Dorset Creek 29/04/2011 - 01/05/2011

We had planned a wet weather trip on the West side and in the bush. The weather that arrived was too good for a bush trip so Friday morning we swapped it for a top tour involving Dorset Ridge hut from the East side. Wasn't till we where leaving Upper Hutt that we realised we had no maps for this trip. BN33 and BP33 where in my pack, not BP34 and BN34. A drive around Upper Hutt looking for maps was a waste of time. Junk food, booze, and videos where available; no maps.
So it became a Carl and Ian track Not Maintained trip in the Taurarua's without maps. The plan was a circuit starting from Holdsworth Road end into Jumbo hut Friday night; then over Broken Axe Pinnacles and down into Dorset Creek from the Kings and back out via ridge to McGregor biv.

Friday 29/04/2011
We eventually got to Holdsworth Road end and headed off to Jumbo hut at ten to nine, stopping at Aitiwhakatu to remove a layer and leave trail crumbs in the hut book. Was a good fast trip and from road end to Jumbo was a wee bit less than three hours, and still plenty of time to take in the night life and fungi.

 Saturday 30/04/2011
We had woken the hut occupants with our late arrival and they took it gracefully as when we mentioned we where map less they generously lent us their map. However the amount of snow on the tops changed the plan a few times. We left Jumbo and headed on up to Angle Knob getting into snow with conditions alternating between hard and soft. With no ice axes and wearing runners we decided to reverse the trip heading down to McGregor biv. Aiming to drop down the ridge into Dorset creek and up to Dorset hut for the night, and on Sunday returning the same way or going out up to North King and over the Broken Axe Pinacles. It was a clear sunny day with great views.

Girdlestone looked quite impressive with its dusting of snow.

The tarn above McGregor biv.

The track not maintained down to Dorset Creek took us longer as we wasted time looking for where others had gone. In the end we headed north and ended up in Dorset Creek above the bluffs. Instead of a gentle easy wander up a creek we encountered a deep raging slippery cold gorge. We had not factored in the massive snow melt. It took us a couple of hours to progress about a kilometer. A couple of places we had to climb up and traverse above bluffs as the creeks depth and current was not safe at all. This was one of those tramps that could easily turn to shit if the weather went bad. We found a flat spot and built a biv for the night out of punga ferns as we had no fly or mattresses.

Sunday 01/05/2011
It never rained in the night which was very pleasing as dawn allowed us to see the holes in our biv's roof. Cold for me as I had a lightweight summer sleeping bag, had expected to be in a warm hut.

The walk back down Dorset creek was much easier than the day before as the level had dropped at least .5 of a meter. We did not have to go over bluffs and the current wasnt a worry. It was an easy relaxing walk back the way we had come. Even the navigation up to the old track was a breeze. Another example of the milipede, but this one in day light. It was probably dead.

With grass this long we understand why its a Track Not Maintained.

Here is another photo of Girdlestone showing how quick the snow has melted.

A view of the Broken Axe Pinacles with the Northerly coming on strong and a drop in temperature. We where glad to be getting off the tops.

One last part was to return the map lent to us on our way home. We plan to do this in the summer when the water is low and the temperature more comfortable. Dorset creek is another of the amazing little gorges in the Tararua ranges.


Trip Times
Friday
2050 Left Holdsworth car park heading to Atiwhakatu
2214 At Atiwhakatu hut.
2218 Left Atiwhakatu hut.
2347 At Jumbo hut.
Saturday
0859 Left Jumbo hut.
0922 At Holdsworth turnoff.
1054 McGregor turnoff.
1130 McGregor Biv.
1222 Left McGregor Biv.
1534 Access into Dorset Creek.
1700ish Set up a biv.
Sunday
0810 Left biv site.
0852 At yesterdays access point
1125 At McGregor Biv.
1237 Left McGregor Biv.
1315 At McGregor turnoff.
1408 At Holdsworth turnoff.
1421 At Jumbo hut.
1431 Left Jumbo hut.
1505 At Atiwhakatu hut.
1507 Left Atiwhakatu hut.
1636 At car Holdsworth road end.

Map of the Location


The Tidyup
On the way out there was a bit of trash at Atiwhakatu, its been removed and will soon be on its way back to the wee small minds that left it there.

Thank You Stuff
A big thank you to Ian for the loan of the map and the Tui when we dropped it off.