Three of us headed for the Kaimanewas for a 40km 'round trip' in October 2005 . We spent the night at the Sika Lodge in Clements Mill road . Lance offers 'drop offs' and 'pick ups' at the beginning and end of the tracks - aimed mainly at deer hunters .
Since I know him reasonably well he lent Wayne a rifle in case we saw deer .
We were dropped off at the end of Clements Mill road and headed for Cascade hut ....
Wayne with the "loaner' rifle and Jeremy with my machette .
The next morning we headed for the Kaipo saddle , this was going to be an easy 11km walk down to the footbridge and we were going to have a relaxing day fishing and taking pictures ..... hmmmmmmm !
We got to the top of the saddle reasonably easily - apart from the fact that a few trees with the orange marker arrows had fallen over and we went in the wrong direction a few times - until we twigged on to the fact that we should ignore arrows on fallen trees in future .
A deer alert .....
At the top of the saddle we couldn't find the track .... the next 8km that was going to be such an easy 2 hour stroll to get us to our 'lunch stop' turned into a 6 hour battle through fallen trees and waterfalls .
The track had been washed away - long ago !
At one stage Jeremey slipped and fell , Wayne was going to help him up but I told him to wait till I got a 'snap' .
There seemed to be some sort of mineral seeping out of the ground ...
After 6 hours of battling we finally got to the footbridge .
And set up camp ......
The next morning we headed for the Oamaru hut , a popular place for hunters which has kennels as well for the hunters dogs .
That turned out to be our relaxing day with a bit of fishing and swimming and sightseeing ....
The next morning , after listening to some 'hunters stories' from the others in the hut , we headed for the road to take us back . It was a bit foggy .....
We had to cross the river - the trouble is there were no markers showing where the track went from there ....
We spent the next few hours forcing our way through trees - the beginning of the rest of the path had not been properly marked and we eventually had to just check the map and aim northwest until we found a track .
In all it was another interesting adventure involving a few tumbles and scratched legs and wrong turns .... washed away tracks ..... my father once told me that when everything goes right you forget the trip - but when things go wrong you have a good story to tell - well this trip gave us a good story to tell !
Since I know him reasonably well he lent Wayne a rifle in case we saw deer .
We were dropped off at the end of Clements Mill road and headed for Cascade hut ....
Wayne with the "loaner' rifle and Jeremy with my machette .
The next morning we headed for the Kaipo saddle , this was going to be an easy 11km walk down to the footbridge and we were going to have a relaxing day fishing and taking pictures ..... hmmmmmmm !
A deer alert .....
At the top of the saddle we couldn't find the track .... the next 8km that was going to be such an easy 2 hour stroll to get us to our 'lunch stop' turned into a 6 hour battle through fallen trees and waterfalls .
The track had been washed away - long ago !
At one stage Jeremey slipped and fell , Wayne was going to help him up but I told him to wait till I got a 'snap' .
There seemed to be some sort of mineral seeping out of the ground ...
After 6 hours of battling we finally got to the footbridge .
And set up camp ......
The next morning we headed for the Oamaru hut , a popular place for hunters which has kennels as well for the hunters dogs .
That turned out to be our relaxing day with a bit of fishing and swimming and sightseeing ....
The next morning , after listening to some 'hunters stories' from the others in the hut , we headed for the road to take us back . It was a bit foggy .....
We had to cross the river - the trouble is there were no markers showing where the track went from there ....
We spent the next few hours forcing our way through trees - the beginning of the rest of the path had not been properly marked and we eventually had to just check the map and aim northwest until we found a track .
In all it was another interesting adventure involving a few tumbles and scratched legs and wrong turns .... washed away tracks ..... my father once told me that when everything goes right you forget the trip - but when things go wrong you have a good story to tell - well this trip gave us a good story to tell !