and its off.. I like this system in emergencies..
On the road again......
Just wandering along on a nice warm and calm day with not a care in the world.........
Baileys load consists of one side pannier containing the firebox and a few bits and pieces, the otherside contains both tent shelter and small tent, chainsaw, electric fence energiser, wet weather gear, and camp seats,,
Mr Cons has the hard panniers containing all the kitchen requirements, including camp oven, pots, plates etc as well as our food and drink for the week, and on the top, horse covers wrapped with a number of electric fence standards..
The weight on Bailey this trip is 27 kgs per side, with Connor carrying 30 kgs per side..
Baileys load consists of one side pannier containing the firebox and a few bits and pieces, the otherside contains both tent shelter and small tent, chainsaw, electric fence energiser, wet weather gear, and camp seats,,
Mr Cons has the hard panniers containing all the kitchen requirements, including camp oven, pots, plates etc as well as our food and drink for the week, and on the top, horse covers wrapped with a number of electric fence standards..
The weight on Bailey this trip is 27 kgs per side, with Connor carrying 30 kgs per side..
This council road seems to have lost its " white line" marker...!
We rode up the river here for a few kilometres looking for a nice camp site...!
The Summer Camp site......
It was funny, not long after we set up this camp, along came a guy in a four wheel drive, who spotted the horses and then the camp and couldnt believe that we brought all this gear up on just two pack horses, but it just shows with a bit of planning the luxury that packhorse travel can bring..
On the ground mid right is my canvas waterproof bed roll and that was where I slept.. under the stars... Fiona had the little one man tent that just ties on a cord between two trees and held in place with boulders.. no pegs or poles required, the blue tent shelter works on the same principle, although we experienced strong windy days so did knock pegs in to keep it in place.... This is half its capacity, at home is another section that can be velcroed on and the end wall also attachs in the same fashion..
The other section has a chimney hole in the roof for it to pock out thru so I can have the shown outside firebox actually in the tent if I wish...
The firebox is great for heating or cooking.. We like the use of the small open fire when the weather is calm, but the firebox is used when its windy for cooking..
On the ground mid right is my canvas waterproof bed roll and that was where I slept.. under the stars... Fiona had the little one man tent that just ties on a cord between two trees and held in place with boulders.. no pegs or poles required, the blue tent shelter works on the same principle, although we experienced strong windy days so did knock pegs in to keep it in place.... This is half its capacity, at home is another section that can be velcroed on and the end wall also attachs in the same fashion..
The other section has a chimney hole in the roof for it to pock out thru so I can have the shown outside firebox actually in the tent if I wish...
The firebox is great for heating or cooking.. We like the use of the small open fire when the weather is calm, but the firebox is used when its windy for cooking..
Camp Cooking.......
This evening we made this bread dough and set it in the camp oven near the firebox to rise...as shown..
Funny.... next morning, it had risen all right.. clean out the top of the bowl... I kneeded it again and after preheating the camp oven placed the dough in the camp oven and shoveled some hot coals onto the lid and left it for 30 mins on the fire.....
Well rise it did...... infact a bit much really.. the camp oven is around 7 inches from base to bottom of the lid inside and the bread after twenty minutes pushed the lid up, burning the top portion.. opps..... bit much yeast I recon..lol
But after cutting the burnt bit off and re heating the bread it turned out beaut....
Over the course of our week we made all sorts in the camp oven including scones...
Funny.... next morning, it had risen all right.. clean out the top of the bowl... I kneeded it again and after preheating the camp oven placed the dough in the camp oven and shoveled some hot coals onto the lid and left it for 30 mins on the fire.....
Well rise it did...... infact a bit much really.. the camp oven is around 7 inches from base to bottom of the lid inside and the bread after twenty minutes pushed the lid up, burning the top portion.. opps..... bit much yeast I recon..lol
But after cutting the burnt bit off and re heating the bread it turned out beaut....
Over the course of our week we made all sorts in the camp oven including scones...
A Good old Kiwi Breakfast....
