Rachel Grindlay

We had hoped to the do the Tararua Southern Crossing but with an uncertain weather forecast and too many logistics we ended up going with a logistically-easier option in the Remutakas. We carried our overnight packs for both days, even though for the first day we didn’t need to. Good thing we did though as our legs were definitely telling us about the lack of pack walking in the last few months.

It was a drizzly day when we got dropped off. The forecast said it was going to clear so we opted to start with the Orongorongo walking track with the hope that by the time we got up on the ridge later in the afternoon we’d get some views.

After fun times playing with the wind-up bird calls near the start we soon got underway. I could soon see why this is “one of New Zealand’s most popular walks”. The forest was delightful and largely kept out the rain. A most enjoyable morning of walking before morning tea at the confluence of Turere Stream and the Orongorongo River.

The weather didn’t seem to be going anywhere as we set off up Cattle Ridge Track.

Another stiff ascent (this time ~400m with packs) rewarded us with absolutely no views. And the track got more overgrown as we went, so by the time we started descending Butchers Track our shoes were sodden.

The campsite was not designed for walkers in mind – another few hundred metres down the road before we found the entrance. We found a nice spot in the small tent area that I’d reserved – though when we were arrived we were the sole occupants of the whole place so we really had our pick of anywhere.

We were glad to find a large covered area (well large for 2 people) where we could dry out. The rain largely let up and we got a little bit of sun.

We were beginning to think we’d be the only ones for the night when around 7pm various parties began arriving. We watched on fascinated as a family pulled up in their new-looking ute and proceeded to pull out what appeared to be brand new camping gear. And then blow up their tent – no poles required it seems? Who needs television.

Our second day involved walking out to Wainuiomata where we could get public transport. Five Mile Creek Track also had wind-up bird noises so that delayed us getting going. Five Mile Creek Track was an enjoyable ascent to where it met the Clay Ridge Track. From there things got a bit steeper – but that was what we were there for – getting hills in our legs. Eventually we walked over the summit of Mt McKerrow (706m) – though there is just a knee-high metal pipe to mark the spot. We were fortunate that the cloud lifted enough for us to get views on the occasional spots where the forest opened.

Unfortunately once we started descending off Mt McKerrow the track deteriorated into bog. Every time I thought we might be through the worst of it we hit another patch. I’m not sure which surface I dislike walking on more – sand or mud – either way they are very close to the bottom of my least favoured.

Eventually the mud reduced and we made good time in the bottom section fortuitously popping out at Hine Road 5 minutes before a bus was due.

Nearing the longest day of the year and being a fair way south meant we had a lot of daylight to play with. So arrival at our accommodation at 5pm (somewhat delayed) was the perfect time to go for a 3 hour walk! (well… 1.5 – 3 hrs depending on who you believe) After all the dinner reservation wasn’t until 8:30pm.

We hadn’t been able to get as much walking (particularly hills) into our legs as we would have liked in preparation for this trip. And didn’t the Queenstown Hill Track let us know. The footpath out of the town centre and up to the official part of the walk was probably the steepest bit. Queenstown lies at 310m above sea level, and the Queenstown Hill Summit at 907m. A tidy 600m climb before dinner if you don’t mind.

Drizzle came and went as we powered up and in the end we got some lovely views over The Remarkables.

The next day we had hoped to do some climbing in the Remarkables but with a dodgy weather forecast we concluded an early-ish walk up Ben Lomond was a safer option. Early turned out to be not so early as the first gondola wasn’t until 9am. We decided with over 1,000m ascent even with the gondola skipping 400m we were hardly making it into an easy day.

Despite the weather forecast the morning was absolutely stellar. This track doesn’t give you a let up – you are almost always ascending, until you’re almost always descending. Good thing there’s so many views to stop and look at!

With the weather forecast to close in and deteriorate from mid-afternoon we thought we might be some of the last to summit. For whatever reason there were not many people arriving on the summit after we did and we had it largely to ourselves for lunch. I was subsequently surprised to start encountering plenty still trudging up as we got about a third of the way down. The weather never really got foul so they would have been ok, and this was the start of our distrust of the weather forecasts for the trip…

On our third day in Queenstown we cycled from Arrowtown to Gibbston (all we had time for before our flight). I don’t have any photos of that though as I left my camera with our luggage. Oops.

