Leader: Ray Salisbury
This is a tried-and-true easy trip that’s been on the club calendar for centuries.
On New Year’s Day I’d left Lynette in the car, and jogged up the forestry road for half an hour to the decrepit DOC signboard. But I ran out of an important commodity: time. So, my wee hut-bagging mission was rescheduled for Waitangi Day.
On February 6th, Kelvin Drew did the honours of collecting five eager men and driving us beyond St Arnaud, up the remote Howard Valley. After donning our boots and daypacks, we sauntered up Monument Road to a locked cabin, and a large concrete plinth, decorated with memorial plaques and a gold diggers pan, shovel and pick.
This region of Louis Creek was mined from 1914 and with government assistance during the Great Depression. Amateurs are still allowed to fossick for gold down in the creek.
About 20 minutes amble up the clay track, we enjoyed morning tea at another locked cabin, possibly the site of the old Jeweller’s Shop. The sun was breaking through thick clouds; the imminent rain held off. Half an hour ascending a gentle sidle track along the Third Branch saw us enter the elongated cottage, built by Sid Booth and Ray Clarke in 1933.
Booth’s Cottage was the family home of Sid and Eva Booth and their son Teddy for more than a decade. DOC decided to maintain it as an historic structure, but it is now barely habitable. The visitor book was begun in 1995.
With my party’s agreement, we decided to be more adventurous, and push on up a broad ridge of open beech. The NZFS had marked the track with permolat, and took us about half an hour to reach the 4WD road that drops into Lake Rotoroa.
Long story short, we followed the orika Road past another gold miner’s memorial cairn, and more locked cabins, back to the Kelvinator.
- Time: 1.5 hrs to Booths Historic Hut.
- Total: 4 hours, 45 minutes for loop.
Hutbaggers were: Ray Salisbury (scribe), Kelvin Drew (chauffeur), David Cook (tail-end Charlie), Arif Matthee (navigator) and visitor Grant Derecourt (narrator).