The Ohau Track Clearance Misson

Trip: Ohau valley. South Ohau Hut via river; North Ohau Hut via river, Girdlestone Saddle, ridgeline and down spur; back to Poads Road via river.

Date: 10-13 Mar 2022

Trip Grade: M (off-track/nav, bowsaw and machete experience required)

Trampers: Mike Andrew and Janine

Notes:

• It is not 2 hours from South Ohau Hut to Girdlestone Saddle.

 

I had unfinished business.

Janine and I last went to South Ohau hut in January 2020 and we didn't like what we saw. The track from the hut up to Girdlestone had treefall all over it, and it took us about 2 hours to cover just a few hundred metres. It was like trying to climb across pick-up sticks. And frustratingly, I could tell that a few hours with a bow saw and machete and the bulk of it could be cleared, leaving just a few of the larger trunks to clamber over.

I vowed to come back.

Fast forward two years and a whole pandemic.

Here we were.

Unusual items in my tramping pile

Friday morning (the 12th) saw us up bright and early and hurtling towards Poads Road, stopping only for an Otaki coffee and pie for breakfast. 8:30am and we were on the track, with bold plans of smashing through to the hut by lunch and then heading up to the treefall site to recce and plan. These plans slowly unwound as the hours went on and we remembered that river travel is slow and tiring. And slow. "There by lunchtime" turned into there by 2:30pm, and we felt we'd done a good day's effort when we got there. I did the math. Up to treefall, back by nightfall, didn't give us very much time at all to actually do anything and left us more tired for the next day. 

We stayed put.

It was so good to see South Ohau Hut, and it was in stunning condition. TARHC had been in and thoroughly spruced the place up. Last time we were here there had been mold on the walls, dead flies in the window sliders and the place felt generally run down. Now it gleamed and smelt of fresh paint and cleaning products. Wonderful.

We settled in wearily with a few drinks and early dinner - pesto pasta and chorizo.

Around 7pm, just after we'd finished thirds just to clean up the leftovers - who did we see striding up the valley but a gangly figure in hi-viz. Andrew! He'd got away from work after all and had powered up the river to catch up. It was delightful to see him. Shame we had no food for him. But we did have tiramasu, and he came with craft beer to share.

Andrew's view of the hut as he arrives

Saturday morning we were up and away by 8am, ready for work and adventure. Janine had in mind to try getting to North Ohau hut via the ridge and spur. It would depend on how our tree clearance went but we packed up and took full packs with us just in case. 

Off to cut wood, just as the drizzle starts

The drizzle started as we left the hut. Just lightly. For now.

South Ohau to Girdlestone saddle starts off back in the South Ohau river. We followed it upstream another 45 min or so, just past a fork (you take the left fork). Here, big orange markers steer you steeply up the spur to the right to avoid Dowling Falls and the slippery mossy cliff climb with falls to sharp boulders below to threaten the smallest misstep. Ask Andrew how he knows.

It was still drizzling. Maybe even raining lightly. 

We very quickly came across the treefall and to our mixed emotions but mainly delight it appeared someone had been here before us. There had been determined clearing done already. But there was more to do. We sawed and pruned and slashed and cut and marked, and made the track clearer, more obvious and removed the last of the bigger boughs. But it took a lot less time than we expected. Before we knew it we were back at the river and a hard scramble up an ever steeper, rockier and more tricky ascent. We were climbing up and over rocks and treefall, scooting up the bank to get around the worst of it, and occasionally clambering up steep banks to get around small waterfalls. At one point coming back to the stream, Janine took a hard tumble off the bank and into the stream. Ouch! We struggled on.

The track - well more like a route now - restarted, then went back to the creek, then launched itself steeply up the spur to the right of the stream. It was properly raining by this time. Janine and I were tiring rapidly. Andrew, pleading extreme lack of fitness, politely waited for us as we scrambled and climbed and trudged.  

At last we topped out the spur, the terrain flattened off and we emerged at a welcome 3 way sign pointing onwards to Mangahuka hut, and right to Te Matawai hut. In my memory this intersection was a proper gravelly track but it was nothing like that - the barest of routes in all directions. (Maybe I'm mixing it up with Yeates track?). I decided that getting my jetboil on and feeding us hot drinks would raise our spirits. Miso soups all round. But my pack got distinctly soggy just in the time it took to unpack my stove. 

It had taken us around 4 hours to get here. We had spent a bit of time on track clearance, but the cheerful "Girdlestone 2 hours" sign at South Ohau is somewhat misleading!

After a very quick refuel we went neither straight nor right - we headed left, the only non-marked direction, to find our way along the ridge and to the spur above North Ohau hut.