I wasn’t feeling it when the alarm went off. I still wasn’t feeling it when we started walking (though I was feeling severe DOMS in my hamstrings from two days earlier). Not helped by my walking pace for some reason being considerably slower than Tom & Jon so I kept getting left behind. And I can’t even blame my leg length! However, having endured the rough drive in* which I had no desire to ever repeat I figured I better make the most of the opportunity to explore this part of the world.

*some (most?) wouldn’t consider it that rough. But I dislike rough dirt roads. Particularly ones which I think we could get stuck on. I was glad to be in the back seat and stare out the window and pretend I didn’t know what the state of the road was.

Once we got off the old fire trail and into the off-track walking I had no problem keeping up with Jon and Tom. We started getting some cliff edges and the top of the rocky-ridge was an excellent spot for morning tea. Though as it turned out just below where we stopped would have been an even better spot. Apparently we were making good time as our morning tea spot had been Jon’s lunch spot on a previous trip.

All too soon the rocky scrambling came to an end and we were plunged into some pernicious mountain holly. I’m not sure if mountain holly is just what Tom & I call it – I tried googling it when I got home and found very little in the Australian context. Anyway, Tom assures me the scientific name is Podolobium ilicifolium – the inspiration for this blog post title. This was some of the largest stands of it that I’d seen in a long time. Fortunately it didn’t seem to co-exist with the Hardenbergia – that would be a combination from hell. The holly while prickly wasn’t tooooo bad to push through. After we left the thickets of holly we then had swathes of Hardenbergia – pretty but pretty annoying to get through.

By the time we got down to Bowens Creek I was hot! The day really felt like summer was on the way. I had a very quick swim – the water was bracing. But what a great spot for it.

After lunch we headed up a side creek which was surprisingly (to me at least – who hadn’t looked at any maps) vertical. We had some fun scrambling before exiting up another side creek.

Fortunately Jon found us a way out at the top of the creek – I had gone traversing looking for a break in the cliffs – which were always promising but didn’t deliver. A couple of exposed moves got us ‘out’.

Well, they got us through the cliff line. We still had a way to go to get onto the top of the ridge. Here we encountered more mountain holly, which then gave way to more Hardenbergia. Some way up I mentally ran out of steam and relinquished the lead to Tom. It was that sort of vegetation where you don’t even know where to go because everywhere is just a tangle of Hardenbergia and you have to fight for every metre.

It was only once we got to the saddle which had a gentle breeze I also realised how stifling it had been on the ascent up the slope. Fortunately the narrow ridge meant the vegetation thinned out and the next section was far more enjoyable.

I had been somewhat concerned we were going to get hit by a storm. Well, let’s be honest, I was more worried that the road out was going to get hit by a storm – and given how much I’d not enjoyed the drive in, a wet road going out was going to be even worse. But we didn’t get any rain. Back at the car Jon commented on a couple of drops of rain on the windscreen but that was it…. until we got to the gate. When Tom got out to open it we could see streams of water flowing everywhere. It seemed a cell had dumped there but missed us only a couple of kilometres away. The next 50m of road was the dodgiest – and not helped by having just been saturated. Jon’s car managed to get us up the slight slope on the second attempt and from there I could relax as we were back on the ‘good’ road. I was very grateful that we had taken Jon’s car and not ours.

We finished off the day with excellent Thai in Richmond. Today was a reminder of how rewarding day trips can be – though a little part of me felt ripped-off that we couldn’t hang about on the creek and enjoy it for a bit longer. I want to say another time… but I really don’t want to drive that road again.

Another plan made at 9:45pm the night before – which was a bit unfortunate as this would have been a good walk to invite some other people along on.

My research indicated a number of people on the interwebs had trouble finding the start of this walk and/or following the route once on the ground. There are several minutes of my life I will never get back. Much like a car crash you can’t look away from I started reading a blog which detailed 3 attempts (the final one being successful) on Mt Jellore – along with blow by blow conversations held during the drive there and while walking. I hope my blog readers don’t find my writing so tedious.

