Finding friendship on a firm footing

GEOFF CHAPPLE, driving force behind the proposed New Zealand hiking trail, Te Araroa, tramps the stretch between Lewis and Arthur's passes



A man comes out of the forest shadows, shrugs off what looks like a slinky fur, and turns to the outside tap to wash off the blood. A puff of evening air follows him into the Hope Kiwi hut. He's hunting trophy stag, but if it's just meat you're after, he explains of his diminutive kill, you go for something you can carry out. You shoot bambi.

The fire glows, venison stew simmers, the hunter and his mates drink beer and yarn on into a New Zealand night. Pig hunts, pack horse journeys, exploits that took place at a time, as one of them says with a nostalgic shake of his head, when men were men.

But these guys have come in by 4WD, and we've tramped in. We're tired and, come to that, my head is sore. My leap across the deep mud patch was nimble as a goat, to land four-square on the trunk of a fallen tree half buried in the mud.

But goats don't wear caps whose bill obscures the rapidly approaching collision with an upper branch of that same half-buried trunk. A branch exactly parallel with their heads. Whack! Headache, and early to bed.

The hunters breakfast and are gone before dawn, and we wake to a warm hut, then head into a frosty morning. The tops are dusted by snow, the forested flanks descend steeply, and as we hike on across narrowing yellow flats to the head of the valley we spot a strange destruction in the forest. Something as powerful as a raptor ripped into this forest flank and we puzzle over it.

"A rotor," pronounces Kim, who once did hang-gliding, and recalls the fearful New Zealand wind that comes over the mountains as a wave and curls under on itself like an upside down surf break. "Extremely violent. Rotors have been known to lift road tarmac." Here, within a 50m radius the trees are snapped off, or uprooted.

We head into the beech over Kiwi Saddle and the cool presence of Lake Sumner is below us, out beyond the trees. The party falls into its patterns of chat.

"Tomo, remember you said you'd damaged a foot finger when you went tramping in the Ruahines?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, we call them toes."

"Toes! Really?"

"So what's the Japanese word for toe?"

"Yubi."

"And what's the Japanese word for finger."

"Yubi."

"And if you want to say toe instead of finger what would you say?"

"Ashi no yubi."

Ashi means foot, hence the derivation of foot finger. We laugh together, each finding the other equally exotic.

The four of us on this soft path through the forest all have their reasons. Tomo Tanaka is a physiotherapist from Japan who regularly tramps New Zealand wilderness.

Eric Martinot, is a special projects manager for the World Bank who has taken time off from his Washington DC office to tramp the length of New Zealand, mostly on Te Araroa, the proposed New Zealand hiking trail. The 76km leg we are walking between Lewis and Arthurs Pass is part of it.

Kim Ollivier is a GIS (geographic information system) consultant from Auckland, tracking family history. In 1857, his great-grandfather Edwin Lock, a sawyer and sometime surveyor with the Canterbury Provincial Government, made a pioneer crossing of the main divide on this route.

According to Kim's family history, Edwin Lock - to whom historian Elsie Locke and Green MP Keith Locke, despite the additional "e", are related - claimed the Canterbury Provincial Government's £3000 prize for mapping a pass across the alps.

But the government sent Leonard Harper, son of the Christchurch bishop, to verify the claim and, Christchurch society being what it was, the bishop's son got his name on the pass, and the sawyer didn't.

At night, at the end of our walk, it's cold and clear. Behind Hurunui Hut, Terrible Knob's 1730m silhouette looms black across the star field, seeming to reduce the naming of the pass to tea-cup proportions.

And the pass is indeed low, just 960m. Any big animal has a natural talent for finding routes through difficult terrain, and it's a fair bet that it was moa who first padded up and over, east to west across the South Island.

Then Maori used it, extensively, in regular migrations, and as a portage route for pounamu. The party of Kaiapoi Maori who accompanied Harper and Lock already knew the route by heart, and may have been amused to see the pass pop up on maps as Harper's, for they'd known it for centuries as Noti Taramakau.

On the third day of our walk the track-side beech foliage is suddenly coated orange, there's sulphur in the air, and on top of a rock buttress that rises almost sheer from the Hurunui River I'm bathing naked in a wild hot pool.

The hot pool becomes our decision point. From hours of travel across river stones, Kim has a badly swollen knee. Harper's Pass is still hours away, and has a steep descent on the western side, then three river crossings, the Taramakau, the Otehake, and the Otira. We know the two days ahead are fine, but beyond that the weather may disintegrate, and the rivers become impassable. One crook knee will slow the entire party.

At the hot pool, we agree to split. Eric is on a mission and he should go on. He needs someone to lock up with for the river crossings, and Tomo has enough experience to do that. I've done this tramp before, so it's not a big decision to turn around and go back with Kim.

The two of us tramp out on the easy flat-land south of Lake Sumner, a different route from our entrance via Windy Point, and which has the virtue of exactly tracing the journey taken by that first pakeha exploration party up the Hurunui River.

Kim gets to see the result of his great-granddad's early survey too, for a roadside plaque below Lake Taylor acknowledges the 48-man road gang of 1863 who began building a road through to Harper's Pass.

Four hundred miners a month used the road after gold was discovered on the West Coast, but it never extended beyond Lake Taylor. The road gang's contract was abruptly cancelled as Arthur's Pass became the preferred route through to the coast.

In Christchurch we meet up with Eric and Tomo again for a debrief. After days of beech forest, the sudden profusion of mountain holly, Mt Cook lily, tree fuchsia, and dracophyllum, is striking. And yes, when you reach the pass itself, the Taramakau River is still a terrific sight, gleaming 30km into the western distance.

And the river crossings? The Taramakau was easy on a dry day. Eric and Tomo did a more careful reconnaissance to find a crosspoint of the more notorious Otehake. It's a faster-running river that has gouged a U-shaped bed and always needs respect. As to the Otira, river crossing is always steadier with two or more people properly linked, and they did that.

It's a good feeling, though, that anxiety that gives way to achievement after a slightly adventurous crossing, and with three rivers under their belt, you could just tell the two of them had found a friendship.

TRACK STANDARD

BCA. Reasonable fitness, and some tramping experience advisable. Allow 4-5 days. The eastern side traverses the 4000ha of Poplars Station bought last August by the Nature Heritage Fund for $1.89 million.

TRANSPORT

Atomic Shuttles connect Aickens to Christchurch twice daily (ph 03 322 8883). Laser Line buses connect Christchurch to Windy Point twice daily (ph 0800 220001).

GENERAL

The track is best tramped in summer or autumn. The pass can be closed by snow during winter and sometimes has summer snow. It's less clearly marked on the western side, and maps help. The three rivers can become impassable after rain, and trampers usually traverse west to east, so that the river wades are predictable at the time of departure. Otherwise - get a good four- or five-day weather forecast. The Waimakariri DoC area office, ph 03 318 9085, will oblige. A useful overall weather map is also available at National charts and Victoria University provides more detailed forecast maps, up to 72 hours ahead. Mountain Safety has tips on river crossing technique, and lists available courses.

ACCOMMODATION

Five huts and a bivouac en route. If you don't have a $65 annual hut pass, each hut requires a $5 hut ticket, available from any DoC office.

GEAR

Wet weather garments, warm clothes, boots, torches, whistles, extra food in case of delays.

INTENTIONS

Always advise the DoC office or a reliable outsider of your schedule, and fill out the intentions books in the huts.

MAPS

Boyle M32, Lake Sumner L32, Dampier L33, Otira K33.

Te Araroa