At first it was tough going and difficult navigation. We shuffled along the ridge, having to drop off regularly to avoid tree fall, but needing to not drop too far and find our way back onto the broad, rounded ridge without inadvertently wandering down a spur. Janine and I were very grateful for Andrew's nav skills. Rain and clag meant that it was hard to tell where we were. Time lost its meaning as we kept on keeping on.

It's easy to see how people can get hypothermia. Every time we stopped to figure out where we were going we got cold really quickly and we needed to keep moving to keep warm.  A minor hurdle like a simple injury to treat could lead to worse things if you're not careful.

We began to ascend, which was the signal that we were reaching our highest point - the knob at spot height 865, at the top of Deception Spur (and we were not going to be deceived!). As we reached it, pink ribbons started marking our way. It's amazing what an uplift that is, to have some confirmation that you're going the right way.

The pink ribbons led us merrily on along the ridge and then down to the start of the North Ohau spur. We followed them on, with Andrew telling us how hard the spur descent would be. It was hard, but not as hard as he was expecting, though the pink ribbons may have had a lot to do with this. Little need to navigate and no chance of falling off the spur and ending up in the wrong place.

We were getting pretty tired but the rain let up and suddenly the pink ribbons lurched to the left and the hut hove into view, earlier than we expected. "Oh that's right, it's up on the terrace," said Andrew. The end of the rain, the start of the sunshine, and finding a warm dry hut are a great combination. 

The spur wasn't that bad but still, it had been a mission. 1km (horizontal) and 600m (down) had taken us from 3pm to 4:30pm.

No photos between leaving and arriving! Very grateful to see this place

North Ohau Hut is a cute wee thing. It's fairly new, seems to be same vintage as South Ohau. It's cozy inside with a wood burner and everything. But it's a small 4 bunk hut with very little room on the floor and no covered porch to sleep under. If you turned up and it was already full, you'd be in the wood shed. But, it's at a bit of a dead end so I don't think it gets much use other than hunters on their way into tiger country.

As I unpacked my bag, everything inside was a bit soggy. All the rain, the lunch stop with it open for a bit, and the fact that its rain cover didn't really fit around the saws and machetes, meant that there was definite seepage going on. This is when I also discovered that my cheap dry bags... weren't, all that much. And my sleeping bag was decidedly damp! Time for a new dry bag for it. 

It was sooo good to change into a dry t-shirt and enjoy the last rays of the sun. Our wet gear was festooned over the railings. All our leftover snacks and yummy things came out, and we sat around on the front deck chatting and eating. 

Soggy gear all drying

The hut was quite lacking in TLC. The woodshed was full of old tarps and empty of wood. Tools had been left out in the rain. There was rubbish left in the hut and the shelves were quite grimy. We did a bit of paying forward, tidying and cleaning and putting away. I made the most of having a proper saw with me and cut up a bit of the wood Janine foraged, ready for the next party.

Paying it forward with firewood

Dinner was a triumph, Janine's cottage pie that she'd prepared and brought in in icecream containers. Based loosely on this recipe it was just the comfort food we needed to recharge. There was heaps and even enough for my breakfast in the morning.

I curled up in my damp sleeping bag and was asleep in seconds. It wasn't so damp to cause me any grief and was dry by morning.

Sunday - at last, a day with no rush! We could have a leisurely breakfast and not concern ourselves with time. We had a short day ahead of us, down the river and back out.

North Ohau departure selfie

River travel out of North Ohau

I had difficulty finding a 'river stick' to walk with and ended up with something that was more like a small tree than a stick. Must have been good for my arm strength to lug that thing around all day.

On the way out we saw some familiar faces - the meetup tramping group were on their way to North Ohau hut for a daytrip. They were making great time and looked like they were all having fun. I heard later that a lot of swimming took place on the way back. There are certainly some great swimming holes in the Ohau river.

We took Andrew to "Rabbit Flat Hut", alas all it is now is a midden of mouldering plastic tarps and rubbish close to the river. A bit awful really. I think from now on I'm going to take just a bit of junk out every time I go past.

Relaxing at Rabbit Hut, well away from the rubbish

The trip out was smooth and fast, it always seems a bit quicker when you have get-there-itis on the last day. We introduced Andrew to the simple delights of the Deer Museum and Cafe/Bar before an uneventful drive home and a well earned rest.

I do like South Ohau Hut and I'm happy that I could give a little back to the tracks around it. Maybe in a hopefully post-Covid summer to come, I can take a few more Meetup trampers there and introduce them to it as well.

South Ohau Hut Revisited

Trip grade: EM but with Bush bashing. Maybe M but with a slower pace.

Sat: Poads Road - South Ohau Hut via Gable End and down 'Escape Route'
Sun: South Ohau Hut - Girdlestone - Te Matawai Hut - South Ohau Hut
Mon: South Ohau Hut - Poads Road via River

It's not often that a fairly standard tramp requires an alpine start, but I was up and ready to go at 3:30am. Angela, Toby and Tessa needed an airport drop-off for their week at Sunshine Coast, so a quick trip to the airport was on my itinerary as a warm-up for my three day adventure. (That's also why you're not hearing from Angela this week. Looks like they're having a fabulous time.)