We had no issues deciding where the walk starts (though it is not sign-posted) and then finding our way through the mess of fire trails which punctuate the start of the walk. To be fair, it’s probably a lot easier now that the bush has come back after the fires. Tom noticed when we arrived that openstreetmaps had a loop option drawn, so we decided we’d try and do that rather than the usual out and back.

The surrounds were lovely and the sun was out. Early on we came upon a look out which was almost excellent. Other than Mt Jellore being directly behind the trees!

I had read about the creek crossing having ropes on both sides. We didn’t use them but I can see why you might want them, particularly in wetter conditions. The way the track has formed in this section is not ideal – straight up and down on each side. A re-routing which goes across the slope would alleviate erosion and remove the need for ropes.

Now that NPWS has taken over management of the area (rebranded as the Jellore Flora Reserve instead of Jellore State Forest) it would be nice if this walk became official – perhaps in the lead up to that the track could be re-routed. Of course, I doubt this is anywhere near the top of the priority list!

It was impressive how many sizeable pieces of sandstone had been put across the old 4WD tracks leading off Soapy Flat Road, so there’s definite evidence of attention being paid to the area.

Another place which has had considerable attention is the junction of the track with the private property fire trail. In an obvious attempt to funnel walkers around the private property a sizeable ‘entrance way’ has been built – along with a sign to “Soapy Flat Road”.

Tom wanted to check out where the loop route went off before we climbed Mt Jellore. While we were looking for any evidence of the route I found a cairn. So we thought that might be the start. Until I looked more closely and found a geocache – not that we could get the lid off.

I was somewhat surprised to find the side of Mt Jellore was quite cliffy – I had expected it to be completely rounded. Fortunately the track just works it’s way up the slopes, and other than early on in the climb, does a decent job of switch-backing through to the top.

Mt Jellore was the first trig station in NSW – established in 1828. Mt Jellore was chosen because it’s such a distinctive peak. Having seen it from so many places it was great to finally get on top.

We headed out past the trig to the rocky outcrops for lunch. We had a couple of wedgetailed eagles do a close fly-by – almost as impressive as the ones we saw at Mt Kaputar. Despite being a lovely sunny day the wind was brisk and there wasn’t much desire to linger once we’d finished eating.

After descending and having found no evidence of this ‘footway’ that was on openstreetmaps we decided we’d just go off-track for our return journey. There were a myriad of animal tracks so the going was relatively easy.

We were a bit surprised at the terrain we ended up crossing. After scaring off a couple of pigs we then found ourselves in a thorn thicket which we probably could have avoided with the benefit of hindsight.

Similarly we picked up an old fire trail on the ridge that we probably could have picked up earlier. Between old fire trails, animal tracks and relatively open bush we made reasonable progress to return to the main track after the thicket hell.

Back at the cars after 5 hours this was an enjoyable walk which got us back to Mittagong in time for afternoon tea before all the cafes shut!

Another week, another walk. This one had been overshadowed in the lead up with a not-so-bad that it should be cancelled, but not-so-good that it should definitely go ahead, weather forecast. In the end Tom decided it would be more work to try and come up with an alternative and we’d just dice with the rain.

It was raining when Jon picked us up at 5:45am which along with the early start wasn’t promoting positive feelings. But by the time we arrived in Mittagong, with plenty of time for a coffee, it wasn’t raining and things were looking up.

The highlights of this walk really came once we got to the cliffs lines – but that was a few hours walking away. During the morning the rain came and went but fortunately the scrub was a lot less intense than feared.

Tom’s recommendation to wear long pants had caused Jon a great deal of consternation before we’d departed but ultimately he had opted not just for long pants but also overpants. Despite this somehow I was in front for a decent period and by morning tea my trousers were saturated from the wet bush.

