Huts 03 - Waimak Falls

Waimak Falls hut sits at the head of the Waimakariri River, about three hours walk above Carrington hut. It is just above the Waimak Falls themselves, accessible after a steep grunt up from the river just below the falls. Many people are unaware that there is a waterfall on the Waimakariri River. They are hidden from view, but well worth the scramble up the riverbed for ten minutes from where the track climbs steeply up and away from the riverbed before the hut.

Waimak Falls hut with Waimak Col on the Main Divide in the background.

Waimak Falls hut would arguably have one of the more commanding views in the mountains of NZ. The views up towards Mt Rolleston, Mt Armstrong and Waimakariri Col are awesome - and the views down valley to Mt Carrington and away to Mt Murchison at the head of the White River (the highest peak in Arthur's Pass National Park) are equally spectacular.
The hut is a six bunker and has a chequered history. It was first built by the Canterbury mountaineering Club and then passed over to the Dept of Conservation (from memory in the late 1970s). More recently the CMC regained ownership of the hut and a dedicated team of CMC hut volunteers now look after it along with all the other CMC huts.
My very first rescue as a member of mountain search and rescue in the 1960s was up to this hut when a tramper burned his face and hands after his cooking stove exploded and set alight to the tent he was in, pitched close to the hut.
Finally, one of the best photographs I've ever seen of Waimak Falls hut is in the book 'Our Mountains - Journeys to New Zealand's High Places' by Paul Hersey and Mark Watson. See page 95. It is well worth looking at and will give you an inkling of just how well situated this hut really is.

What a Difference a Day Makes!

My lovely sister is currently crewing on a yacht sailing from Waikawa near Picton down to Stewart Island, then back up to D'urville Island and eventually back to Waikawa - just two of them in a 30' boat. Not bad for a young girl of 76!
Last weekend they were in Akaroa to resupply and wait for some good weather. Sunday morning was relatively free for me so I set off for Akaroa at sparrowfart.
For me, no trip to Akaroa - or anywhere on the peninsula for that matter - is complete without a quick side trip to Birdlings Flat. There are as many moods to that beach as there are days in the year - and more! Early Sunday morning I had the beach to myself. Absolute tranquility in more ways than one.
I don't recall ever seeing the sea so flat and waveless.

Birdling's Flat on Sunday

Compare this to a day a few years ago at the end of a good Southerly blast. This image was posted here back in June 2014 in a post about Kaitoreti Spit, but thought it was worth airing again for comparison.

Birdling's Flat a few years ago after a Southerly Storm

Oh and here is my lovely sister heading back out to the yacht on Sunday morning.

Hut 02 - Carrington

There would be very few trampers and mountaineers that have not spent at least one night at Carrington Hut.
It is positioned at the junction of the Waimakariri and White rivers in Arthurs Pass National Park, and is a strategic hut for trampers and mountaineers alike. Further up valley is the Barker hut (see Huts 01) and Waimak Falls hut (a future blog) - both stepping off points for serious climbing and also remote tramping. Harrington hut is the first stopping place on the Three Pass Trip from Klondyke Corner to Hokitika.

The second Carrington hut

This hut (above) is the hut I first remember. My first foray up the Waimak was about 1961-2 at the ripe old age of 13-14. It was the second hut at the junction. The first hut was located further out towards the Waimak riverbed and was washed away in a flood. It was built in 1929 and named after Gerard Carrington who was co-instumental in forming what was to become the Canterbury Mountaineering Club (which I joined in 1964 and have been a member ever since). Sadly he was drowned in the Waimak gorge before the hut was completed. The hut above replaced the original hut and sat up on a terrace well away from flooding.
Below this second hut there was a small four bunk NZFS (New Zealand Forest Service) hut (see below) - a handy overflow hut, especially at Easter in the 1960s when there was always an Easter Climbing School run by the CMC. I have spent a night in this four bunk hut with eleven trampers crammed inside. My 'bunk' was up in the rafters lying on a climbing rope wrapped around the rafters. A very uncomfortable night!!

NZFS hut below Carrington hut - November 1967

Sadly both these huts have long gone, and been replaced by the current Carrington hut, a Lockwood design, and capable of hosting many trampers and climbers.

The current Carrington hut

Whilst this hut is perfect for large parties visiting the upper Waimak - and I have no doubt that some busy weekends it is full to capacity with tents pitched close by. For me, it is a soulless dwelling - it echoes with every footstep inside - and will never have that character that many remote and older back country huts have. The smell, the stories in the old hut books, the writing on the walls (not graffiti). But still, it does provide a refuge on a stormy night and it is a stepping stone to remoter places up valley.