After coming home and getting breakfast, my tramping buddy Janine and I were on the road at 7am. Brief stop at Paekakariki for coffee. 9am saw us parked up at Poads Road and beginning our walk in to South Ohau.

This is familiar territory for me having led a WTMC party into South Ohau on this same route about five years ago. But since it's a long weekend we were planning to add an additional loop to our hike for the Saturday.

I remembered the wander in pretty well. It seemed a bit longer this time and the kilometres didn't flow as fast as I remembered. Maybe that's because we walked in at night last time - our destination was modest so we got there faster.

A helpful person has attached reflective tape to the orange markers, which would have made our lives much easier five years ago - orange markers are nearly impossible to see in the dark unless you shine your torch right at them.

We met a few other walkers as we strolled - a couple of parties of kiwi women, and a very lanky fit American couple doing the TA (Te Araroa trail). Janine reminisced with them.

How much further?

At last we reached the Gable end turn off. It was hard. We were fairly slow. Near the top, there were many false peaks which gave us false hope. Janine practiced her 'hooray no more up today!' face many times for photos, only to discover there was a higher point awaiting us just around the corner.

NO MORE CLIMBING! (There was more climbing)

There were a lot of muddy patches in the track that could either be up to your boot soles or suck your legs in, the only way to tell was to walk through them.

We had phone reception on the Gable End track, and the other Gilberts had reached Perigian Springs by now. It was quite surreal to be swapping photos of Janine and I slogging through mud, with Angela and Toby and Tessa hanging out by the pool in the Queensland heat.

Finally we reached Point 930 on the map, and the bush-bash route descended exactly from there. It was still very well marked with little signs made from old metal venetian blinds.

Gable End Escape Route (larger map)

Down we went. It was a lot harder than I remembered. In the five years since I'd been there last, either the route had got more overgrown, or I'd got five years older. Possibly both. But it was steep. Leatherwood gave way to slippery tussock and then beech forest. Two hours of slipping and scrambling.

The route was still very well marked with pink ribbon this time. Last time there was a plethora of yellow 'keep out' plastic tape tied everywhere, including lots that had fallen on the ground and I'd picked up and kept in my pack for marking trails in future. It was great that I still had this original yellow tape and could tie it back up to fill in gaps in the pink ribbons. The original yellow tape could still be found occasionally but very bleached and rotten. It turned into confetti if you touched it.

Janine really loved this part of the trip. At the end she enthusiastically stated, “I will never, ever go down that trail, ever ever again.”

Me? My legs very tired from Thursday squats at the gym. With my new QBPT knowledge I could identify when my glutes, adductors, hamstrings and core hurt, individually. I could hardly bend by the end of the trip, hobbling around and not wanting to bend over to pick things up because I could neither get down nor up again.

South Ohau hut is still lovely and a great sight after the steep bash. It was just downstream of where we emerged - maybe 50m or so. But the hut was certainly quite tired now. The stove door is broken. Black mould on the walls is a bit of a worry.

It seems to just wipe off, though

We shared the hut with Tim and Mia, a wonderful couple on their first weekend trip out. They were a little unconfident but nailing it.

Andrew (on his March 2019 trip) and The Shit Weasel both showed up in the intentions book, along with lots of people hating the "escape route".

Neither of us were particularly hungry so we shared a back country meal along with cheese hummus and crackers.

My alpine start was really catching up with me so it was early to bed. I slept on the porch, just because. I think the others were worried that I would freeze out there, but I was a bit too warm if anything. Such a glorious night. I slept so well - it's funny but I sleep far better on the porch of a hut with a thin sleeping mat than I do at home.

Sunday morning saw a leisurely start from us, eventually we left the hut around 9am. I carried Janine's pack with just enough for the day in it, and we left everything else behind.

Janine's Tararua park map had a route just above the river marked, so we blundered about on the Yeates track (which left from just behind the hut) looking for it. We eventually decided that it didn’t exist and went back to the river to follow it up.

Girdlestone loop (larger map)

The river was absolutely stunning. Dappled morning light shone on us through slots in the gorge. The water was clear and cool.

An unexpected orange triangle greeted us at the tributary we were to follow to Girdlestone Saddle, pointing us away from the river and Dowling Falls, and steeply up the spur beside it. More of a route than the “escape route" bash, but still steep and a scramble. We had to keep our eyes out for markers.

Janine observed that legs of a 6 foot person were doing a lot better going up the steep steps than those of a 5’4” person.

We expected the track to show us Dowling Falls on the way, but not to be. No falls. No views.

