Leader: Kate Krawczyk
Kirwans Hut in Victoria Forest Park was our ambition, but a fierce forecast scared us off to the brighter, sunnier reaches of the East Coast.
Kate kindly collected us, sleepy-eyed, from our residences and transported us to the trackhead in three hours. Parking the spacious 4WD ute at the homestead of Blue Mountain Station, we donned boots and gaitors in anticipation of the foreboding wetness to come.
An hour of boulder-hopping up the Waima River, with some vainly trying to keep their feet dry, we stumbled up the sidle track into Isolation Creek proper. Some 15 minutes up this slot canyon, and it narrowed to a defile of about two metres across, and, unfortunately, to a watery depth of 50cm. A refreshing wind whipped through Sawcut Gorge as we splashed through back into daylight.
An unusual concretion caught our attention – almost identical to the Moeraki Boulders – just before we climbed up to the hut. (Total time: 2 hrs). The eight bunks were empty, and a subsequent party camped below on the river flats. An hour of chopping provided a winter’s supply of firewood, then we got the large woodburner firing hot.
On Sunday, my four companions elected to make the club’s first ascent of Ben More (1244m); a remote outlying peak which provided stunning ocean views. Their successful summit attempt was via an obscure track which ended at the remote Napoleon Biv.
I followed the footsteps of previous club members, and did a solo eight-hour mission to The Zoo. Here, in the visitor book, a fellow hut-bagger had written in large capital letters: ‘eat your heart out, Raymond!’ (Darn you, Dion.)
From 5:30am, I was kept awake by a companion who was humming to music on his mobile device, which resounded around the hut. But revenge is sweet, since another party member strategically placed a 850g ‘momento’ in his pack. On returning home, the humbled recipient weighed the rock ‘to measure the kindness that was bestowed upon him, and ‘expressed his hearty appreciation at the rather unexpected gift.’
Explorers were: Kate Krawczyk, Andrea Cockerton, Chris Louth, Mike Drake & Ray Salisbury (scribe).