Thread: Ruahine Ranges...Tamaki

Originally Posted by Scribe

Thar or Dundee have either of you got photos of the massive thickets of Leatherleaf that abound on your end of the range. It is amazing that a number of hunters have never come in contact with it. Thar has got some leatherleaf with snow on it in one of his photos Leatherleaf covered in snow does make for some of the hardest going I have ever experienced. In some places in the Ruahines you can find yourself having to clamber over the top of the stuff for a couple of hundred yards before you break into the sub alphine belt or out onto the tussock.
Some days in winter we might of had to cross the tops in a couple of feet of snow. It wasnt bad if the ice crust was thick enough but when you started to break through the ice crust it would cut all the skin of your shins. The cold would stop you feeling anything but you would look back and see that you were leaving quite a blood trail across the snow behind you. For the rest of the winter you would never successfully grow skin back on your shins. Hunting in crown fern and leatherleaf would see to that. Leatherleaf in particular used to rip any new skin off you with its jagged sawblade leaves.
When I was out hunting in the winter to feed track cutting and tree planting gangs I used to climb up on the tops after a fresh snowfall. It was amazing how many deer would be out on the tops on a sunny day. Nearly all of the deer in the area trekked up to the sub alpine belt to get all the leaves off the broadleaf and many other tasty plants that the snowfall had weighed down within reach of them. It is a great way to learn about how a deer thinks and behaves and that is by getting on a deers tracks after a fresh snowfall and just following them until you catch up with them. Particularly a couple of young stags they tend to travel more freely and take in the sights more than all the others.
Leatherleaf is great firewood, burned green or dry. When green it takes a bit of other wood to get it going. Like a lot of alpine woods it is quite dense. Burned green it produces huge hot embers that are great for cooking on and keeping the hut warm, they are the best for making good bread. I can almost smell the smell now of burning leatherleaf and baking bread in Purity, Mackinnon, Top Marapea and a couple of dozen other alpine huts around the country as I sit here.

Here you go. A little south of Tamaki.



My mate after we spent a night out in the leatherleaf in the snow with kapok sleeping bags and wrapped in a blown down un-bleached sheeting tent...

Ah so I am not the only one that has spent the night in the leatherleaf. Now I expect those people who havnt experienced leatherleaf before can appreciate how hard it is to get through five hundred metres of it covered in snow. That is a good picture you have of the stuff. Thanks for that.

Heres a few more pics with some leatherwood included from the same area.

had a view from the Manawatu River tonight that had my farm just below the horizon with Takapari above and I never took the pic cause I thought I had one

This is not the view I wanted too capture but it will do,a few weeks back

Tahr..........is that you Robbie?

Originally Posted by Dundee

Tahr..........is that you Robbie?

Nah. I come from Pongaroa.

Just a bit cold up there today @BRADS This is taken from the Dundee ranch,Kiwi Greg and veitnamcam will recognise the shooting range.

Tamaki West

Car park at road end.

Laws Road looking towards Kumeti and Rokai

Looks bloody cold Dundee.

Originally Posted by Dundee

Just a bit cold up there today @BRADS This is taken from the Dundee ranch,Kiwi Greg and veitnamcam will recognise the shooting range.
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Tamaki West
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Car park at road end.
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Laws Road looking towards Kumeti and Rokai
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Was my ute at the shed?
Or has the mrs hidden in town
Snowing on and off here all day, very low on the foot hills


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Nah I was the only one up there. Snowing in Norsewood and Ashurst so of been told.

Originally Posted by Dundee

Nah I was the only one up there. Snowing in Norsewood and Ashurst so of been told.

Blame it on the South Islanders that have just been up.

Originally Posted by Rushy

Blame it on the South Islanders that have just been up.

That white stuff might be the fleeces they removed of Brads sheep

Should have pushed those reds right down Dundee

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Should have pushed those reds right down Dundee

The gummies couldn't cross the creek tonight

Originally Posted by Dundee

The gummies couldn't cross the creek tonight

We were Spost to drop off some real boots from neckshot but they got left in the car:rolleyes:

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