Camp cooked bacon and eggs and our camp cooked bread, toasted over the fire.... yum..!
Our camp site.....
Horse Heaven...........
At camp we just made a circle out of electric fence tape and an energizer unit big enough for the four of them and they were as happy as, and right next to the tent camp.
and then... it started to rain........
Seems just like last years camp at St James where it poured, we had the same here, all night and all next day it poured..... not so nice for campers used to fine warm weather.. but.... this is good old NZ.... with four weather seasons in one day....!
Houston... we have a problem......!
On our final day and due to break camp we awoke to this scene........ the river overnight had come down in flood, well over a metre deep.. even on horses this is not to be played with...
So we ended up staying put until late in the day when it had gone down enough to get the riding horses out thru it and left the camp intact, until it went back down again, which meant another trip up river just to pick up the camp but.... its summer time and those long hot lazy days.... lol ...... Yer.. rite....!
So we ended up staying put until late in the day when it had gone down enough to get the riding horses out thru it and left the camp intact, until it went back down again, which meant another trip up river just to pick up the camp but.... its summer time and those long hot lazy days.... lol ...... Yer.. rite....!
On the Trail...........
StanleyVale Hut, new horse paddock building, working bee......
Distance trekked.... not far..! lol
Pic shows the summit of the Fowler Pass..
Friday afternoon, having planned and assembled all the gear including fencing materials, chainsaw ,shovel, crowbar etc for the Sat morning horse trek over the Fowler pass from the Fowler hut to the StanleyVale was interrupted when Fiona informed me that the weather forecast for the next few days now included ... rain..
I had hay paddocks cut and hay on the ground since Tuesday, and had checked the forecast earlier in the week which indicated fine thru till the following Wednesday week... sweet.. I would go on the working bee for the weekend and back Sunday night, bale the hay Monday, cart Tuesday.
Darn.. rain was now forecast for Sunday avo, so reluctantly rang Mary the Organiser and told her I would now have to delay my part and bale the hay first..
The rest of the working bee members all headed up to St James Saturday morning and drove the long way over the Maling Pass and out to the StanleyVale hut with the exception of my friend Simon who rode his horse the shortcut over the Fowler pass and I hear was the first to arrive out there sat lunch time..
So Saturday morning arrived with Fiona out on the tractor raking all the paddocks while I went and got the baler from the yard and towed it over to the job.. she made a great job, after which I quickly hooked the tractor onto the baler and it was hammer down..
The baler was at max capacity and had it done by 4 pm...
I quickly said my good byes to Fiona and some friends who came to help load and stack the hay, hitched the float up and raced up to the horses, and loaded Shae and Bailey, then without breaking the speeding laws made my way as fast as possible all the way up to the Fowler Hut, unloaded the boys, saddled both, and was ready to start the ride over the Fowler Pack track at 7.30pm..
I knew it took around 2 and a half hours to cross the pass and out to StanleyVale with no stops and also knew it would be dark around 9.30pm, so it was tight timing..
I at least wanted to be clear of the pass area in daylight and the rest.. well Shae and Bailey knew the track fairly well, so wasnt too concerned..
Several times in my riding life I have for various reasons found myself riding in the dark, I couldnt see much but the horses certainly can... They are an amazing creature.
Friday afternoon, having planned and assembled all the gear including fencing materials, chainsaw ,shovel, crowbar etc for the Sat morning horse trek over the Fowler pass from the Fowler hut to the StanleyVale was interrupted when Fiona informed me that the weather forecast for the next few days now included ... rain..
I had hay paddocks cut and hay on the ground since Tuesday, and had checked the forecast earlier in the week which indicated fine thru till the following Wednesday week... sweet.. I would go on the working bee for the weekend and back Sunday night, bale the hay Monday, cart Tuesday.
Darn.. rain was now forecast for Sunday avo, so reluctantly rang Mary the Organiser and told her I would now have to delay my part and bale the hay first..
The rest of the working bee members all headed up to St James Saturday morning and drove the long way over the Maling Pass and out to the StanleyVale hut with the exception of my friend Simon who rode his horse the shortcut over the Fowler pass and I hear was the first to arrive out there sat lunch time..