Around the 460m contour, the track abruptly stopped with large amounts of tree fall that seemed to go on forever. A storm had clearly lashed that part of the spur. Luckily I'd put my folding hand saw into the pack and I made the most of it, clearing the smaller of the fallen trees as well as regrowth over the track. It was difficult to know where the track was supposed to go, as well as if we'd ever actually get to the end of this pickup sticks traverse! But eventually after about 50-100 metres - it was such hard going that it was tough to estimate the distance - the orange markers and semblance of track resumed.

If you're planning on heading up this spur, take a something to clear the more of the tree fall. An hour or so with a bow saw or a hatchet would make life so much easier, both for finding the way and for making it less of a scramble.

Eventually the track took us back to stream and a nice little lunch spot.

Now the stream was steep, rocky and tricky. We were climbing and scrambling rather than gently wading. On a particularly hard bit I chose to bash up the gorge face instead which needed 3 points of contact. Just above me Janine found where the route restarted and followed it; luckily I could sidle around to find her and continue on the route again.

Then we were back in familiar territory of a steep scrambly route that seemed never ending. But finally, five hours after we left, we emerged at Girdlestone and a sign pointing back the way we came saying "South Ohau Hut - 2h". Yeah, nah.

I'LL GIVE YOU TWO HOURS!

From here on we were on a straightforward track, and kept to the DOC pace which made the 2h sign even funnier.

DOC lies.

The next crossroads on the ridge

The track is nice

Our next destination was Te Matawai hut, to find a few jovial TA trampers there drying tents and clothes. Janine doesn't like this hut. I thought it was okay. I could see it would be feral with lots of people. It gets lots of use, the hut book was totally full and had loose leaf papers slipped into the back.

And now we go down

Our final section was the Yeates track back to South Ohau Hut.  It was ok, a well formed track that got steadily steeper but only really steep for last 500m or so - which happened to be the bit we blundered up and down looking for the fictitious route on the Tararua Park map.

After the spur track I was up for cutting any tree fall I found

We reached South Ohau Hut around 6;30pm. 9.5 hours after we left!  This was supposed to be an easy day. We met our new hut mate Callum who was relieved to see us, he was eyeing our abandoned sleeping bags a bit nervously and wondering if he needed to get Search and Rescue involved. Callum is a TA walker but detouring to get away from the crowds and do his own thing for a few days.

Tonight we shared Janine's dinner, which was Shepherd's pie. Dehydrated mince with surprise peas and corn, Maggi shepherds pie mix, a tomato sauce, and potato flakes topping. It was so yummy and you felt like you'd cooked something (though 'assembled' is probably a better description.

Next morning we were up, fed and out by around 8am, off up river again to sort out some unfinished business - Dowling Falls. With such a prominent marking on the map, they must be spectacular and definitely not to be missed.

We made good time to the tributary and ignored the orange marker to carry on up the side stream.  It was gorgy and rough and needed lots of climbing. But, we were at the falls in 10 min.

At one point we were using a fallen log as a bridge

Um, OK.

Dowling Falls were everything I was expecting them to be - uninspiring and small. Don’t bother. They're also impassible (unless you like free climbing steep mossy rock faces) so stick to the spur track.

Janine rated them "Not as bad as I thought they could have been - from very low expectations." Not the most gushing praise I've ever heard.

We wandered back to hut to find Callum packed up and gone. We spent a while cleaning it since it was quite dirty and had lots of rubbish left behind too which we put in our packs.

If you want to increase your karma, carry in some bleach, scrubbing brushes and chux cloths next time you're heading there, so that you (or someone else) has the gear to clean down the dirty dusty shelves and mainly the mouldy walls. The little we did showed that the mould wiped straight off the paint so not a big job right now. An hour of your time one rainy day stuck in there would see the place right.

It's a bit sad to see a relatively new hut so unloved and tired already.

Anyways, 10am saw us heading down river. The route was a bit fiddly and slippy with slick boulders, deep pools (though neither of us got our undies wet!) and big rocks to climb over. We met a few people on the way, heading out or heading in, with all sorts of adventures in mind or done.

Lunch just past the North Ohau tributary

Feet shot just for Angela

After we passed the North Ohau junction around 11:30am, the going got easier. More water meant more gravel, bigger beaches and more predictable travel. We were out of the river and back on the Poads Road track just after 2:00pm which was faster than we expected.

At the car at 3:30pm - I'm claiming it as an 7.5 hour day, even though some of that time was hut cleaning - and off to a glorious old school venison burger at the glorious old school pub attached to the Manakau Deer Museum. I think that'll be my after-tramp stop whenever I'm in the area now.

Yum

What a great long weekend that was. This trip has a little of everything and slipping in the Girdlestone loop was an extra bonus. I certainly found it hard though, it was a lot harder than other gentler formed tracks I've done recently. Time to get my route finding legs back!