Date:                                      20th June 2010
Trip leader:                           Andrew Mackie
Trip report:                            Jeff & Gowan Simpson


The morning dawned in Wakefield with rain pouring down & views of fog beyond 100 metres in every direction. Didn’t really look like a good day for driving up a mountain, but there is always a chance that the weather might be OK on the other side of the hill. We arrived at the Millers Acre car park a bit early but used the extra time to catch up with Miles & Helen over a coffee in the adjacent café. After we emerged from there we found that a few other hardy souls had turned up and in fact there were patches of blue sky overhead so all was looking good. Andrew gave us the drivers’ briefing and then asked if there was anyone without the club tick. I thought I detected a slight gleam in his eye as I confessed & I was right, as no sooner had I raised my hand than we had been allocated the job of the trip report. Earlier in the week I had been to see Rowan but failed on account of my tow hook bolts having 3 stripes instead of 6 but they were deemed to be OK for Mt Patriarch. So this opportunity was seized upon by Andrew as an excuse for doing the report. Fair enough, I’ll get the bolts sorted before the next trip.

Eleven vehicles left the carpark just after 9:30 and we had got as far as Atawhai when the smell of brake dust alerted one of the trucks to a problem with Graeme’s green Daihatsu.  After a brief stop by some of those at the rear the problem was fixed with a swift kick to the handbrake & they were on their way again. We went up over the Whangamoa & the Rai Saddle before stopping at Pelorus for morning smoko. Found a spot down by the river at Totara Flat where we could see the river which was running very high & discoloured which did not bode well for our plans to do a river crossing later in the day, particularly as it was now raining again. But hey, that’s on the other side of the hill so might be OK over there. Always look on the bright side.

Continuing on we turned right just before the Wairau river bridge at Kaituna and drove along North Bank Road, passing numerous vineyards planted in the gravel terrain. During this part of the drive we had some interesting commentary from Kevin on the early days of the club when most members would have been driving a landrover of some description and carrying a couple of spare axles. After about 30km we were onto a gravel surface and we turned right up Top Valley road. Turning left at a fork towards Lake Chalice we climbed up through young pines on quite a firm track under all the mud & slush that was accumulating on it and we passed a couple of hunters plus another group of 4 wheelers (Marlborough 4WD club?) coming down the hill. Up past Staircase Saddle & the track was getting quite narrow and we were now into manuka scrub and winding around some narrow rocky bluffs.

Lots of lichen hanging on the manuka indicated that this was a place that enjoyed a lot of damp weather and today was no exception. After negotiating a short side track we reached the top “car park” at an altitude of some 1200 metres. Unfortunately the drizzle was still drizzling & the views were very similar to those that we saw at Wakefield before we left home. But some of us did stand on the rocky outcrop & imagine what the views back into the Wairau valley would be like on a nice clear day. This was the designated lunch stop so it was out with the sammies & thermos for a hot drink although the weather was really against the idea of standing about chatting so it was a case of sitting inside the shelter of the truck. After lunch we headed back down the hill to find the weather had cleared slightly, so we were able to get a view of Lake Chalice way down in the valley below the track. Back down at the bottom on North Bank Road a couple of trucks turned left & headed for home while the rest of us went to investigate the state of the river we were planning to cross.

We carried on up the road for about another 30 kms, crossing numerous small creeks, past the end of the public road, through some farmland and back into the Richmond Forest Park. Upon reaching the point where we would ford the Goulter river we eagerly stepped out to inspect the crossing but one glance was all that was needed to know that we would not be crossing that today. We were faced with a raging torrent of mud stained water that was totally impassable. So we carried on up the road a short way to reach the Goulter car park where we all had a nice cup of tea. All that is except for Graeme & Kay because Graeme had previously poured the contents of their thermos’s into the radiator of the Daihatsu which seemed to be constantly on heat during the whole trip.

Think it hadn’t been out for a trip for so long that it was just getting a bit too excited. After retracing our steps to Top Valley road we said our farewells & thanked Andrew for what had been a good day out despite the weather and headed for home about 4:30. Most went back via the Whangamoa’s but Graeme & Kay & ourselves went via Tophouse. This wasn’t without incident either as the Daihatsu was still running hot so it was out under the torchlight to remove the thermostat halfway up the Wairau valley. That seemed to do the trick with the run through to Wakefield after that being without incident & we arrived home safely around 7:30 after covering about 450 kms for the day.

Quite a long journey but we enjoyed our first trip with the club and the opportunity to meet club members out on the trail always makes for a good day.

Thanks Andrew for a great day out.