Mitre From Cow Creek - Pines Road End 16th July 2010

Back to Mitre Flats hut, this time from the Pines with a walk on a track Ive never done and another "track not maintained" Ive never done. Weather stuff is predicating a good day on sunday? Worth a shot and much better than stuck in a town box with more illness.

Aims

• Friday - Drive to the Pines and walk to Mitre Flats hut.
• Saturday - Up Waingawa river to Cow Creek hut.
• Sunday - Walk out to the Pines by going up Table Ridge to Brockett then to Mitre and down to the flats and back out to the car.

The Single Malt Whisky
No whisky as I have a viral upper respiratory tract infection.

Friday 16/07/2010

1621 Left the Pines on my way to Mitre Flats hut.
1742 Time for torch.
1832 At the hut. Fire, food, relax.

Saturday 17/07/2010

1157 Left Mitre Flats hut for Cow Creek hut up the Waingawa River track before it rains.

1342 On the open grass flats
1400 'ish raining now no longer drizzle.
1421 At Cow Creek hut with the rain non stop all night.

Why would somebody carry in a small booklet titled "Ultimate Questions" and leave it in a hut? This booklet is deranged, read the following paragraph from it.

"Is anyone there? This is the fundamental question. If god does not exist, searching for him is pointless: for he that cometh to god must beleive that he is. While it is impossible to 'prove' god in a mathamatical sense, the evidence is very convincing."

Sunday 18/07/2010

This is not a serious tramp it is a recovery from VURTI so a sleep in is required. Might as well wait till the bush is dry.

1151 Leave Cow Creek hut after finally making a decision that it is not to late to head over the tops.
1217 At the Table Ridge sign posted turnoff. Love these "track not maintained" things. Such an easy track to follow with thanks to the person or persons who blue taped it. Meet a dear up towards the top of the bush, common occurrence on "track not maintained".
1306 At a bush cairn.
1312 Out of the bush into sunshine.
1348 On top of Table Ridge and no views anywhere. Visability of a few hundred meters, no wind, no rain. Comfortable walking weather.
1433 At the tarn on Table Ridge. Frozen and sculptured on the edges.

Looking back down the ridge on the way to Mitre.

1500 On Brockett.
1538 On Mitre Peak with its fresh looking cairn.

1618 Bush entrance off Peggys Peak.
1700 Mitre Flats hut and time to stop for food and drink.
1733 Left Mitre Flats hut and heading to the car at the Pines.
1943 Car.

Map of walking

DOCware

Clean hut.

The number of fish that grow legs and walk away is on the increase.

Mitre Flats from Holdsworth 09 - 11 July 2010

Tramp with Adrian, maybe Mid King biv this time?

Aims

• Friday - Drive to Holdsworth and walk to Aitiwhakatu or Jumbo, depending on weather.
• Saturday - Over the tops or up some creek to Mid King biv.
• Sunday - Walk out to Holdsworth and drive back to Wellington.

The Single Malt Whisky
MACLEOD's 8yo Islay

Friday 09/07/2010
We started from the Holdsworth car park at five p.m. heading for Aitiwhakatu hut one and a half hours away. Nice walk in and arrived at a warm the hut, as two there had a fire going. Tasted that whisky.

Saturday 10/07/2010
Left Aitiwhakatu hut and headed off up Baldy hoping for Mid King biv.
On the way up Baldy.

West view into the cold grey.

The East view of sunshine. Cold and icy here in my wet running shoes; wished I had my ice axe as quite slippery. ABORT for Mid King Biv once again.

Back to the junction and time for lunch. Hassled Adrian for the large rigid plastic box; a typical tramper item. When will they learn that excess weight and volume eaters equal large packs!

1252 Leaving Baldy junction for Mitre Flats hut.
1515 At Mitre Flats hut.

Sunday 11/07/2010

We split up on Sunday each taking a route out to different road ends.
0827 Left Mitre Flats hut
1014 Junction to Baldy.
1058 Aitiwhakatu hut.
1206 Holdsworth car park.

Meet up at the pines and had a nice drive home with a stop for food in Carterton at some cafe where the coffee was good.

Map of area

and the fish's legs didn't grow.

Mangahao Upper No. 1 Reservoir 02/07/2010

This tramp is all about checking out a hut I have never been too and of course another of those "track not maintained" things. Its a tramp shared with a couple of somebodies; there's somebody and somebody else.  Somebody speaks with a bit of an accent and somebody else is an artist. And me, I went too.

Aims

• Religious propaganda free Tararua's.
• Friday - Drive to end of Mangahao Road and park at the Upper No. 1; walk to the hut in the dark; sample some whisky and sleep.
• Saturday - Do the Triangle Spur route to Dundas then across to Arete and down to Te Matawai for the night.
• Sunday - Walk out over Girdlestone saddle and drive back to Wellington.

The Single Malt Whisky
For this trip it was a repeat of the delicious powerful Caol Ila from Adelphi.

Friday 02/07/2010
Left Wellington around 1400 and drove North. Parked at the dam and somebody else took off in a great rush while somebody stared at the camera.

As we walked to the Mangahoa Flats hut it got dark. Somebody got lost. Somebody else got to the hut after me.

At the hut we had whisky and we had beer and we got re united with somebody who got lost. Not a serious lost they will have you know, just one of those tempory lostnesses that are very quickly cured with some application of electronic gadgetery in the form of a gee pee ess.  

Saturday 03/07/2010
This is the day the aims fail. Out of bed late with a normal damp mid winter Tararua day. Headed up the valley and walked past "track not maintained" as it wasn't so obvious except for the paint on the tree, so we realised our error at the next flat spot and turned around and headed back Somebody and somebody else decided that they didn't want to head up Triangle spur and over Dundas to Arete and down to Te Matawai for the night. They went back to the hut for some r & r.

Oh well different energy levels. I headed up the spur and thru the regrowth where the old track was hard to find pink taped a trail to make it easy next time I'm there. Got to here or somewhere about here a bit of a dogleg with an easier track.

Then back to Mangahao Flats hut to be with somebody and somebody else and drink the rest of our whisky and keep ourselves warm with fire.

Sunday 04/07/2010

We swept and we cleaned as that hut wasnt so tidy when we arrived. Headed out to a very fine day and took pictures of some nice orange lichen stuff living on the rocks. Persuaded somebody else to NOT build a cairn of those perfectly happy orange lichen stuffs living on rocks.

Down the Mangahoa river back to the car and a slow drive back to Wellington.

At least there was one nice LBM on the way out:

And the dead standing trees, man at his best.

A map of the area wandered.

coming soon.

and there was no density to remove from huts...