4-5 December 2021

Leader: Owen Cox

We had a few wet days leading up to this weekend and the forecast was for light rain but not too much. The forecast also had the rain returning on Sunday evening and a deluge for the following days.

We started at Ohau with the walk into the Blackwater Forks. The only excitement was the new gravel around the slip just at the Blackwater Stream. It climbs steeply to the 6 disc track and you then drop down that to the Blackwater Stream bridge. We had our first stop by the Ohau River just above the Gable End Ridge turn-off. The river was up but not huge. So we flagged thoughts of going up the North Ohau because of the depth of the river. We did follow the river to the fork of the North and South Ohau rivers. Much wetter than usual and many crossings were over our waists so relatively slow travel with linking up for crossings. In place of the planned route to the Mangahao River we headed up Deception Spur. Apart from the odd semi-verticle bit at the bottom (with accompanying wet kiekie) this was straightforward to the ridge between the Ohau and the Mangahao. Once we’d hit the ridge we headed south down the ridge before dropping down a side spur to the Mangahao River near the old Avalanche Flats Hut site. There were occasional blazes on Deception Spur and the route down into the Mangahao.

Given the weather and how wet the ground was we decided to head to Te Matawai Hut rather than camp by the Mangahao River. We followed (more or less) the track up the Mangahao. As we crossed the main headwater there was a bit of a downpour. Fortunately this eased as we got to the the Girdlestone Saddle track. The climb from the Saddle to Te Matawai was on a better track with a steady but not too steep climb.

Nice to get to an empty hut after a longer than planned day with the high river and the rain. Our Te Araroa Trust reps toasted the 10th Anniversary of the Te Araroa Trail and shared a few muffins. It rained most of the night.

On Sunday we set off in light rain to head back down via Gable End Ridge on the assumption that the Ohau gorge would be a bit wet. The rain soon stopped for the bit over Richards Knob. We then headed over Gable End, skirting mud where possible, and had lunch not long before the ridge drops. The down stretch has only a few muddy stretches near the top.

We then retraced our route in, from the Blackwater track to the carpark.

Those on the trip were:

Marcia Goode, Marian Cox, Owen Cox, Paula Richardson, Rob Dey, Paul Stephenson

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.