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Top Stories

Tararuas Track Needs Support

Cycleway Partnership

Trouble-Free Tramping

Way Through High Country

Tararuas Track Needs Support

	Tararuas Map showing Oriwa Ridge option/

DoC is asking for submissions on Te Araroa's proposed Oriwa Ridge route through the Tararuas, north of Wellington.

It's important we get support for this route since some members of tramping clubs who use the Tararuas as a tramping ground are opposing it and the Department of Conservation, which manages the Tararua Forest Park, is bound to weigh both pro-Te Araroa and anti-Te Araroa route opinions before it makes its decision.

The issue is whether or not the advantages of the proposed Oriwa Ridge tramping track outweigh the disadvantages of developing a track in the 'Otaki Remote Experience Area' which currently does not have marked tracks.

We believe the sacrifice of the "remote" character here is small compared to the advantages of a non-intrusive tramping track along this comparatively safe ridge.

If you're convinced, we'd appreciate a submission in our favour. Submissions close September 18. See our website news item for more detail, including a map and a link through to DoC’s on line submissions form.

Five Reasons To Support Oriwa Option

• It will provide Te Araroa’s second-longest North Island forest tramp.
• It is the only forest tramp in Te Araroa’s entire 3,000-km length that is also close to a significant population centre,
• It will allow trampers to experience the legendary Tararuas, on a comparatively safe track
• It makes good use of two existing modern huts.
• DoC has the budget to put this track in place.

Please support the Oriwa Option if you agree with the case the Trust has made.

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Cycleway Partnership

Three sections of Te Araroa’s 3000km national walking trail could benefit from the Government’s Cycleway initiative following submissions to Prime Minister John Key and other key Ministers.

The sections where partnership looks most likely are:

• Ngaruawahia to Hamilton - A possible 14km addition to Te Araroa track.
• National Park to Whanganui River –  a possible link between Fishers Track and Mangaparua Valley Track.
• Invercargill to Bluff – a 29km section where the proposed cycleway and Te Araroa routes are already neatly aligned.

These are all yet-to-be constructed Te Araroa track links which could be used jointly by walkers and cyclists.

Says Te Araroa CEO Geoff Chapple; “We were asked by the Government to identify areas where we could work in closely with the Cycleway after we presented the trail to the Prime Minister and relevant Cabinet Ministers in late July.

“We already had an idea of the regions the Cycleway was interested in, and we had a hard look at where we could work together. In general, the terrain where this can be most easily achieved is open and flat, where cyclists and walkers can easily see each other, and where the track can be constructed to a 2.5 metres width."

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Trouble-Free Tramping

	Jessie and Lloyd relax in DoC's Pureora camp ground.

Rehydrating milk shakes and a good GPS kept Jessie Blakie, her husband Lloyd and friend Dene Cole going as the two men walked the North Island section of Te Araroa earlier this year with Jessie in support hauling a three-berth caravan.

Since the trio completed the walk in May - the men walking 8 hours daily and Jessie providing management and meals - Jessie and Lloyd have given talks to community groups in the Riverton area where they live and find people fascinated and “a little bit in awe” at the idea of walking the length of the country

During the 50-day trek Jessie developed a routine which allowed “the boys to walk and everything to fall into place around them” – the ideal way to through-walk Te Araroa if you have the time and resources to do it.

She jokes that when Lloyd – who chairs Te Araroa’s Southland Regional Trust – first suggested the idea of her driving support with the caravan she “panicked.”

GPS a “Lifeline”

However she soon developed a daily routine that provides a good model for others considering doing Te Araroa as a through-walk rather than in piece meal sections.

First up she says her TomTom car GPS system was “a lifeline,” useful in both city and country for getting her to the right place at the right time.

“On back country roads it was especially useful in warning me what was coming up ahead – very reassuring when you are towing a van. I wouldn’t have done the trip without it,” says Jessie.

Rehydrating Shakes

The other “essential” was the rehydrating milk shake that revived the tired walkers when they finished their day - a mix of toddler’s milk formula, flax seed oil, whey protein and powdered berry mix.

“They were often really bushed at the end of the day and it really bucked them up,” says Jessie.

Other tips for problem free trekking:

• With the exception of two DoC camping grounds in the Pureora Forest Park Jessie’s party stayed in commercial camping grounds closest to the track access. “They were generally excellent value with lots of hot water – wonderful at the end of a hard day.”
• Take blister packs for “hot spots” and meths to harden up tender feet.
• Use walking sticks like the Leki.
• Travel in the middle of the day – between 11 and 2pm – when most of the “big rigs” have gone through. “Most camp grounds are happy for you to check out a bit later than 10am,” says Jessie.
• A laptop and broadband connection allowed downloading of maps from Te Araroa’s website for each new section. “Wherever we could use a cell phone we did that, but where we couldn’t of course we had road maps and Topo maps for the relevant sections, says Jessie.

Next Up – South Island

Next month Jessie and Lloyd start the South Island Te Araroa trail with the Queen Charlotte Track – which they will both walk – and then Lloyd plans to continue later in the summer with Jessie once again in support. Dene will probably join them.

Says Jessie: “Nothing looks better than a couple of old guys coming along the road towards you at the end of the day.”

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Way Through High Country

	Geoff Chapple, Jonathan Wallis and Michael Pullar stand against a photographic backdrop of Minaret Station.

The chairman of the High Country Accord, Jonathan Wallis, will discuss passage for Te Araroa with the pastoral leaseholders of three South Island high country stations.

Te Araroa Trust CEO Geoff Chapple and the trust’s South Island rep, Michael Pullar, met with Jonathan August 27 after the Accord chair had written to suggest options “to allow the trust to achieve its goals amicably.”

The Accord was set up in 2002 to represent pastoral leaseholders. It supported the concept of Te Araroa, Jonathan told the two reps, at the August meeting, and wanted to resolve the issues in crossing South Island high country.

Ten Out of 13 Agreed

Over the past six years, Te Araroa has sought passage through 13 pastoral leases. By a process of Crown Tenure Review, Government purchase of properties like St James Station, a Land Information New Zealand programme of buying easements, and informal agreement, it has found its way through ten of them.

Last year LINZ, the administrators of the pastoral leases, undertook a programme to buy easements through pastoral lease stations on behalf of Te Araroa. Those efforts were partly successful, but were rejected in one instance because of leaseholder anger at the revised rents which the Labour Government proposed charging farmers.

Minaret Station Test Case

The Accord – using a test case centred on Minaret Station which Jonathan Wallis co-owns – fought the rent review and last month won their case that rents should be based only on pastoral values of the land and not – as the Labour Government had sought – on a combination of pastoral and “amenities” values. 

“Amenities” included the amount a property accrued in value because of non-farming considerations like lake and mountain views.

Jonathan Wallis told the Te Araroa reps that the Accord was also upset at Labour Government Cabinet minutes that suggested, if all reasonable negotiation failed, the government might use the 1948 Land Act to acquire passage for Te Araroa.

“That’s in the past,” said Wallis at the meeting. “I would not be talking to you now if the Accord had not decided that we are interested in your project, and would like to help if we can.”

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