{"id":1510,"date":"2005-02-11T03:12:48","date_gmt":"2005-02-11T01:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2009-09-28T19:35:08","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T17:35:08","slug":"rotoiti-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/?p=1510","title":{"rendered":"Rotoiti – Summer 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"p2050132_edited-copy.jpg\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0After returning from Otago, the summer had arrived, Lake Rotoiti was looking good and the chance of a few more days there too good to miss, returning to Australia could wait, the holiday was extended!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"pc310004_edited.jpg\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rain was cleared, the days becoming fine, it lasted for days on end. Riding and walking took priority\u2026The work to be done at the bach was able to be neglected, this weather was too good to waste!<\/p>\n

ST ARNAUD RIDGE<\/font><\/h2>\n

From the Wairau Valley there\u2019s an excellent mountainbike climb (over the locked gate) up the Six Mile Creek to the deserted Rainbow Skifields, where after a short walk up to the ridge there are excellent views from the St Arnaud Range<\/p>\n

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back toward the lake<\/p>\n

\"p1190198a.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and of the empty ski-fields<\/p>\n

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Then the ride back down makes the effort of getting up seem worthwhile.<\/p>\n

BEEBY’S KNOB<\/font><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s long been a 4wd track up onto Beeby\u2019s Knob, DOC recently made it available to mountainbikers. From the Tophouse Saddle, there\u2019s a zigzag climb, hot, and steep, the surface unstable, it\u2019s a bike \u2018push\u2019 for the most, but once on top, it flattens and the road goes a long way back along the ridge ending in the bush above the Motueka Valley.<\/p>\n

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There are great views all around from the ridge and fields of alpine flowers.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a different view down to Kikiwa and the Motupiko Valley<\/p>\n

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and seems surprisingly high above the Lake<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

TRAVERS VALLEY<\/font>\u00a0<\/h2>\n

I took a day-walk up to Upper Travers Hut, the walk up the valley is easy and mainly in the bush, but with some wide clearings as Mt Travers gets closer.<\/p>\n

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The track passes near the Travers Falls, surprisingly beautiful and oh so inviting on a hot day\u2026until you test the water temperature in the pool at the bottom\u2026<\/p>\n

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\"p1310083.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

but the aurisias flourish in the cool dampness.<\/p>\n

The Upper Travers Hut is truly alpine, just a little way from the Travers Saddle<\/p>\n

\"p1310090.jpg\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0and Mt Travers is there, looming above.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a great spot for lunch in the sun before the walk back.<\/p>\n

\u00a0MARUIA SADDLE<\/font><\/h2>\n

I haven\u2019t been over the Maruia Saddle Route for many years, from Murchison I rode up the Matukituki Valley, revisiting the now disused 6 Mile Creek Power Station, preserved and open to the public. There is a walk on a track alongside the main water race down from the weir, in cool bush,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"p2030097.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and the workings of the power house are there on display.<\/p>\n

\"six-mile-copy.jpg\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was still running not so long ago, just 20-30 years.<\/p>\n

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Further up the valley, the road becomes unsealed, little used and the scenery beautiful. It\u2019s very good riding on a bike.<\/p>\n

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The Matukituki River up there is deceptively big.<\/p>\n

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There is the old stone bridge landmark still at Horse Terrace and the remnants of a long gone bigger settlement.<\/p>\n

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the river beneath is in a narrow gorge, grade 4? grade 5? grade more? white water for just a hundred metres.<\/p>\n

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\"p2030105_edited.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The road then narrows further, the grass grows in the middle, it seems hardly ever used , but is well kept, graded and climbs steadily up to the saddle. There are several fords along the way, but nothing to make it difficult to ride or impassable even to most cars.<\/p>\n

From the top there is a short ride down to the main road, then take a right turn to Shenandoah Saddle and down the Maruia Valley. On a very hot day, the falls were welcoming,<\/p>\n

\"p2030107.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

but only to fill the water bottles\u2026
\nThe swim came later in a deep pool back in Murchison.<\/p>\n

ANGELUS RIDGE<\/font><\/h2>\n

The next excursion was a day climb of Mt Angelus from the Mt Robert Carpark<\/p>\n

\"p2050109.jpg\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the early morning the layer of low cloud over the lake as we climbed to the Mt Robert Ridge was a sign of another warm day to come.<\/p>\n

\"p2050110_edited.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we went along the ridge, some light cloud came across, it was welcome.<\/p>\n

\"p2050112.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

while we \u2018nibbled\u2019a little in floppy hats\u2026<\/p>\n

\"floppyhats.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"p2050114.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From the saddle above Lake Angelus we could see people swimming near the hut, and just beyond was the mountain<\/p>\n

\"p2050118.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was only a short climb to the summit from the hut,<\/p>\n

\"p2050123.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

from where the view back along the range was good, but the cloud seemed to be closing in, so it was a an even quicker scramble down in the scree!<\/p>\n

\"p2050124.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hukere Tarn near the Angelus Hut is another beautiful spot and worth a quick stop to finish lunch.<\/p>\n

Then on the return, from the Angelus Saddle we followed the route into the Speargrass Basin.<\/p>\n

\"p2050126.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It follows the Speargrass Stream but is in places poorly formed and pushes through the tree daisies. At this time of the year in full flower and particularly prolific in the area.<\/p>\n

\"p2050128.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"p2060127b.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From Speargrass Hutt in a clearing in the basin it was a walk back through the bush, returning in the late afternoon to the Mt Robert Carpark, the lake just below.<\/p>\n

\"rotoiti-merge-copy.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was sad to leave, it had been an excellent extra 10 days!<\/p>\n

End<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0After returning from Otago, the summer had arrived, Lake Rotoiti was looking good and the chance of a few more days there too good to miss, returning to Australia could wait, the holiday was extended!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nelson","category-new-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3012,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions\/3012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}