Leslie-Karamea Track
Just curious to see if anyone on here has made this trip recently? Years ago I wanted to do this but it never happened, now considering it again. I would most likely turn left when connecting to the Wangapeka Track to have a smoother finish than heading out to the coast (I've done the Wangapeka twice).
What's the condition of the track? How many fords? Is Kendall Creek as intimidating as it sounds? I'm guessing it would be fairly remote in terms of other trampers, thoughts?
a few years back there was a lot of windfall down there in summer.. it was so bad a friend ended his trip prematurely there and went to tramp somewhere else instead
Did the Wangapeka March, 2017 from Karamea. Shared the first hut ( Belltown Manunui) with 3 French guys who were overnighting before back-tracking out the next day to drive to the next gateway hut.
Nobody else at Taipo.
Shared Stone Hut with a bunch of adventurous, wealthy, Auckland guys who had got there, off-track, via Mt Luna.
Out to Rolling River car park to catch a shuttle to Tapawera Settle Motor Camp for the night. Re-supply & shuttle up to the Heaphy, to tramp back to make a Karamea loop.
Lots of day walkers from the Rolling River car park end.
Note - The sign posted 'Siberia Campsite' is NOT the Rolling River car park. That's another kilometre or so down the road. There was no cellphone reception at Siberia, but there is at Rolling. We waited, for some time, at the wrong place. Our shuttle waited, for some time, at the right place. Luckily, he drove up to check and we got our lift.
I've heard they don't spend a lot on maintenance on the Wangapeka Track. It's definitely a bit more serious than your Instagram Influencers would want to tackle. I've only heard from the Trip Leader that the Leslie-Karamea is rougher, but have no first hand knowledge. I'm sure someone will post who does it eyes-closed regularly ?.
As fate would have it, I walked the Leslie Karamea earlier this week (from Salisbury hut down). Track is pretty easy and in excellent condition except between Karamea bend and Crow hut. This section is quite overgrown and at times difficult to follow (only later did I discover I could have taken the river bed for this section) The valley was generally empty. I only saw a few people heading up from the west coast. Things are quite dry at the moment. Side streams were small. Kendal stream was only about 2m wide and a simple rock hop to cross.
The valley itself is very pretty, as is the river. Lots of large trout. All the huts are nice, and splugeons shelter is a cool little place (it has a canvas & clear plastic front wall)
I went up as far as Trevor carter hut, and then over Biggs Tops, but the hut book entries indicated that the last bit of the Karamea track was in good condition also.
Cheers,
Moh
Search the forums
Forum | Tracks, routes, and huts |
---|---|
Started by | jmeyer |
On | 28 February 2019 |
Replies | 3 |
Permanent link |
Participation in the forums signifies acceptance of forum rules.
In order to manage spam, new members are limited to 1 post every 10 minutes.
Formatting your posts
The forums support MarkDown syntax. Following is a quick reference.
Type this... | To get this... | |
---|---|---|
Italic | *Italic text* | *Italic text* |
Bold | **Bold text** | **Bold text** |
Quoted text | > Quoted text | > Quoted text |
Emojis | :smile: :+1: :astonished: :heart: | :smile: :+1: :astonished: :heart: |
Lists |
- item 1 - item 2 - item 3 |
- item 1 - item 2 - item 3 |
Links | https://tramper.nz | https://tramper.nz |
Images | ![](URL/of/image) URL/of/image |
![](/whio/image/icons/ic_photo_black_48dp_2x.png) |
Mentions | @username | @username |