So Saturday morning arrived with Fiona out on the tractor raking all the paddocks while I went and got the baler from the yard and towed it over to the job.. she made a great job, after which I quickly hooked the tractor onto the baler and it was hammer down..
The baler was at max capacity and had it done by 4 pm...
I quickly said my good byes to Fiona and some friends who came to help load and stack the hay, hitched the float up and raced up to the horses, and loaded Shae and Bailey, then without breaking the speeding laws made my way as fast as possible all the way up to the Fowler Hut, unloaded the boys, saddled both, and was ready to start the ride over the Fowler Pack track at 7.30pm..
I knew it took around 2 and a half hours to cross the pass and out to StanleyVale with no stops and also knew it would be dark around 9.30pm, so it was tight timing..
I at least wanted to be clear of the pass area in daylight and the rest.. well Shae and Bailey knew the track fairly well, so wasnt too concerned..
Several times in my riding life I have for various reasons found myself riding in the dark, I couldnt see much but the horses certainly can... They are an amazing creature.
Bailey walking fast uphill as we crested the Fowler Pass saddle.......
The Fowler pack track was in great condition this time , ......
The Fowler Pack track...
This track zig zags its way down into the steep valley floor to the right in this above photo.. Just after the orange marker shown in the above pic, the track heads straight down that steep ridge for a distance, so its "brakes on"..lol
Near the bottom of the first steep section....
We hop off the horses and walk them down hill, with Bailey loose, fully loaded with the pack gear following along behind, On the return uphill section we ride the horses up the entire pass..
Top of the "lower" steep zig zag....
This section is the steepest decent on the pack track, with the bottom of this section finishing down thru the beech forest to the left, then into the narrow gorge, and following that down, and eventually flattening out for the further hour and a half ride.
Shae kept telling me that he was starving, so elected to stop for twenty minutes at his favourite takeaway restaurant down at the start of the flatter area.
Darkness decended as we rounded the last bend in the Stanley river for the first view of the hut area, still with some 30 mins ride, and finally arrived at the hut at 10 minutes to ten, to a roaring fire and lots of happy folks enjoying to balmy calm and warm evening around the camp fire.
The horses were unloaded, washed down, fed, and on the leg tie to graze a while before high lining them over night..
Mary had kept tea for me and after a cup of coffee sat down with a bourbon and was introduced to the folks new to me..
With a warm calm and balmy night most of us just unrolled our swag rolls and slept outdoors beside the fire.. The stars were out in force and it wasnt long before that "sleep sound" we all know, started in several close locations around the camp fire....(smilies) me included..!
Shae kept telling me that he was starving, so elected to stop for twenty minutes at his favourite takeaway restaurant down at the start of the flatter area.
Darkness decended as we rounded the last bend in the Stanley river for the first view of the hut area, still with some 30 mins ride, and finally arrived at the hut at 10 minutes to ten, to a roaring fire and lots of happy folks enjoying to balmy calm and warm evening around the camp fire.
The horses were unloaded, washed down, fed, and on the leg tie to graze a while before high lining them over night..
Mary had kept tea for me and after a cup of coffee sat down with a bourbon and was introduced to the folks new to me..
With a warm calm and balmy night most of us just unrolled our swag rolls and slept outdoors beside the fire.. The stars were out in force and it wasnt long before that "sleep sound" we all know, started in several close locations around the camp fire....(smilies) me included..!
A beautiful day to be in Paradise....
Pic shows some of the crew readying for the day fencing outside the StanleyVale hut....
A new horse paddock is born......
After arriving at the hut. Jeff Dalley, Mary Holloway, and Danny MacGuire headed back down the track and all the way out and up the Henry River to dismantle and tidy the area around the Anne Cullers Hut, then bought back the timbers from that hut to be used in time to make some new bunks in the StanleyVale back room, while the rest started to arduious task of digging post holes in the rocky soil for the new fence.
