Thread: Whanganui Kapara Excursion

Back out. a plan only survives first contact

My plan was to go to the end of Rawhitiroa road, then through a paper road (epero road, along pines stream) down the Whenuakura river between the Kapara and Tarere DOC blocks, to take a look at a hut that is on the topo map but not on DOC's. then come back up the same way i went down.

But the plan changed as soon as i got out of the car actually. I talked to the farmer who i was going to take a shortcut over and he said it would be easier to go in through a different route (Matewhetu rd) then down quad track and past a few huts. Sounds good.

Met a guy and his teenage son at the top of the quad track who i walked down with. they were going to ride motorbikes and were just waiting for grandad to come back up from pig hunting on the quad. talked to them a lot about the area on the way to the first hut. and then cofees at the hut while waiting for grandad.


1st Hut (Beehive)

then another guy turned up who was a possum trapper so more coffees and looking at maps and they were all tring to recall this hut i wanted to go to.. Grandad turned up and once i talked with him he said 'Thats the Barbary hut.' then took one look at me and said.. 'you dont want to go there alone..' i could tell he wasnt full of shit, he had a look of concern on his face. so i decided to follow the whenuakura as far as pines stream and then have a look around. i left the 1st hut wich may be called 'Beehive' and followed the whenuakura



past a couple more huts ill post in the hut photos thread,

past heaps of beehives all the way down,



the track was reasonably easy to follow. sometimes some backtracking was needed to pick it up. but then it got to the stage where i was shimmying across a high papa cliff and even my toehold was on a 45 degree angle and i knew right there my trip had just changed from a hunt to an armed tramp. i knew i was carrying way to much stuff, but most of it was out of interest.. new binos to try out.. dads old gps to figure out.. slr camera with extra lens.. exra water etc.. so i knew i wasnt carrying out an animal back this way. my reasoning for the heavy pack was 'ill just go slower..' bullshit, it just hurts more.

i got to the river cossing where the bridge was on the topo and there were two things i noticed. one was the bridge was missing..



and the other was the 50m drop to the river.. on google earth it looked like the river just beached up against the hill.. ok time for a rest then.. had a nap under a tree and woke up to a snort over the cliff further down and went to investigate finding some goats who showed me how to get down. crossed the river and climbed up the otherside. even this was pretty dogdy with pack and gun, inching up a sheer grass bank. arrived at my destination and took a quick look around and saw plenty of old pig rooting , so i set up tent up the hill a bit downwind and staked out the hill for before dusk. plenty of goats trapsing through but no game so at dark i called it a night. heard what sounded like a goat and a pig having a fight during the night. otherwise slept like a log.

woke up to the tuis and and a good fog.



sat up on the hill and nothing arrived so once the fog burned off i walked around and seen the chimneys left after the first settlers in the 20's and then hippies in the 60's tried to make a go of the place.



ignoring the mobs of goats wandering round the place.



decided that any longer would just turn into camping, i left about lunch time to go back to the 1st hut and stay the night there. had to make two trips down that bank down to the river its a pretty good climb with some weight on you. i did a bit of goat control for DOC on the way back to test out the new rifle (happy as, drunkfish!) and all shots on target. made it back to the 1st hut and the possum trapper was still there as his car had shit itself and his girlfriend was going to pick him up in 3 more days so i made myself lighter and gave him my food and he was on coffee duty. stayed the night and talked shit, learnt a bit more history on the area (his missus was the daughter of one of the hippies) and he gave me the heads up on where to go next time. continued the last 3k hike uphill back to the carpark and out.

pretty happy overall, what i really wanted to do was just go out and have a walk, use my gear & learn some lessons... so mission acomplished i think.

basic newbie lessons learned.:

1. look at your knife every 100 metres. then you would have only had to of gone back 100m to find it.
2. look behind you often. then you would have seen the junction you past and not wondered which way you came from on the way back through.
3. bring duct tape.
4. high vis is awesome. but not around beehives.
5. if im going back there, bring a mate.

Cheers, Red