Mt Campbell: Early September we climbed this hill with our walking group and had lunch on the summit. At 4363 feet above sea level or 1330m asl. it’s not a bad start to the coming summer season.  We started walking across private property,  gradually climbing and passing over paddocks with patches of scrub and native bush to come out on the service road for the signal mast on top. It was down a little, over a saddle and then the rather stiff climb for that last little big bit. If you have been up here you will know what I mean! From the summit one has a grand view across the Waimea Plains and to the Southwest, Hoary Head was prominent with Crusader behind and them the bulk of Mt Arthur. Towards the West, the view was overlooking the Cobb Valley and the rolling mountains beyond. Not  much birdlife with just the odd tui singing up high, a couple of tomtits, fantails and some pipits seen.

Welcome to NZ Mags

A Little Bit of Irish Goes a Long Way:

Karla had her friend Mags visiting from Ireland so we joined in on showing her around ‘our place’ with the first visit a walk to Whariwharangi Hut in the Abel Tasman National Park for an overnighter. We drove over the Takaka Hill, through Takaka itself and onwards to the road end to start the walk to the Hut. The track is really a 4×4 road almost to the hut but comfortable walking though and a good introduction to the New Zealand outdoors and traditions.

The hut itself was an old homestead many years ago and now serves as a DoC hut, complete with upstairs bedrooms and all. Fortunately, the outside of the hut or house, has been restored to something like the original but modified inside to suit todays conditions. The surrounding area was farmed from 1898 until 1912 but the native bush is slowly recovering. The farm was sold to the National Park around 1974. All quite interesting but the overnight charges for the hut are way too high at $32 per adult. After a short walk to the beach we found that the sea had blocked the small stream making quite a large ‘estuary’. I thought I’d dig a little channel to do some releasing and although I finally got a small flow going the water just disappeared into the sandy beach. The next morning I went for another beach walk and was astounded to see that the little channel that I started had become quite a stream and had drained the backed up waters. The incoming tide had started to push the sand back though so I guess it wouldn’t be long before the stream was blocked again. Upon the drained creek bed I was surprised to see fresh deer footprints and upon a closer look decided that a couple of hinds and a stag had wandered about during the early morning or through the night. Further along the beach there were many deer footprints in the wet sand of the previous high tide and it was easy to see that they had chased each other around while playing a game out in the open. Going by the imprints in the sand of the stag he was a large, mature animals. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a number of wild cat tracks in the sand too. On the way out I left a message for Mags on the underside of a Rangiora leaf. Sometimes called bushman’s toilet paper one can easily write a message on the back of a leaf with a ballpoint pen.

Whariwharangi Hut.

On the way back to Takaka we called in to have a look at the Tui Balms workshop.  They make all sorts of balms from lip balms, healing balms, bee balm, warming and easing balms to even an insect repellent balm. The women folk walked out with a range of balms, minus a few dollars. Arriving in Takaka, we had a walk about the local shops which were a delight to the Irish lass. It is interesting to wander along looking at the various local craft and such in the shops. Several days later we went on a local tour visiting the Settler’s Cottage, afternoon tea at Jester House and stroking the eels that feed there too. On to the Mapua Wharf shops, to Eyebright and  finally calling in on the Grape Escape. The temptation to Irish eyes was just too great! These shops are interesting though and the sort of places one often thinks, “Now why didn’t I think of that?”

Ngarua Caves

Caves, Holes and Springs:

Although many places were closed during the winter months, after a telephone call we were able to arrange a visit to the Ngarua Caves on Takaka Hill. Shirl and I had never visited these caves before so with Mags Karla, and a fellow nurse from India, Rose, we did so. They are certainly interesting and our guide wasn’t intrusive at all. We walked until we came to a stop sign and then the guide pointed out items of interest. The lighting was discreet with enough to see to walk by but impressive when viewing a larger cavern. I guess the walk through was about 300 metres climbing out on a ladder onto farm land and a short walk back to the cafe. There were plenty of stalactites and stalagmites but no glow worms. Of special interest was the complete skeleton of a Moa who had fallen down a hole many, many years ago. Two actually but one came from elsewhere. This was the Little Bush Moa which used to stand about one metre high and was the smallest of the eleven species of Moa. On the walk back to the cafe, the guide said that they had special paddocks to place stock when their young were due. These paddocks had as many of the sinkholes among the rocks covered as they could find to protect the young stock from disappearing down a hole. This results in these paddocks  having a 5% increase in lambing than the other paddocks. I think $15.00 each entry fee is a bit too high though.

The walk to Harwood’s Hole reminded one of the Lord of the Rings territory and some of the scenes where filmed nearby too. The beech forest certainly looked the part, with climbing ferns, mosses and those weirdly shaped karst rocks all about. One kept looking behind just in case a hobbit was caught peering from behind a tree. The hole itself is about 50-60 metres across and 180 odd metres deep the first drop with an extensive tunnel network underground. Along the track Mags and Rose were introduced to the wonderful smell of crushed Coprosma foetidssima leaves or in ordinary language, Stinkwood.  Pupu Springs was another visit but unfortunately the main view of the spring itself was out of bounds. Not good at all and someone needs a kick up the pants I feel as it wouldn’t have taken a great deal to make things safe enough while any work was completed.

 That Hill and Far Away Once Again: 

Mags, Will and Shirl: Golden Bay

Shirl, Karla, Mags and I went to Collingwood for a few days to visit some of the scenic spots in the area. First up, we went for a  walk over to the West Coast and along the beach to  look at some of the caverns made by the sea  while the Archway Islands still braved the salt and wind just off shore. The river flowing out to the sea nearby had a number of seals frolicking in a deeper section of the river while others lounged about on the banks.

We also inspected the remains of the old wharf at Puponga with some rusting machinery gradually corroding away in the mud near where the end of the wharf was.

It’s almost a given to see Langford’s old store but it was closed this day. We found that many places were closed including the Rosie’s chocolate factory in Collingwood too. Probably just as well with this one.  The Naked Possum was open though and after a coffee we had a look at the limited range of products for sale. The early owner has passed on to the happy hunting grounds and a person to carry on his interesting work of skinning possums and turning the skins into lampshades and other interesting items has not been found.

The Great Taste Trail

The Great Taste Trail Sampled Again:

Mags and I dusted of the pushbikes and rode down to link up on the trail that follows the Waimea estuary shoreline towards Rabbit Island. I knew before we started that she was a little apprehensive and probably didn’t want to go too far as she already had her bike helmet back to front facing home. Anyway, after 28 km no complaints except to say that a certain part was sorer than others. Actually, what she said was somewhat more descriptive than that but all in Great Taste.

September rainfall at our place was 124mm which was a little over our monthly average of 116mm for this month.