Amongst us was our fair share of character personalities, and to go along with this, some differing concepts in how to erect a fence...lol
As a result, lets say this horse paddock is of a fencing standard that could well be described as " unique"....
One group of fencers set about installing the wires on the inside of the fence line while another group elected to strain the wires on the outside, so there are a couple of areas along two sections that met in the middle to discover that some "kiwi injunity " was required to gain one line of fence...
It was a great couple of days with a lot of banter and teasing thrown in the mix
Amongst us was our fair share of character personalities, and to go along with this, some differing concepts in how to erect a fence...lol
As a result, lets say this horse paddock is of a fencing standard that could well be described as " unique"....
One group of fencers set about installing the wires on the inside of the fence line while another group elected to strain the wires on the outside, so there are a couple of areas along two sections that met in the middle to discover that some "kiwi injunity " was required to gain one line of fence...
It was a great couple of days with a lot of banter and teasing thrown in the mix
Men at "Work".... smilies.. working their tongues...!
Simon on the left saw me hiding behind the tree with the camera so quickly went back to digging...lol
See..... we are digging..(smilies)
Alex, on the right was an interesting fellow to meet and talk to about his life as a part time bee keeper, part time historic home renovator living in one of the earliest cob homes built at the turn of the centuary half way up the Wairau River area in Marlborough
The Unique Fencers.....
John Hope on the right is a recreational hunter in the St James area who is keen to use this horse paddock next time he rides his horse in on one of his hunting expeditions.
Stephen Mc Grath, on the left is a man of considerable character and a well known horse and cart man. I sat next to him at lunch time and had a good old yarn about his and my horse worlds...
Stephen Mc Grath, on the left is a man of considerable character and a well known horse and cart man. I sat next to him at lunch time and had a good old yarn about his and my horse worlds...
Ya.. another post hole ready for the post planting procedure..
Alex lines the post up with the guide wire as Jeff on his knees,starts to pray that its in the right place..
Fill her in Jeff..........
The last post almost done... the folks did a great job..
All the folks packed up there tools and swags and left the area for the two hour drive out around 4pm leaving Sean and myself to run the wires next day and finish off the odds and ends, unfortunately it started to rain over night and all next day and following night it rained, and was still doing so when i packed up the gear on the pack horse and saddled Shae and rode back out via the Fowler pass..
All the folks packed up there tools and swags and left the area for the two hour drive out around 4pm leaving Sean and myself to run the wires next day and finish off the odds and ends, unfortunately it started to rain over night and all next day and following night it rained, and was still doing so when i packed up the gear on the pack horse and saddled Shae and rode back out via the Fowler pass..
Mary was a real trooper making meals and seeing we all had cold drinks etc..
I want to firstly thank the DOC office in Rangiora and especially Kingsley for allowing us horse folk to build this paddock..Jeff Dalley, Marys husband was a huge help in gaining permission, and then coming along to help us..
While at the hut Jeff and Danny ( a chippy) dismantled the rusted out hut firebox and chimney and loaded the remains on the trailer for dumping, with the promise that the hut will be dressed with a brand new open fireplace before winter..
Sean Jamison, a winter over possum hunter was with us this weekend to also help out and to oversee the proceedings.. Sean didnt want his photo taken so I abliged his request and didnt include any of him on here..
When the party of vehicles and people arrived and unloaded all the gear Seans eyes clapped onto my brand new chainsaw, but because I didnt arrive till much later said chainsaw just stayed sitting on the ground overnight.. Next morning Sean asked me if I was happy for him to just cut a couple of branches that were in the way.. Ok sure.... well Sean disappeared with it and all morning we could here him sawing away and didnt want to stop,, I asked Alex if he could borrow it off Sean so I could cut a couple of back stays, but Sean arrived, cut them then disappeared again sawing away at what ever he was doing.. he used my entire fuel container of fuel before I finally managed to rescue it back..lol I guess it could be said its been "run in" now...(laughing)
Sean is a very interesting man to spend time with and we both elected to do just that on the second wet day up there..
