Coast to coast - Kaikoura to Karamea
Original post
Advice on crossings of seaward Kaikoura Range crossings wanted!
I'm planning a coast-to-coast trip as a fallback to my Fiordland plans for late february if Huey does not cooperate.
Two possibilities discussed here earlier are:
Otago (e.g. Moeraki to Moeraki) e.g. http://routeguides.co.nz/trips/119?zoom=8
Canterbury (Rangiora-Hokitika) e.g. http://routeguides.co.nz/trips/195?zoom=8.
The latter has me drooling, but that's probably still very dependent on west coast weather for the alpine section. So I'm looking further north for routes less affected by west coast weather.
At a zoomed out map, Kaikoura to Karamea looks excellent - almost uninterrupted DOC land from coast to coast. However two questions arise:
1) Crossing the seaward Kaikouras.
Blind Saddle is the obvious, boring option. But is there a good crossing nearer to Kaikoura itself? Somewhere in the vague region of Kowhai and Limestone huts, though not limited to those? I've never been in the Kaikouras so not sure where to set my threshold for closeness-of-coutours and narrowness-of-ridgelines for that country.
I've read the following, but whilst it's full of warnings against bad routes, it's short on suggested better routes.
http://tramper.nz/?view=topic&id=8205
2) Branches and Leatham.
I'd love to head through the heads of Saxton - Leatham - Branch - Lees as that area is country I've long wanted to see. But the contours between Top Leatham Hut and Branch Bivvy (and Lees Creek Hut) look borderline. Anyone ever tried this?
http://routeguides.co.nz/places/565?zoom=12
35 comments
Cheers all. Sounds like it will be doable then. As i said in my earlier update, the trip was looking a bit long (>days available) so i might not get the luxury of this meander off the east-west route. However ... will definately get in there on a separate trip if not - Leatham area has been on the wishlist for a long time.
My main first-choice trip to fiordland in feb-mar has just been cancelled by work commitments - so an autumn trip is now the go, probably the one being discussed here.
Anyone experience of how early/late the area (principally rainbow pass) starts to get serious snowfall in autumn/winter? By which i mean avalanche risk or impeding progress rather than just a dusting underfoot.
i've done travers saddle in June without problems, that was a mild winter. its going to come down to how heavy the seasons snow fall is.
i did my 1900m pass hop out of the Branch in august.. good snow conditions then
Looks like my tramping break is coming up sooner than expected as the boat that should be taking us to the Antipodes tomorrow is currently steaming for Fiji to provide much needed aid, taking my next month of work plans with it.
So onto Kaikoura-Karamea: I've been warned that wasps are a big problem in Nelson Lakes / Kahurangi until after easter: stories of all party members losing count of the number of stings they get.
Are they really that bad? Will they really be better in April than early march?
And would they be any better further south right now. Other option on my wishlist is Rangiora-Hokitika. But my recollection of Mt Thomas was that that the Canterbury front country bush was even worse for stings.
@madpom - I just did the Waiau Pass-Clarence Pass-Lake Tennyson circuit with a friend. The only point on the trip where we encountered wasps was for about an hour after West Sabine Hut, heading East. And there were heaps, but we fortunately did not get stung.
Other than two wasps on Clarence Pass itself, we did not see another wasp the whole trip. We bush-bashed our way up the entire East Sabine without seeing any. It appeared to us, at least, that the wasps were isolated to that area after West Sabine Hut.
Not sure what it would be like in other areas though.
I've walked a lot of different parts of Nelson Lakes and Kahurangi from January through to past Easter over the years and can't say I've found wasps to be an excessive problem in either area.
They are there - as you would expect in any beach forest with honeydew present - but I have never found their density more extreme than other parts of the country.
I don't think honey dew has a season as such and is produced all year round. However, as the weather cools there probably are less wasps around later in the summer/autumn.
However, as I say I have never found them such a problem I have ever considered changing the timing of any trips.
My observation is that when wasps are just foraging they tend to ignore pretty much anything but food. It's when you disturb a nest that trouble tends to strike.
Several times in a party of two or three, I've noticed it was the last person in the group who got whacked, because it took a little time for the nest to react.
On my own I've never been troubled, mainly I think because I've moved out of range before they get a chance to organise.
Well at least that's my theory.
only time i've been stung was when i unwittingly walked where some cows had stirrred up a nest just before i walked through.....
just don't sit around and spread your lunch around you... i"ve seen that scenario end badly...
Being a Canterbury beech forest afficionado, I have received a heap of stings over the years. On 2 occasions at least 10 stings. I get fewer stings these days as I've learnt to spot the presence of nests by wasps flying to and fro horizontally usually from low points. Yes, being in front will save you a lot of grief.
I've also experimented with strategies such as avoiding blue and purple after being stung a lot on the legs when wearing purple long johns and also avoiding eating fish for lunch.
These days I don't worry about eating fish. Sometimes I've been amazed at how tolerant the wasps have been to my presence when I've been cutting tracks and unknowingly throwing the snippings around their nest. It seems that they gather the sweet stuff early on in summer and then in late summer it's all on as they gather protein. I believe this is when they get more aggressive.
I've been taught that the common wasp will lose interest in you if you go out of their line of sight but the german wasp is less easy to shake off. Whatever the wasps are, retreat into the forest where they can't see you is the best option when attacked. When you can't retreat into the forest as happened when I was trapped between people in front and behind and impenetrable bush lawyer, it's not nice.
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| Forum | Tracks, routes, and huts |
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| Started by | madpom |
| On | 25 December 2015 |
| Replies | 34 |
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