We were happy to get to some views for lunch, though the choice of lunch platform seemed to be a trial for some of the more cantankerous party members. Initially I was unhappy that the fine conditions changed to light drizzle as we started lunch, but then the most complete and intense rainbow I have ever witnessed filled the vista before us. Surely worth the damp for the spectacle!

After lunch we explored the nearby ridge and then keen people went looking for a pass through the cliff line.

Eventually we regained our packs and headed off towards Surveyors Crag. The water run en route was a bit more effort than expected – for both the effort through the vegetation and the amount we had to drop to find water. Subsequently we didn’t have a lot of time to set up camp before we lost the light on the cliffs. Nonetheless the views were still spectacular for a jovial happy hour.

A late spattering of rain sent most of us off to bed a little earlier than we might have gone otherwise. While Jon had suggested a band of rain was on the way it seemed to largely bypass us, and along with a reasonably windy night, the tents were dry in the morning.

A few of us got up for sunrise and we had breakfast in our happy spot looking over the Nattai valley.

I had found the remains of the logbook container in the cairn when we’d arrived on Saturday afternoon but hadn’t had time to poke around for anything else. On Sunday I was surprised to find the logbook, unprotected from the elements, other than being inside the trig cairn, still relatively intact.* The logbook hadn’t seen much use – a total of two entries since it was placed in 1996!

I know an SBW party visited the spot in May 2018 but they obviously didn’t fill it in. I had wondered about how that trip had gone as it was pre-fires and I imagined the scrub would have been quite bad. But when I went back and reviewed the trip report from the 2018 day walk it had been shortly after an RFS burn. The report concluded “I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for the recent burn we would most likely not have reached our destination in a single day without some very serious night walking.” (as it was they finished after dark).

Since we weren’t doing a day walk we had time for more exploration – so Sunday morning had us crossing a gully so we could get to what Tom had christened “Pointy Point”. (Look at the Hilltop map and you should be able to work out where Pointy Point is!)

The descent creek was a pleasant surprise. Scoured sandstone made for some fun rock-hopping and boulder-scrambling.

Getting up the other side was a completely different story. I took the lead in plunging uphill through dead incense plants, fallen trees and general vegetation. We eventually got to the top of the other side, which after the 2 hour crossing, meant it was morning tea time!

I think we were all relieved when the Pointy Point ridge was relatively easy walking. It would be interesting to know how much the 2018 RFS burn impacted how severely the different ridges burnt.

More splendid views and scrambling around edges of Pointy Point kept us entertained before lunch.

Tom had to shelve his idea of another gully crossing as we were running out of time. Post-lunch walking was something of a grind as we followed boring broad ridges and eventually retraced our route back to the cars. I was expecting a post-sunset finish so it was a bonus that we got back just before 5pm.

We capped the weekend off with an early dinner at the Mittagong RSL. Another fun weekend out in the bush with a boisterous party.

 

*While the logbook was in “relatively” good condition it was still very weather affected and so I took it & the remains of the container home with me. Future visitors won’t find a logbook unless a new one gets placed.

Caro put a Short Notice Walk on the Program which offered a short(er) drive from home, so we signed up. It ended up being a very satisfying weekend of exploring off the Mt Hay Road. And finished in time for afternoon tea in Leura on Sunday. As Tom would say “stoked!” 🙂

Possibly the earliest I’ve ever got up for a bushwalk? I dreamt that we’d slept through the alarm, and I was very pleased when we woke up and it was too late to do anything about it. That wasn’t how the day actually turned out (fortunately). I felt surprisingly good when the 4:30am alarm went off.

We had a good run through to Wog Wog even though the road from Marulan has plenty of potholes following the floods last year and enlarged by the recent rain. Turns out no one in the group was keen for a cold, possibly wet, night camping, and we all went for the Saturday morning drive. (Though some with significantly later alarms than me!) The car had shown -1°C not far from the campground and it was still very cold when we started walking.

Subsequently we were all thrilled when we discovered that the Wog Wog Creek crossing was going to involve a wade unless you had long legs and a good sense of balance. Tom & Mark #1 managed to leap across but the rest of us went barefoot. There was a disaster in the offing when Ljiljana couldn’t find one of her shoes which had been thrown across. Fortunately it was eventually located. Our feet took longer to recover from the crossing, it felt like hours before my toes were back to normal.