The whole party who came to help were, Mary Holloway, Jeff Dalley, Sean Jamison , Alex Hislop, Danny and Lorainne Macguire with son Blayr, Jan Weaver and son Blair, Simon Green and his new horse Markie,John Hope, Stephen Mcgrath and his partner Rachael, and myself along with Shae and Bailey...
Now that there is a secure and shaded horse paddock with all round water flowing thru it up at the hut ,we all hope more horse riding folks will trek into the park and enjoy what it has to offer..
There are two other gentle ways to ride into the StanleyVale if the thought of crossing the Fowler pass is a bit much, one can either ride in over the northern end Maling pass and down past the beautiful Lake Guyon to the hut, or take the Edwards River up past Scotties hut, and either up thru "the racecourse" and Stanley river, or from Scotties, over the Charlie Saddle, down and cross the Waiau River up past the Pools hut, and from there either recross the Waiau River and follow the Stanley river up, or follow the Waiau pack track up past the Historic Ada homestead and after crossing the Waiau again head on up the Lake Guyon track, so there are several route one can follow, all have great scenery and fantastic country for horse riding....
While at the hut Jeff and Danny ( a chippy) dismantled the rusted out hut firebox and chimney and loaded the remains on the trailer for dumping, with the promise that the hut will be dressed with a brand new open fireplace before winter..
Sean Jamison, a winter over possum hunter was with us this weekend to also help out and to oversee the proceedings.. Sean didnt want his photo taken so I abliged his request and didnt include any of him on here..
When the party of vehicles and people arrived and unloaded all the gear Seans eyes clapped onto my brand new chainsaw, but because I didnt arrive till much later said chainsaw just stayed sitting on the ground overnight.. Next morning Sean asked me if I was happy for him to just cut a couple of branches that were in the way.. Ok sure.... well Sean disappeared with it and all morning we could here him sawing away and didnt want to stop,, I asked Alex if he could borrow it off Sean so I could cut a couple of back stays, but Sean arrived, cut them then disappeared again sawing away at what ever he was doing.. he used my entire fuel container of fuel before I finally managed to rescue it back..lol I guess it could be said its been "run in" now...(laughing)
Sean is a very interesting man to spend time with and we both elected to do just that on the second wet day up there..
The whole party who came to help were, Mary Holloway, Jeff Dalley, Sean Jamison , Alex Hislop, Danny and Lorainne Macguire with son Blayr, Jan Weaver and son Blair, Simon Green and his new horse Markie,John Hope, Stephen Mcgrath and his partner Rachael, and myself along with Shae and Bailey...
Now that there is a secure and shaded horse paddock with all round water flowing thru it up at the hut ,we all hope more horse riding folks will trek into the park and enjoy what it has to offer..
There are two other gentle ways to ride into the StanleyVale if the thought of crossing the Fowler pass is a bit much, one can either ride in over the northern end Maling pass and down past the beautiful Lake Guyon to the hut, or take the Edwards River up past Scotties hut, and either up thru "the racecourse" and Stanley river, or from Scotties, over the Charlie Saddle, down and cross the Waiau River up past the Pools hut, and from there either recross the Waiau River and follow the Stanley river up, or follow the Waiau pack track up past the Historic Ada homestead and after crossing the Waiau again head on up the Lake Guyon track, so there are several route one can follow, all have great scenery and fantastic country for horse riding....
On The Trail...........
Hakatere Conservation Area trek......
Distance trekked....48 kilometres..
We arrived up at Castleridge Station with a southerly weather change chasing us up the gorge, and overnight it rained and then turned to snow at around 800 metres..
So this was the view out to where we were riding to today, up over that mountain range in the background...
So this was the view out to where we were riding to today, up over that mountain range in the background...
CastleRidge Shearers Quarters ......
CastleRidge Station welcome horse riders to base themselves here as there are many day, as well as longer rides available from here..
Charges are $75 per two people as well as $5 per horse grazing per day.
There is a good size Kitchen / lounge area with several bunkroom to cater for larger numbers...
Charges are $75 per two people as well as $5 per horse grazing per day.
