Waiotararu River

Not recently, but I have done between the waiotararu forks (where the snowy or eastern waiotararu river comes in) and otaki forks many times in the past. As long as the river is not up or it's the middle of winter i much prefer the river to the track. I haven't done the bit between these forks and waiotararu hut. Regarding comparative times, some people walk a lot slower in rivers than on tracks but for me it takes about the same time or possibly slightly quicker in the river. As long as the river is not up, you have longer legs than me (pretty much a given) and you don't wear really long shorts you shouldn't even get wet shorts in this section.

So not an issue for people that have done the otaki from penn creek. (thats fine as long as you know the breast stroke method of river crossing)

The trip went well. Its a very nice river to walk down especially on a day as hot as Sunday. River flow was quite low but still a few belly button deep crossings and a few pools where the choice was swim or short sidle. There is a little bush lawyer to watch out for on the sidles but not difficult or dangerous. Interestingly the section above the split of the 2 branches is a little gorgey and had the harder crossings even though it only had half the water. Below the confluence it opened out quite quickly and although the crossings were often deeper they were wide and slow moving in the most part. Also about half way down there is a lovely grass flat located perfectly for lunch time. We had the place to ourselves. Only evidence of other people was old vehicle tracks near the hut and one loan set of prints heading up the river presumably into the snowy (east Waitaroru) as the prints were all below here. I did find after I got home that my pack liner has a hole in it but not much water got in. Also I must remember not to have a hanky in my pocket when doing these trips

Hi greeves - we went up from otaki forks to waiotaru forks then into the snowy and up tregear creek last saturday. The waitotaru has certainly got deeper - numerous waist deep wades along the way. Seems most of the western Tararua rivers have been developing deeper pools over the last couple of years. We go up the ohau and the mangahao on a yearly basis (hut work parties) and both of these have been digging out too. Two years ago you could keep your shorts dry in the river between mangahao flats and harris creek, a year later they were just getting wet in a couple of places and late last year I could bearly keep my feet on the ground at one point. Not a issue on nice hot summer days but does make these river routes less desirable in colder weather.

So that was your boot prints I saw. The biggest holes were above the Snowy buts thats a reasonable gorge in places. Only 3 or 4 places where there was no wading option ie swim or sidle and easy ways round these. In hot weather the river is far nicer than that track which was cooking on Saturday. There were a few crossing where the pack was starting to lift but Im only 5foot 6 as well. alan geeves without R's