Sylvester/Lockett/Kill Devil. Organiser: Jim Maxwell
This trip started at the Cobb Dam and ended at Uruwhenua, a few kilometers down the road towards Takaka from the Cobb Road. We drove to Uruwhenua, parked the cars and boarded a minibus from Kbus to be driven to the Cobb Dam carpark. We were walking by 10.15am and with the sun having worked its way through the cloud, as Shirley had said it would, were sweating by the time we got to Sylvester Hut at 12.15. We had lunch with Marianne's party who were already at the hut, and then set off along the grassy spur to the ridge overlooking the Iron Lake creek.
Sitting on a lookout above Iron Lake creek we could see Lake Lockett, our destination for the day. We debated whether to use the orthodox route and approach it via Diamond Lake but nothing was to be orthodox about this trip so we followed the cairned route into the valley, crossed to the true left of the creek and keeping as far as we could to the intermittent clearings, made our way to a spur at the end of the valley which descended into Diamond Creek. An old slip, now grassed, on the true left of Diamond Creek, appeared from our earlier vantage point to give access to Lake Lockett so we sidled through fairly thick bush above the creek until we were able to descend to it, cross the creek and climb towards the Lake.
Lake Lockett looked spectacular from a couple of kilometers away. Approaching it as we did through the beech trees and tussock in the late afternoon of a sunny windless day it was breathtaking and we allowed ourselves time to appreciate it before setting up camp. A few persistent sandflies didn't detract from a very pleasant scene and a slightly extroverted resident seagull performed on the lake from time to time as we yarned away the evening.
The sky was clear in the morning but the wind had risen and yesterday's placid lake had been replaced by storm tossed white caps with miniature rollers breaking on our shore. We packed our camp and climbed through the bush to reach the scree on the eastern side of the lake. The views were somewhat fleeting as we had a torrid time in the wind that got stronger the higher we climbed. We sheltered for a while and Dion amused himself, and us, by using a mirror to signal to Sylvester Hut, just in sight. To our surprise he received a response - Marianne's party must have been just leaving.
The wind had almost died away as we reached the Lockett Range and for about an hour we strolled along the broad, level ridge, stopped for morning tea, and had wonderful views in all directions. However we then reached the bush edge and began what was for most of the rest of the day something of a struggle through mainly stunted bush with no track. In many places the definition of the ridge was hard to follow and we were very dependant on Jim's skill with the GPS to keep us in line. For the most part those leading the file looked for the easiest route, guided by directions from the compass bearers behind. The occasional clearing was sought after and clung to for as long as possible. Eventually, at about 5.15pm we reached the track, close to where it was crossed by Skeets Creek, and Riorden's Hut at 6pm.
Riorden's is a three bunk hut but most of us were content to camp anyway. Various stories had likened it to the mouse capital of New Zealand, although there was only one reported sighting. Dinner and après tramp drinks were not a long drawn out affair as most of us were quite ready to hit the sack.
Monday was again a clear day, and very warm. Conducive to a leisurely walk to the Uruwhenua road end, with a lot of stops to look back and see the route we had taken. So ended a very interesting trip with some of the regions best scenery and through an area not often visited. Participants were Jim Maxwell (organiser), Anita Robertson, Margaret Page, Shirley Gabrielsen, Yvonne Kyle, Mike Drake, Dion Pont, and Arthur Jonas (scribe).