There is a good size Kitchen / lounge area with several bunkroom to cater for larger numbers...
A beautiful but cold morning.....
Leaving CastleRidge Station, fording the stream just at the boundary..
This was one of the few rivers and streams that weren't in flood...
This was one of the few rivers and streams that weren't in flood...
Enroute... a brief stop at the beautiful Maori Lakes
Over the hills behind the Maori Lakes was our todays destination...
Looking up towards the Paddle Hill stream area
I did not to take the packsaddle on Bailey this trek as we decided to only do a four day ride and can carry enough provision within my saddlebags, so Bailey got to have a free run the entire four days... he loved it..
PaddleHill Stream trail....
The night before snow was just a skiff and was melting rapidly as we made our way out to the Boundary Hut
Lovely clean High Country
In the distance.. The South Branch Ashburton River... In flood....
On the top of a small saddle, as we start to decend down towards the Boundary Stream
Almost down off the saddle...
The Boundary hut is just on the other side of this little hill in the foreground.
Its a very pretty place with a crystal clear high country tarn (lake) just around from the hut...
Its a very pretty place with a crystal clear high country tarn (lake) just around from the hut...
Boundary Hut.....
This Hakatere Station hut was on the boundary years ago from Erewhon Station across the stream, but has not been used as a mustering hut in a long time..
The last time I was past here was away back in the early 1980s and then, this hut was a derelict..
Thanks to DOC, the hut has been given a new lease on life, and has been largely restored leaving much of the originality about it intact.. Well done DOC...!
This Hut area has two old wire horse paddocks and when we arrived neither were horse proof, so Kay bought along an elecrtic fence and encircled one of the paddocks with it then proudly unwrapped a brand new portable electric fence energizer unit, installed the batteries, clipped it to the fence,but wasnt sure when she turned it on if it was working..
A bit like some blokes I know.... the instructions were left at home, and she fiddled with it for a while looking for an indicator light to say it was working.. I started to walk away to tend my horses, and turned around to see Kays hair "standing on end" with a bit of a whimp from her....... Yes I think she got it going ok....! .hahaha...! (she will Kill me when she reads this..lol)
The last time I was past here was away back in the early 1980s and then, this hut was a derelict..
Thanks to DOC, the hut has been given a new lease on life, and has been largely restored leaving much of the originality about it intact.. Well done DOC...!
This Hut area has two old wire horse paddocks and when we arrived neither were horse proof, so Kay bought along an elecrtic fence and encircled one of the paddocks with it then proudly unwrapped a brand new portable electric fence energizer unit, installed the batteries, clipped it to the fence,but wasnt sure when she turned it on if it was working..
A bit like some blokes I know.... the instructions were left at home, and she fiddled with it for a while looking for an indicator light to say it was working.. I started to walk away to tend my horses, and turned around to see Kays hair "standing on end" with a bit of a whimp from her....... Yes I think she got it going ok....! .hahaha...! (she will Kill me when she reads this..lol)
Riding uphill enroute to the summit of the Dog Range
Next morning with clear skies and a very cold wind we decided to take a day trip up onto the adjacient Dog Range and if possible out to the Potts Hut in the Potts River but with recent snow we were'nt sure now far we would get.....
The track starts out near the hut and climbs steadliy for about an hour and a half upwards...!
The track starts out near the hut and climbs steadliy for about an hour and a half upwards...!
Overlooking the Hut
Great views as we climbed the Dog Range, looking back out over the South Branch of the Ashburton River..
The Hut is just out of sight but tucked in beside the lower stream gully in the centre of this photo..
The Hut is just out of sight but tucked in beside the lower stream gully in the centre of this photo..
This country is vast........
Time for a quick bite to eat for horse and riders..
Not far from the snow line here, much of the track rutted and slippery on the way further up...
Not far from the snow line here, much of the track rutted and slippery on the way further up...
Up on the Dog Range.....
Views out overlooking Lake Clearwater...
The wind was close to zero degrees and strong, so we rode on the lea side of the ridge line to shelter a little from it..
