29 December to 2 January 2021

Leader: Owen Cox

The idea was to have a bit of time to enjoy the upper Otaki Valley in summer conditions. We were lucky with the weather window for this trip as while the weather either side was damp we had fine weather pretty much right through.

We started from Poads Road heading up the Ohau. Only thing of note before we hit the river was another slump in the slip just before the Blackwater Stream bridge. Not hard to cross but you could get a few bruises if you slip. From there we headed up the river towards South Ohau. The gorge in the South Ohau was a bit slow so we cut the day short at South Ohau Hut at 4pm.

The next day we headed up the Yeates 500 with the first bit being a slow plod. Once we had done the steep bit it was quite pleasant. We then headed towards Te Matawai Hut before dropping down the old culler’s route to the Otaki. The top of this is marked by two yellow triangles and a Permolat marker (which all face towards Te Matawai Hut if you are looking for them). On hitting the river we enjoyed a break on the small flat near the bottom of the spur. The rest of the morning and the early afternoon were spent wandering down the riverbed to Otaki Hut (also known as Mid-Otaki Hut). Some wonderful pools. We reached the open valley and the hut around 3pm, disturbing a nice-sized stag in velvet next to the Otaki Hut. The rest of the afternoon was taken up pitching tents, lazing in the sun and getting a fire going.

The 31st was more going down the river at a leisurely pace. We stopped to camp on a small flat early in the afternoon beside a nice pool for swimming. This had a couple of trout and an eel.

On New Years Day we spent about an hour and a half to two hours getting down to the Waitewaewae Otaki Forks. We did the easy sidle around the deep pool about one and half km above the forks (in contrast to last year when we stayed in the riverbed a bit longer and then had to grovel up to the terrace). From the forks we headed up the Waitewaewae River to Island Forks Hut. Lunchtime was very hot so we lunched in the shade by the first of the grassy flats around Chaney Creek. After the flats the river closes in a bit and there are a few deepish wades (waist deep on me but a bit higher on some others). A couple of hours up from the flats we got the fork of the East and West branches of the Waitewaewae River. Island Forks Hut us just up the East Waitewaewae River. Sue used the hut while the rest of us camped on the flats below the hut. We lazed about the flat, and I found a readable Penguin book on India and managed to finish it before evening.

The last morning looked a bit grey and like rain. We headed up the West Waitewaewae River, passing Island Forks and the island (the forks are where Prout Stream meets the West Waitewaewae River) in about 40 minutes. Still a few deep wades despite the river being quite small at this stage. At a couple of points we came to small log jams where slips had come down and left fallen trees across the stream. We clambered through these. A couple of side streams past Mick Stream we came to the spur up to point 828 on the ridge running north from Mick. There is a very old mossy cairn on a rock in the side creek marking the spur. We then climbed about 400 metres to the ridge. The spur is reasonably open and old track work in the form of occasional chain-sawed logs. Pretty old track work as these are well mossed over. We had lunch on 828 and then headed north along the informal track to join up with the old logging tracks that lead to Mt Thompson and then to either the Waitohu or the Waikawa Streams. At Mt Thompson we headed north towards the Waikawa Stream. The last couple of kilometres down to the Waikawa DoC Campsite and the car were on new forestry roads through pines.

The Otaki and Waitewaewae catchments are very quiet now – we saw no one between the Yeates Track and the road end at the Waikawa Stream. Heaps of goats, trout and some deer and some wonderful forest and river pools. And one stoat swimming cross the head of the Otaki. Not much birdlife though.

Those on the trip were:

Owen Cox, Marian Cox, Chris Keating, Glenda Robb, Sue Pate