Tramp Reflections 772 - Wairarapa

28 December 2007 – 1 January 2008

Our Christmas holiday trip this year was down to the Wairarapa area and was very ably organized by Evan and Christine. 8 of us went down in the van, led by Evan and Christine in their car and Christine’s friend Judy, in her car. It was a long days drive down to the area. We stopped for a coffee at Mangakino and lunch at a camping area on the Rangitikei River. Another short stop in the mid afternoon at Te Apiti wind farm, where we gazed in awe at these huge structures turning gently in the breeze. The last stop was at Pahiatua for a petrol top up. Finally we arrived at our destination, Pongaroa. A place with a school, a pub, a shop, a fire station and last but not least a cemetery. This is the place where Evan spent some early years of his pretty long life and where he wishes to be buried in the little cemetery when that time comes.

5 minutes out of the tiny township was our accommodation for the next few days, a very posh shearer’s quarters on a hill country farm. The original buildings had been burnt down and even though they had not been used in a while, the insurance cover was replacement. The farmer’s wife runs a successful backpackers accommodation way out in the wops. The day was cold but our welcome could not have been warmer, right down to the Christmas Cake on the bench and logs for the fire. We settled into our rooms with David electing to sleep in the lounge.

On our first morning we took the hand drawn map and did a tour of the farm where we were staying. The views were great but even greater was the amount of mushrooms that were everywhere in huge fairy circles. Of course we picked and picked and arrived back for lunch well laden and dying to get stuck into them. From then on, we had mushrooms with almost every meal. Yum.

After a mushroom lunch, we drove about half an hour to another property where we walked across the farm to a magnificent waterfall hewn out of the soft rock.

We walked down to the bottom of it and had a snack. It was a wonderful place for a family picnic. There was a lot of interesting old farm machinery around the place that we took photos of. Once back at the van we returned to our accommodation for our tea - that was accompanied by mushrooms. A tourist who was staying over in the other farm house, came down to see us and we shared our store of mushrooms with him. After tea, some of us went for a walk.

We left early the second morning to drive about an hour to a very remote farm to climb up to see the huge Three Kings Rocks. The old lady had lived on the farm all her life and had written an interesting book on the history of the area. Her son lived with her and ran the farm while the other two sons had moved away with their families.

It was tough work climbing up the step hillside in the sun, but we all made it and had good views of the rocks. Then it was down and up again to the top of Mt Royal. We came down a bit to some shade where we had our lunch. Once back at the farm, we chatted with the owners before returning home. We had left Lynne, Jan and Judy behind for the day and when we got back, they had disappeared. George, the farm owner had taken them for a Tiki Tour of the neighbourhood. They had been through a wonderful rural garden and generally had a lovely day relaxing.

On our last day in the area, Evan drove us the coast to Akitia, where he had arranged with the land owner for us to walk over his property. The hospitality of these people was amazing. They could not do enough for us. The farmer took us to his office and showed us a map of the farm and where we could walk. He lent us a Walky Talky in case we got lost. What a beautiful farm on the coast. It has been in the family for many generations since the 1880’s and is 10km from one end to the other.

We decided to walk up the coast along the beach as there was a strong, cold south westerly blowing with misty rain and it was nicer to have that at our backs. All along the beach there were signs that many crayfish and shell fish had been harvested in the past. There were a lot of fossils in the rocks (plus the ones walking up the beach!) Along the way, we passed the farmer’s daughter and her friends who were camping on the beach for a few days. We stopped for lunch under some large Karaka trees that protected us from the light rain. Here there were some huge variegated thistles here that we had never seen before. From there, we climbed up to the ridgeline and walked back along the road that went the full length of the farm.

By the time we got back to the buildings, the wind was dropping and the weather starting to improve – Murphy’s Law. We wandered around the family cemetery and were rather interested that one of the family members (Hamish Armstrong) had crashed his light plane, a Gipsy Moth, in the Ruahines in 1935. His body was never discovered. We swapped our Walky Talky for the van and headed back for a potluck tea – complete with mushrooms.

The next morning it was time to start for home again. We had all enjoyed our time in this remote part of New Zealand and the pleasant hospitality of all those we had met. We stopped in Dannevirke for petrol the headed North West for a night in the Ruahines. Our aim was Sunrise Hut, but energy was not at a premium for some of us, so we elected to stay at Tripplex Hut instead that was only half an hour in on a flat track. Some swanned around in the sun while the more energetic climbed up to Sunrise Hut. Many people were coming down after spending New Years Eve up there and completely missing the sunrise! Once at the hut, we were encouraged to go over to a saddle for great views of Ruapehu. There we found that the saddle was named Armstrong saddle after Hamish as that was where he had crashed his plane. They never found his body, but found an XX X sized shirt – hence the name of the hut we were staying in – Tripplex. His plane was dismantled and packhorsed down off the range.

Finally after 5 super days, we headed back to the Waikato and home. Another full days drive with several of us taking a turn at the wheel. Many thanks to Evan and Christine for their impeccable organization and for sharing this special area and it’s people with us.

Val

Images: Te Apiti windmills; John, David, Lynne, Christine, Chris, Val, Adrienne, Jan, Jane; Sunrise Hut, Ruahines