The Old Woman and the Water Race

In the hills of Otago there is lots of history. Much of it relates to gold mining, which first brought large amounts of people, including Chinese, to the region. And to mine gold you needed water, something often in short supply. So they built water races, many of which still survive to this day.

I drove up the Nevis Rd to the summit and parked the car. Then it was off along the rutted 4WD track to Duffers Saddle. The Carrick Range Water Race crosses the saddle and continues downhill, to feed the waterwheel at Young Australian Mine before heading down to Carricktown and Bannockburn, where it now irrigates vineyards. I was heading uphill, to its source.

Race at Duffers Saddle heading down towards Bannockburn

Duffers Saddle, water race crossing road in middle of picture

I began by heading up to the top of Old Woman Range, a wind swept barren tableland of tussock, speargrass and emerging spring wildflowers, with imposing rocky tors.

I stopped in at Old Woman Hut for lunch. It's a tidy little hut sheltered in a gully, and quite popular with hunters and 4WD enthusiasts according to the hut book. It's only an hour and a half walk from the road so also an easy day trip.

From Old Woman Hut I continued south along the range, climbing even higher. There were views down to Cromwell and Lake Dunstan to the north, Clyde to the east, the Remarkables Range to the west, and the Garvies to the south west. The sense of space up there was enormous.

Cromwell and Lake Dunstan looking straight up the Clutha Valley

Remarkables Range, not much snow left

The Water Race is regularly maintained so there are a number of 4WD tracks that wind down from the tops to various spots along the race. I chose the track which followed a ridgeline down to one of the Racemen's Huts, where I planned to spend the night. 

It's a cosy little hut with views out across the Nevis Valley. There's a couple of beds with mattresses, an old stove, pots and pans and a few cans of food. There's a little bit of mouse poo around, and I see the culprit the next morning, though all my food bags are hung safely out of reach from a hook on the ceiling.

The water race was hand dug in the 1870s, including 3 tunnels through rock. In the morning I headed upstream from the hut to explore these tunnels, which required wading through the shin to knee deep water with a headlamp. One of the tunnels is 150m long, but I only walked through 2 tunnels, baulking at walking across some trestle bridges to the third tunnel with a precipitous drop below. There was a blustery norwest wind blowing and I didn't feel that comfortable making my way across in those conditions.

Back at the hut I shouldered my backpack and headed downstream along the water race. Usually there was room to walk on the outside wall, but sometimes it was easier to walk in the water race itself, particularly as the wind got stronger, with some gusts threatening to blow me over.

I'm not a fan of tramping in windy weather, though the views were spectacular as the race wound its way around the contours in a very gentle descent.

Can you see the hut?

I stopped for lunch at a second Raceman's Hut. Originally, racemen would have lived in these huts most of the year and walked the race keeping it clear from obstructions and shoring up any leaks. The second hut is now derelict, but the race bears evidence that someone is still walking it and maintaining the various channels and outlets along its length. All the small streams that cross it have been channelled into the race, but there are also regular spots where excess flow can be diverted down into gullies below.

It's a long walk along the contours back to Duffers Saddle, particularly when perched on a narrow strip of land between the race and a steep drop below. The gusty winds didn't help and after a few hours I was finding the walk quite tedious. I'm sure if the winds had been less annoying it would have been a more enjoyable experience.

Almost back at Duffers Saddle

But it sure was beautiful.

Track cutting in Fiordland

 Last year at Easter, I spent a few days volunteering with Permolat Southland at Deep Cove. We did some track cutting and installed some trap lines for the Deep Cove Outdoor Education Trust. Since then I've not been available for further volunteering, but recently I did find the time, this time to recut a track in Fiordland.

Lake Hauroko, in southern Fiordland, is known for the wicked winds that funnel down the lake. There's a tramping track down one side of it, that goes to a lakeside hut at Teal Bay, before crossing a 3 wire bridge at the lake outlet and heading west to another lake, Lake Poteriteri. This is a fairly remote part of Fiordland, and there are no further tracks once you reach the hut at Poteriteri, though there are certainly lots of off track routes to explore. As a result, these tracks don't get a lot of traffic, and with high rainfall the crown ferns soon take over, obliterating the route.

Permolat Southland were given the track between Teal Bay and Poteriteri to maintain, because DOC don't have the time, money, or inclination to clear it themselves. And since this is a route I plan to take with my packraft I was very glad to be able to help clear it.

A week before we went in Les walked through over a couple of days and marked the route with pink tape. There are lots of orange triangles marking the track but the crown fern is so abundant and high that the markers are mostly obscured.

Day one for our team dawned overcast, but there was no wind on the lake and a very pretty rainbow. 

We met at the jetty at Lake Hauroko, loaded Joyce's boat, Namu, with gear and motored down to Teal Bay. There Alastair, John and I jumped out with our gear, and the boat continued down to the lake outlet to drop off two other members of the team, Les and Gavin, plus our full fuel cans so we didn't need to walk them in. Les and Gavin left the fuel at the bridge, and tramped in for a few hours, to camp beside one of the streams and begin cutting further west towards the hut. Our job was to cut from the Teal Bay end to their campsite.

Each day we walked in, cutting and clearing the track until it was time to head back to Teal Bay Hut. We left our tools where we finished for the day, meaning the only thing we needed to walk in was more fuel. Each day the tramp in and out got longer, but luckily for us Ross turned up on Day 2 with his boat which meant we could dispense with the 40 minutes each way tramp to the outlet, and avoid crossing the three wire bridge over the Wairaurahiri as well. There was still the Rata Burn 3 wire to cross each day....

It was frigging hard work. Whilst the others wielded power tools, I cut and slashed and picked up all the cut ferns so you could actually see a track. My back was really feeling it after two days, but I spent some time stretching back at the hut and the next few days had no further issues.

By lunchtime on Day 4 we had cleared all the way to the next big creek after the Rata Burn. As we were eating lunch I noticed a newly marked track (I'd walked down to the stream the day before to get water and the track and pink ribbon markers hadn't been there then) so I followed the track to a different  crossing spot on the stream and could see the tents of Gavin and Les. We had done it!

After lunch and tidying up the final piece of track to the stream crossing, we carried our tools back to the boat. That took a good 3 hours as we were pretty tired by then. But it was a great feeling of achievement to know we had done what we had set out to do, particularly as there had been less volunteers than Alastair had hoped.

The final day we just lazed around waiting for our 4 o'clock boat pickup. Les and Gavin turned up around lunchtime, looking as exhausted as we felt. They too had finished cutting through to the flats before the hut, although with less people in their crew had not cleared the vegetation away as much as we had.

At last the boat arrived and we all clambered onboard, including a solo kayaker who had paddled down to Teal Bay the day before, knowing full well that the wind was picking up after a week of settled weather, making a paddle back impossible. I was awed by her nonchalant attitude, just expecting that someone would give her a ride back. Of course we did. No way do I have that sort of self assurance!

There was bad weather brewing, and I was exhausted. So I drove back to Wanaka to rest up for a few days and plan my next adventure.

That's next..