Snow in places.... was knee deep on the trail and the poor horses had trouble walking uphill in it, other parts only had a minimal amount...
The wind was close to zero degrees and strong, so we rode on the lea side of the ridge line to shelter a little from it..
Snow in places.... was knee deep on the trail and the poor horses had trouble walking uphill in it, other parts only had a minimal amount...
The Hilltop track continues.....
About this point we decided to turn around and do this trip later in summer.. further up here the snow drifts were hard work on the horses and as you can see in this pic we had a long way still to go with higher altitude and more snow to deal with..
A great day out all the same.. pity the weather was not a little kinder...
A great day out all the same.. pity the weather was not a little kinder...
More horse riders arrive at the hut......
Just as Kay and I got back to the hut, we were met by a large group of horseriders who had also ridden up from CastleRidge Station for a day ride, with their intent to fix up one of the old horse paddock wire fences
We unsaddled our horses and pitched in to help them.. now we have a good sized paddock that will be useful to future riders in the years to come..
We all had lunch and a yarn, and they departed again around 3.30pm....
We unsaddled our horses and pitched in to help them.. now we have a good sized paddock that will be useful to future riders in the years to come..
We all had lunch and a yarn, and they departed again around 3.30pm....
South Branch of the Ashburton River Gorge.....
The river had gone down quite a lot over the previous 24 hours and to fill in the last part of the day Kay and I rode out from the hut to this gorge for a look....
Odd Socks........
The whole trek a certain lady rider seemed to enjoy wearing odd colour socks.. I challenged her about this in jest.. and her smart ass reply was....
O, I have another pair at home just like these....!
So I thought to myself.. ok smarty pants, when she was reading her book and not looking I grabbed the camera and.... "snap"........ for all the world to see...hehehehe..
I recon a large tree to hide behind when she reads and sees this photo would be a good idea to distance myself from any incoming flack..lol
We knew another storm was imminent from the barameter reading on my GPS and sure enough, it blew gale force some of the night and then heavy rain all the rest of it.. Good old "Norwest" season to thank for this..
Next morning it stopped raining but was still a bitterly cold wind so wrapped up my camera in the swag roll and loaded up the horses for our trip out, but half way out ,Kay suggested to take a side trip and trek on out and up to Mystery Lake, which we did.
It was too hard to unpack the swagroll and get my camera out again so this part has no photo accompanyment..
We did this ride there and back and arrived back at Castle Ridge Station around 4.30pm to find there,the previous days riders we met at the hut. so over a well earn't cuppa tea we had a further yarn before loading the boys on the float and the return trip home..
We can highly recommend this trek for less experienced riders as its about 18 kilometres to the hut and fairly good terrain to ride over..
Thanks also to the folks at CastleRidge Station for your hospitality....!
O, I have another pair at home just like these....!
So I thought to myself.. ok smarty pants, when she was reading her book and not looking I grabbed the camera and.... "snap"........ for all the world to see...hehehehe..
I recon a large tree to hide behind when she reads and sees this photo would be a good idea to distance myself from any incoming flack..lol
We knew another storm was imminent from the barameter reading on my GPS and sure enough, it blew gale force some of the night and then heavy rain all the rest of it.. Good old "Norwest" season to thank for this..
Next morning it stopped raining but was still a bitterly cold wind so wrapped up my camera in the swag roll and loaded up the horses for our trip out, but half way out ,Kay suggested to take a side trip and trek on out and up to Mystery Lake, which we did.
It was too hard to unpack the swagroll and get my camera out again so this part has no photo accompanyment..
We did this ride there and back and arrived back at Castle Ridge Station around 4.30pm to find there,the previous days riders we met at the hut. so over a well earn't cuppa tea we had a further yarn before loading the boys on the float and the return trip home..
We can highly recommend this trek for less experienced riders as its about 18 kilometres to the hut and fairly good terrain to ride over..
Thanks also to the folks at CastleRidge Station for your hospitality....!
Mystery Lake....
Not a very clear photo but gives you an idea of the area..
