25-27 April 2025

Leader: Glen Cattermole

This trip was proposed and deferred a couple of times but finally the plan was firmed up for ANZAC weekend, with 3 starters; Glen, Gordon, and Viv. Sadly, Glen became unwell and had to pull out a couple of days before. So Gordon and I headed off on Friday morning to take ourselves to Cow Creek Hut. We did a leisurely pace… I mean ‘I did’, and Gordon tolerated it! We took approximately 6 hours from the road end to Cow Creek Hut – all good.

On Saturday we headed up to Arete Forks, taking only ‘daypack’ stuff and leaving our sleeping bags etc in the hut. Off we went along the marked sidle track - this looks fairly innocent on the map and there has been a moderate amount of work done on it approximately one year ago. The track was well marked BUT there are 6 creeks to cross on the map and 2 or 3 other smaller trickles. Each creek crossing meant ~100 m down to the creek and 100 m back up the other side, so a total climb of something like 700 m from where the track diverges from the route up to Table Ridge ~250 m up from the hut. We got to Arete Forks Hut after ~4½ hours. We looked at the map and figured that the route going over Table Ridge was only another 100 m or so more of a climb, so made the decision to go back via the ridge. At that point there was minimal cloud, and light wind.

The track from Arete Forks to Table Ridge was fairly well marked with venetian blind pieces up to the bushline and was a steady upward slog. However by the time we got there, the wind had come up, although the sky was not too bad. There were a few cairns to guide us, but as we got higher, they became steadily less, and with the wind it was not always easy to decide where to go. As we got higher, we could see a cloud coming in and before long we were in significant wind with medium rain and reduced visibility. My estimate of the wind was 80 kph; Gordon felt it was more like 100, so I guess the truth was 80 with gusts of 100. The visibility got down to about 30 m at one stage. With the unfavourable weather we took a while to get over the top and down the other side, and then the track from the ‘high point’ of 1390 m did not seem to be marked at all and we were effectively following a non-existent line down the spur by the blue dot on our phones’ maps. With the wind, rain and reduced visibility, our trip was slow indeed. Additionally we had quite a bit of difficulty deciding which spur to go down because the one that looked obvious did not lead to Cow Creek Hut but instead to about half way down the Waingawa River track. There was no marker or cairn at the top of this spur but we did find several cairns on the way down to it.

We didn’t get to the bushline till just on dark and sadly we had not arrived at the expected entry to the bush. On reflection I think we were perhaps 50 – 100 m to the North. We were then bush-bashing by headlight across the spur, heading right, in the hope of meeting some markers. We did eventually find some, but they petered out fairly soon afterwards, and we were back to bush-bashing again. After another ¾ - 1 hour, my headtorch died so I was reduced to the ‘torch’ app on my phone! We did eventually regain the proper track and were very glad to follow the markers down the hill. On arriving at Cow Creek Hut we found a couple of other intrepid trampers who said they were starting to worry about the owners of the sleeping bags we had left on the bunk. That effort took us 7½ hours give or take. This was mainly because we struggled to follow the track and didn’t always completely agree which way to go. After a while I figured Gordon was better than me at that stuff, however in my defence I have never been bush-bashing in the dark before, and these things are always a team event.

On Sunday morning, I awoke with significant knee pain and was hobbling. While on the tops, I had caught my leg in a hole which took a moment to extract, but didn’t think much of it at the time. However, with some meds and some strapping we headed off, this time up to Cow Saddle and then followed a not ideally marked track back to where the track joins, not far from the point 970. We followed that trail fairly easily, certainly easy compared to the night before. My knee just steadily improved and by the end of the track it was almost back to normal. It took us 6½ hrs going down.

I owe a debt of thanks to Gordon, for ensuring we were going in the right direction and making allowances for my relatively slow pace. He is a great guy to have near.

Those on the trip were:

Gordon Balfour, Viv Roberts

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.