Thread: Te Urewera novices

A bit of history/folklore re Te Totara flooding. In the mid eighties my father and I wandered around there for a week. Caught up with a trapper called Neville? He was based at Whites Clearing with his partner (Kathy?) and had a couple of decent bivvies around the area. He was given a horse that he named Chinaman after the previous owner who drowned in a flash flood in Te Totara Stream. Chinaman went on to be a good packhorse for skins etc until he dropped dead on the main track to Central Waiau. A chopper (probably a 300) was called in however couldn't lift the whole carcass so it had to be done in a couple of trips.
I injured my knee while in there and Neville was good enough to let me ride one of his horses out to the motorbikes at Whites Clearing. This was a few haircuts ago so I can't vouch for the detail. Moral of the story is to respect Te Totara Stream in heavy rain events.