Girdlestone Saddle from Poads Road End 13-15/08/2010

Aims

• Remove any religious matter from huts and return to rightful owner.
• Drink some tasty tasty whisky.
• Leave only footprints.
• Friday - Drive to Poads Road end and walk to South Ohau hut.
• Saturday - Leave with light pack as return here tonite, will require an early start. Up to Te Matawai and onto Pukematawai, Arete, along Dundas to Mt Dundas and down Triangle spur to Mangahao River (find the pink tape), up river and over Girdlestone Saddle and down Dowling Falls to South Ohau hut.
• Sunday - Leisurely sleep in and then down the river to the car and drive back to Wellington.

The malt for this trip is Caol Ila 8yo cask strength unpeated:

Friday 13/08/2010
Left Wellington and drove to Poads Road end, argued with someone else where we would go as someone else couldn't hack the idea of walking to Te Matawai in the rain. We settled on Waiopehu Hut which means the real trip won't happen. Which means a serious trip cant be done with someone else, serious trips of 8 hour plus days are just for me.

Seen a snail in the dark on the way up there, my head torch lite it up and by the time I took a photo it was halfway back into its shell.

So we walked to Waiophehu and I got there about 2 am with big large dots of rain falling down and someone else arrived 30 minutes later. 

Saturday 14/08/2010
We woke up late and wandered off to Te Matawai and got the fire going and crashed.

Sunday 15/08/2010
A leisurely sleep in and tidy up of the hut. Up the hill to the turn off and down to Girdlestone Saddle. Nice walk with a good view into the Mangahao valley and view of Triangle spur.

At Girdlestone saddle we took the fork to Dowling Falls and meet a solitary tramper on his way up. Worn and tagged track into the creek then 10 minutes down theres a tagged track that heads up onto a spur that bypasses the waterfull. We headed on down to the waterfall for a look. Its a narrow steep sided gully, very slippery and looks like it has at least two steps to it. Will be back in the summertime with a rope and slings to go down it.

Backup to the waterfall sidle track and on down into the Ohau. Not far at all to South Ohau hut. Its really not that bad and theres more of a track than the map lets on.Spotted this very good example of the birds egg fungi just before South Ohau.

And not far from the hut is this unfortunate beast in the creek.

After lunch at South Ohau hut we where off down South Ohau again, water level up after Fridays rain so plenty of wading in the creek.

Te Matawai --> Girdlestone Saddle 40 minutes
Girdlestone Saddle --> Creek 10 minutes
Creek --> Dowling Waterfall bypass 20 minutes
Dowling Waterfall bypass --> South Ohau Hut 15 minutes
South Ohau Hut --> Track 1 hour 27 minutes
Track --> Poads Road End 48 minutes
 
Map

Cleaned hut as usual.

Sweep out the dirt the dust and the religious tract. Left only footprints. If there where rules to follow (not that I would) nowhere does it say leave bibles.

The number of fish that grow legs and walked away is not on the increase yet.