In this hut's early days, it had a sign above the entrance saying 'Carrington Hilton'. Sadly, the Hilton hotel chain had no sense of humour and after a court case, the sign had to be removed!

A think I may as well complete the Waimakariri huts in the near future so watch this space.

Crossing the Empty Quarter #3

I posted a blog a few days ago re the journey including eight images..... and then promised a few more. So here are eight more for your interest. If anyone wants more, please indicate with a comment. Otherwise, this it! Enjoy.

The last day - outskirts of Doha 

Oman - Saudi border again - Military post of Kyran in distance  

Campsite view - Rub Al Khali 

The Khanger worn by Bin Kalut in 1930 - it has now done the journey twice 

Another day in the Rub Al Khali 

Early start to day in the southern Rub Al Khali 

Deep in the Rub Al Khali 

Doha skyline - Thomas had to travel by Dhow to Bahrain to break the news of his success in February 1931

First Car

I talked about a city bike ride yesterday.
At the back of the Cathedral I spotted this car - a 1946 Austin 10 in beautiful restored condition.
It reminded me of my first ever car back in 1966 - a 1939 Austin 10. Looked identical to this one except for the colour. It cost me 70 pounds (pre decimal currency days!!). Loved that car - even if I did manage to roll it on the road into Lake Sumner one Friday night. With help, got it back on it's wheels, poured the oil back in and drove it home. Hardly dented such was the quality (and thickness) of the body - but sufficiently for my parents to notice unfortunately. I used to drive it down to Mt Cook to go climbing. Took ages to get there. Sold it a year later for 68 pounds!!

Checking out the City

I've been home a week.
It was time to check out progress with the city rebuild. Chris and I biked in to town yesterday morning. I hadn't seen it for nearly five months so it was good to catch up.
It's certainly happening - and will be a great place  to hang out in, in a few years time. I just wish they would make a few decisions re the big ticket items - the Convention Centre, the Sports Metro, the Stadium - and the Cathedral. At the present rate, the CDB will be completed and the Square will remain dead. Funny, I should be making this remark on the fifth anniversary of the big earthquake!
There's a few new pieces of street art, Spectrum is still on, there's a corrugated iron exhibition at the museum, the Art Gallery has reopened after being closed since the earthquake - so I've got plenty to go see over the next few months.
Yesterday I couldn't resist a few images in town.

Mowing the lawns - Restart Mall

Set Free - new Margaret Mahy playground

Feature Wall - new Margaret Mahy playground

New Street Art - Dr Zeuss?

Crossing the Empty Quarter #2

Three months on...........mission accomplished.
I got home one week ago after a successful expedition through the Empty Quarter from Salalah in Oman to Doha in Qatar. The journey took 49 days - starting on 10th December (the same date Bertram Thomas started 85 years ago) and ending on 27th January 2016.
Although I was only a member of the Support Team, it was a busy time some days. Responsibilities included support vehicle driver, photographer, quartermaster, medic, money man.
The walking team stuck to their knitting and averaged 26-27 kms per day throughout the 1300 km journey. We started with 4 camels and finished with 3 - the 4th was red-carded after about the 10th day and sent back to bootcamp because of bad behaviour. The support vehicles performed well throughout the entire journey, and although they got stuck on multiple occasions, the drivers were able to extricate their vehicles without support - a pretty good performance considering the terrain.
In total I captured ~4300 images. I have now whittled these down to ~250 for use in lectures, expedition book, etc.

The walking team deep in the Rub Al Khali

The Oman - Saudi Arabia border

Sand Boa - the only snake we saw

First steps on a moody day

New moon in southern Oman

The only arrowhead found despite extensive searching

Riding through the sabkha at the northern limit of the Rub Al Khali

Typical terrain the middle section of the Rub Al Khali

Only ever seen in January - the Southern Cross and the Pointers - at dawn

I will post a further eight images in a day or two. I don't want you to have all the fun at once!!

Crossing The Empty Quarter #1

The Rub Al Khali - the Empty Quarter. The largest sand desert in the world.
An Englishman born in Pil (home of my paternal grandparents - another story) became the first 'white man' to cross the Rub Al Khali from Salalah to Doha in 1930 -31. He was assisted by many camels and tribesmen throughout the 60 day journey. His name was Bertram Thomas.