I was glad to get off the sodden, boggy track for some exploration just before lunch. We had a nice stroll down an open ridge (for the moment at least – the vegetation hasn’t come back as much as other places yet) and found a cave for lunch.

We oohed and aahed over views for most of the afternoon. Whether that be the distinct peak of Pigeon House Mountain, or a sun-drenched Monolith Valley, or just the 360°C panorama from Corang Peak, or of course the surprise of Corang Arch.

The forecast had been for rain to come through during Saturday night. It wasn’t wrong. Fortunately we were dryly tucked away in a cave. It was hard to tell how much it was raining as the waterfalls cascading off the tops were so noisy. As it turned out not an insignificant amount, as Canowie Brook was up a fair bit from the day before. With Sunday’s weather dawning cold, cloudy, windy with the odd-spattering of rain Jo decided (with plenty of support from the party, possibly even twisting her arm?) we would head directly back to the cars.

Wog Wog Creek was no longer a leaping prospect for anyone after it’s overnight rise. But, since our feet were wet already, it made getting across a lot less painful.

With the early finish we had time to head to the Nerriga Pub for lunch. A great weekend – easily moulded to suit the weather.

The forecast for Sydney was a month’s worth of rain on Sunday. Saturday and Monday weren’t far off similar totals. And it wasn’t just Sydney – a large swath of the surrounding area would also get the deluge. So it wasn’t a difficult decision when asked if I wanted to do the ACT Rogaine on Sunday. Canberra seemed to be just on the edge of the east coast low, and would hopefully avoid most of the precipitation. I was feeling slightly ripped off as the rain got heavier and heavier as we drove towards Canberra on Friday afternoon!

Saturday dawned dry, but cold and windy. By comparison with what was going on in Sydney we were in tropical heaven and so bushwalking we were going. Ali had suggested that we would encounter lots of long wet grass, but the wind dried everything out so that promise came to naught. We opted for something closer to Canberra and not too high – and what a great option it ended up being.

After being blasted by the wind as we wound our way around the base of the reserve, we soon warmed up once we dropped into the creek we planned to ascend. The creek was a delight – the rock was dry, otherwise it would have been a nightmare. Lots of easy scrambling and rock-hopping. And it just kept going.

Eventually we got to the waterfall which was the main attraction of the walk, we had morning tea on top but soon got moving again as the wind quickly chilled us.

It was a similar story on Big Monks Summit – not somewhere to stick around – but we were much more protected once we dropped off the side.

The final creek of the day was nowhere near as enjoyable as the other ones we’d walked in so Ali & I quickly made it back on to the tops. Soon we picked up the main trail and then it was just a contouring jaunt back to the car. An excellent walk for less than pleasant weather conditions (but no rain!).

ACT 4 Hour Winter Rogaine

The forecast on Sunday was worse but I had my fingers crossed we’d get a similar day to Saturday. This was mine & Jo’s first pairing in a rogaine and it went pretty well. I’ve never done a 4 hour rogaine before – an unusual length – but long enough to stretch the legs. Particularly since we chose the hilliest part of the course (since running wasn’t on our agenda).

We constantly leap-frogged a team of 4 for the first part of the day. We were pretty confused when only 2 of the team members seemed to actually go to each control. I think maybe each team only had two wrist-bands so the two which didn’t have them didn’t bother getting to the control – doesn’t really seem within the spirit of things. But anyway – they would run past us on the fire trails – we would then take a cross-country route to the next control, shortly after they would run past us again. Oh the feeling of smugness to come out ahead of them on the road.

We pulled out a 1st in the Women’s Division – but at 21st overall it wasn’t a particularly impressive victory. That said, there was only 60 points separating the 10 teams above us (810-870). The overall winners did have a resounding victory on 1400 points – second place 240 points behind them! Hartley Lifecare did a great job with the catering – can’t really go wrong with cheese toasties and soup on a coldy, windy day. The rain started as we were driving out to the main road – so winning all round!