4-6 November 2022

Leader: Owen Cox

This was a three day trip from the Ohau River to Otaki Forks via Oriwa Ridge.

Oriwa Ridge is one of the few long ridges left without a track down it, and in the past it had a reputation for having fearsome bush bashing. This was due to storm damage long ago, with numerous windfalls and thickets of horopito.

On Friday I was to meet David at Waikanae and then the other two at the roadend. Our first hiccup was they cancelled the train so we were late starting. We walked into Waiopehu Hut at a steady pace for a late lunch. We then climbed up through mist to the old trig point of Waiopehu and dropped down the spur to the first saddle. On the way down we picked up a tape line which made life easy. This then continued to Oriwa and the Lake Hollow. We arrived here in about 2.5 hours from Waiopehu. We camped in the good campsite on the west side of the Hollow. There used to be a bivy here but that was taken out and shortly after, DoC put in a small structure and water tank to supply water. The mist settling on trees meant we had wet tents despite there being no real rain.

We were up early on Saturday for the walk down the ridge. We crossed the Hollow and then climbed up the taped line to just before Oriwa. The tape ended there so we did have the joy of a bit of navigation. This wasn’t hard as we had innumerable GPS gadgets, maps and compass. The bush was pretty open going, as most of the old windthrow has rotted away and the horopito wasn’t to thick. One depressing point was for a few hours higher on the ridge we saw no beech regeneration or saplings. Other than that all was sweet, and we had no trouble with the odd kink and drops along the ridge.

After lunch we dropped down the leading spur to reach the flat by Waitewaewae Forks late in the afternoon. We dropped into the Waitewaewae riverbed off the side of the flat and walked down to the forks and then down the Otaki River to Waitewaewae Hut for the night. Just us and a couple of tired TA walkers.

Sunday was the walk out over the Waitewaewae track. A steady plod to the Plateau then the horrible new sidle to the tram track. We had lunch just past the last good creek before the climb over the shoulder to the Otaki bridge. I managed to pull a muscle (yes I still have a couple) crossing that last creek so the first little grovel around the new slipping was a bit of a pain. Then it was a limp down to the bridge and on to the Waiotauru. At the Waiotauru it was hot enough for me to take a dunk in the river.

Then we did the hour walk down the road, over the Blue Slip to the carpark. I waited here while the Levin car took David north to get his car.

In all an awesome trip.

Those on the trip were:

David Williams, Marcia Goode, Owen Cox, Viv Roberts

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.