85 years later, this journey will be recreated. My English friend Mark Evans has put together a small team of people - two Omanis, himself, and a handful of camels to walk the 1100-1200 kilometres following in Bertram Thomas's footsteps. In addition will be be two others, driving the two support vehicles, capturing the journey on movie and still photography, searching for archeological items, etc.

I am fortunate to be one of those two support people - and may become the first Kiwi to cross the Rub Al Khali. I depart NZ on the 15th November 2015. The actual journey will commence on the 10th December at Salalah - the same day Thomas started 85 years ago. I am due back home on 26th February 2016.

The expedition can be followed on www.crossingtheemptyquarter.com

Bertram Thomas's map 1930-31 (the solid red line is the route we plan to follow)

Bucket List.

We all have a bucket list - or at least we all should have. Those things to tick off before before we can no longer do so - mountains to climb, valleys to tramp, huts to visit, countries to explore, cities to investigate, galleries and museums to wander through - and friends to visit.
My list is long - very long. So long, I figured that I needed to live to 150 to complete the list. The trouble is, I keep adding to the list - faster than I can tick items off. A few years I drew a short straw and was diagnosed with prostate cancer, now treated and all behind me - but it did make me stop and think about that bucket list. Can I really complete it and do I really still want to do all that? I looked thoroughly at that bucket list and came to the conclusion that, allowing for slowing down (something I hate to admit is gradually happening) and a few other distractions, I could maybe complete that list by the time I'm 145 years old. I've cut 5 years off the original estimate!!

This all brings me back to the present. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to accept a place on a tour to China and Tibet with the New Zealand China Friendship Society. A photographic tour and I knew many of the other participants planning to go. The price was good so it was a no-brainer. I was going!
And so to attend to two items on my bucket list.
1. Since I was a teenager, I've wanted to see the Polata Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. Tibet is a country that has always fascinated me - for its culture, religion, monasteries, altitude, people - and of course its mountains. It is a country that has gone through a huge amount of angst since the 1950s.
2. I've also wanted to see the panda bears. Ideally I would like to see them in their natural habitat but that is virtually impossible so I was happy to see them in a sanctuary.

Maybe later I will talk about the rest of the China/Tibet journey, but for now share with me these two ticked items on my bucket list. Both hopefully will be revisited with Chris at a later date - maybe enroute to other bucket list items.

Breakfast at the Great Panda Centre near Chengdu

Almost replete

Polata Palace at dusk - Lhasa, Tibet

Life

I stumbled across a quote that appealed to me a few days ago - attributed I think to Clint Eastwood who is still directing movies - and possibly still acting too - well into his 80s.

"Never let the old man in"

Yesterday I found this on Facebook - posted by someone else who also had nothing better to do at that moment! This too appealed to me. Have always been a Snoopy fan.

A New Toy

I've just bought a new toy - a travel camera.
A Panasonic Lumix FZ1000.
Single Leica lens, 25 - 400mm zoom.
My present camera bag with all its toys weighs in at over 7kgs. When I travel, I'm getting tired of lugging a heavy camera bag with me everywhere.
I'm about to travel for 3+ weeks, so I've taken the plunge and procured this new camera. It's not the smallest camera - but it has a great zoom range, got pretty much all of the options my Nikon has, has great reviews - and it is light - ~0.8kgs.
I have no idea whether I will like it or not, but I will know by the end of September. Who knows, there may be a virtually new camera up for sale.
Yesterday I took the new camera on the weekly walk to trial it. So far, so good.
Here are a handful of samples from Day 1..................

Low tide, South Shore beach (25mm)

Hemi - must run 4-5 times the distance we walk!! (~250mm)

Estuary channel (~35mm)

Dinghy unmoved for years! (~50mm)

Stilts in Estuary (400mm)

What is it??

The tide was fully out so this Wednesday's walk with the lads had to be a beach walk along the beach, round the spit and back via the estuary.
On the mud flats of the estuary on the latter half of the walk we came across a number of very large jellyfish - some were 70-80cms diameter, possibly larger.
We weren't sure if they were dead or simply awaiting the incoming tide to float off and away. I suspect the former.

