Leader: Jo Kay
Tramping, Gold & Ice – By Selau Ifopo (Aged 8)
On a bright, sunny morning, Jo, Nana, Grandad, my brother Peia (6) and I prepared to go on a tramp to visit an old gold-miners hut. It was Sunday the 17th of June, almost the middle of winter, which meant we had to dress up warmly with long johns and thermal tops underneath all our clothes. After packing our snacks and hot soup in the thermos for lunch at the hut, we piled in to Jo’s car and we were on our way to the Howard Valley to meet up with five others from the Nelson Tramping Club.
Finally we came to a turn-off onto a gravel road which led to a ford that we had to cross. We almost got stuck on the rocks! Just past the ford, we stopped at the beginning of the Louis Creek track. After two minutes the five others turned up and we could begin our tramp!
The track steeply curved up through a pine forest then opened up into a clearing where a stone memorial embedded with old gold miners’ tools stood. Just beyond the memorial was a corner where we could look down so freely on the dry grass sloping down to the green trees below. Then we had to cross a little stream to get into the lovely native forest, dotted with crown ferns.
We walked steadily up through the bush, and then Peia spotted the goal of our trip: the gold-miners hut! Grandad explained to us that the old hut was made with native timber boards split with an axe. There was an old suitcase in the hut.
Here, we enjoyed hot soup for lunch. Five club members climbed the hill then came down another way, while we went down the same way we came up.
We fossicked around a river but disappointingly, found no gold. Then we returned to the car. Just after going through the ford, the five trampers came down the other track – they must have been walking pretty fast!
Exhausted, we climbed into Jo’s car and headed back to Lake Rotoiti. However, we forgot our tiredness when we stopped at the ice-skating pond and enjoyed sliding on the ice.
Other fossickers were: Pat Holland, Andy Clark, Dion Pont (who chased us up the track in his 4wd and joined us for lunch at the hut) and visitors Sue and Paul Henley, Kate, Suzanne and Marty Smith with their grand-children Selau and Peia Ifopo, Jo’s friends from Blenheim and leader Jo Kay.
(The fit ones carried on up the track from Booths Hut to meet up with the Porika track for fine views then carried on down the Porika track back to the cars parked at the Louis Creek turnoff.)