Mystery lake is located half way up on the side of the Dog Range..
Kay and I had lunch here then returned via the same track back down to the Pudding Hill Stream track and out...
Mystery lake is located half way up on the side of the Dog Range..
Kay and I had lunch here then returned via the same track back down to the Pudding Hill Stream track and out...
On the Trail......
Flockhill Station / Broken river / Waimak Gorge Trek......(Distance approx 46k)
My friend Vicky and I left Flockhill Station around 10.30am Friday, having driven up to the Castle hill Basin this morning from Rangiora and today our plan was to ride from the station via Winding creek to the Broken river gorge, then ride down the riverbed to our accommodation and base camp at the historic Avoca Homestead built in the early 1900's
Pic shows Vicky on the trail with the Flockhill Station behind us.
Pic shows Vicky on the trail with the Flockhill Station behind us.
Looking towards the Torlesse Range
Following down the trail with winding creek to our left and the Broken river gorge just this side of the mountain range .
This is beautiful open and clean high country
This is beautiful open and clean high country
Decending off the end of the terrace
The last kilometre was a stark contrast to the gentle rolling country we had ridden over, the track dropped sharply off the end of the terrace, so its off the horses and walking down hill.
Broken River gorge
Near the bottom of the trail into the Broken river, and looking across to the Broken River hut on the opposite bank.
Once we hit the river we had a further 8 ks to negiote our way down thru the gorge crossing the river lots and lots of times.
Once we hit the river we had a further 8 ks to negiote our way down thru the gorge crossing the river lots and lots of times.
Entering the narrow gorge
As we got down past the hut the relatively wide riverbed suddenly narrowed up and forced us to cross the river back and forth at every turn.
Limestone formations
Below the upper gorge.
Poor horses must have been tired of so many river crossings.
Poor horses must have been tired of so many river crossings.
Iron Stream.....
Below the upper gorge, this unusual coloured stream flows from the side of the Torlesse Range.
Its the only stream in the area like this.. Strange....!
And yes, the map says its called .....Iron Stream....
Its the only stream in the area like this.. Strange....!
And yes, the map says its called .....Iron Stream....
More of Natures Sculptures
Both sides of the river, the mountains were surreal in this area.
Our Base Hut for the trek
4.30pm after a bit of hard riding down a rough narrow river gorge we arrived at the historic Avoca Homestead, built in 1906 as a high country farm homestead, and recently restored by DOC.
The hut has three bedrooms, seperate kitchen and dining room complete with indoor original meat safe.
No horse paddock so it onto the leg tie for the horses and high lined at nite.
The hut has three bedrooms, seperate kitchen and dining room complete with indoor original meat safe.
No horse paddock so it onto the leg tie for the horses and high lined at nite.
Over looking the Avoca Homestead and Railway Viaduct
The Avoca homestead can be seen in the trees on the other side of the river.
A beautiful day to be out in the mountains
Next morning Vicky and I packed a lunch, saddled the horses and went exploring...!
Out towards the Waimakariri Gorge
This is the railway viaduct over the Broken river, with the apt named hut in the foreground...Petticoat Junction Hut.!
I would think one would need to be a very sound sleeper to stay in this hut within inches of the Midland Railway line.
I would think one would need to be a very sound sleeper to stay in this hut within inches of the Midland Railway line.
Lower Broken river Gorge
Do you think we can get the horses down the side into the river Vicky..?
View looking back over the country we had travelled on
Looking up the Broken river towards the Avoca homestead in the middle of this pic where the pine trees are just to the left of the river,The far round hill to the centre right is where we rode in to meet the upper Broken river gorge.
This place is a beautiful and ruggered landscape, next time we are here I would like to ride up on the other side of the Broken river and follow the trail out to the Waimak river.
This place is a beautiful and ruggered landscape, next time we are here I would like to ride up on the other side of the Broken river and follow the trail out to the Waimak river.
All good treks have to come to an end
Packed up and heading home out via the road beside the Midland Railway line and then cutting back over the hills to the station once again.