Graeme did some investigating on internet and thinks they might be Cyanea capillata, the Lion's Mane jellyfish - the largest known species. They are found in colder waters of the Arctic region but a related species is also found in Australia and New Zealand. Apparently these can grow up to 2 metres in size! Impressive.
This reminds me of a weekend with a group of Kiwis on Jana Island in the Arabian Gulf (between Saudi Arabia and Iran). We were on Jane island to observe the green turtles laying their eggs - we weren't disappointed. On the Sunday morning the temperature at sunrise was well over 40 degrees - the only sensible option was to go snorkelling off the boat. I was on my own only about 40-50 metres from the boat when I was almost enveloped by what seemed a huge jellyfish - it was almost translucent. I felt I could have put my hand out to touch it - rather the opposite and I struggled back to clamber up to the safety of the boat deck. At the time I was thinking of the Portuguese Man o' War, but could it have been one of these Lion Mane jellyfish. I guess I will never know. I'm not a strong swimmer and that was the last swim I had that day. I gather the sting from these creatures is best avoided!!

Huts 01 - Barker

I'm feeling a tad nostalgic - and I'm procrastinating big time!!
I'm meant to be commencing a huge task of scanning many of my 'annual lads tramping trips' from the pre-digital era in preparation for a new book. Browsing through some old images I came across a folder labelled 'huts'.
Many of these old images were captured on very basic cameras, some 50+ years ago.
So I thought 'why not' - I'll start a wee series of anecdotal memories based around huts.

One of the earliest images I have of Barker hut at the head of the White River, a tributary of the Waimakariri River at its headwaters. This image was captured on a Halina Viceroy twin lens reflex camera, the first camera I ever owned. A Christmas present from Mum and Dad at the age of 14 - so this photograph would have been circa 1963. Note the shovel tied above the entrance door.

I used to tramp up to Barker hut frequently in a weekend. Jump on the railcar at 2am Saturday and dropped off at the Bealey Bridge ~4.30am, eight hours tramp up the Waimak and the White, early to bed, up well before sparrowfart, a quick bite to eat, and off out to climb the likes of Murchison, Harper, Speight, Wakeman, etc. Back to the hut by noon, then 8 hours tramping back down to Klondyke Corner and the Bealey rail bridge by 8.30pm to catch the railcar back to Christchurch - get off at Hornby, walk home at ~11.15pm, greeted by Mum who was still up anxiously awaiting my safe return, off to bed for a well earned sleep, ready to bike 6 miles to school the next morning.
Today, I'm exhausted just thinking about those great weekends.

On one occasion we arrived at Carrington hut on New Years day in mid afternoon ~1969. Recent entries in the intentions book mentioned parties returning from Barker hut saying they could not find the hut. We took off late afternoon in the direction of Barker figuring that previous parties did not know the location of the hut. About 8pm that night, we staggered up the final slopes to find just the roof of the hut sticking up out of the snow. The roof was crushed and the shovel was nowhere to be found.
We set to work with ice axes and dinner plates to dig our way down to the door and eventually forced our way in. The rafters were broken and touching the floor but we managed to make ourselves vaguely comfortable and get dinner on the primus before nightfall. That winter must have been one hell of a snowfall!!
There is a new hut up there now - new being a relative term - it's been there probably at least 30 years or more now!! Unfortunately I can't locate an image of it right now, although I have visited the new hut several times.
The view down the valley from the bluff just beyond the tarn by the hut is one of those great views you never forget. So good, Austen Deans painted it many moons ago. Now I'd love a copy of that.

The Lovely West Coast

The magnetism of the West Coast never diminishes.
This time (the last school holidays) a visit to friends who live rurally between Charleston and Westport. Sue and John met in the Antarctic a few years ago and tied the knot on their beautiful property just over one year ago - on our wedding anniversary as it happens. Sue used to work with me in Oncology and John an expedition/emergency medicine doctor who was expedition doctor on my friend Mark's first expedition to Svalbard as a leader. Small world!!
There is nothing better than the West Coast in winter. Fine blue sky days with chilly mornings - and sandflies still hibernating. We had 4 days of this whilst the East Coast experienced snow almost to sea level and heavy dumps on the alpine passes.
The holiday concluded with three nights at Hanmer Springs with Graeme and Sue (another Sue!) in snow and temperatures down to minus nine degrees.
A great week away from the issues of the city.

Waimakariri River - can never pass this spot without stopping

The Southern Alps from 'The Tiphead' at Greymouth

Aoraki Mt Cook - and a bevy of 10,000ft'ers

Rapahoe Beach north of Greymouth (the waves have hair as Juliet used to say)

Punakaiki Mood

Not a bad view from your doorway - Sue and John's. Their own lake!

A challenge to my big brother - how many of those 10,000ft'ers can you identify in image #3?