A Traverse of the Takitimus

After a long wet winter it was a relief to see some fine weather for a change and as the weekend approached Paula and I made plans to traverse the Takitimu Ranges from Blackmount to Aparima. This is one of the best ridge traverses in Southland outside Fiordland and has an alpine grandeur in winter conditions.

We left at 2 PM on Friday and drove 2 cars to the cattle yards at the end of the Dunrobin road near the Aparima River. Leaving one car here we drove the 100 kilometres around to Blackmount/Redcliffs Saddle were we dropped off the second car and walked into the Jericoe Plantation to Windy Creek. At the start of the valley there is a side valley on the right and we struck up a spur past the first stream to bivi on the first level bit of ridge at 650 metres just on dark.

Unfortunately I picked a lumpy spot to pitch the tent and at midnight I’d had enough (pain) and crept silently out of the tent dragging my sleeping bag to find a level spot in the nearby forest. During the night Paula woke up in a fright to find I had not returned and thought I might have fallen off the mountain but then realised my sleeping bag had gone!

At 6.00PM Paula roused me and we had breakfast and broke camp at first light. Then it was a big pull up to the top of the Brunel Peaks at 1600 metres. There was excellent crampon conditions higher up and the long sinuous ridge snaked along to the ‘Difficult” peak overlooking Long Valley. This is the crux of the traverse and always involved some exposed climbing. There was an astonishing amount of new snow and some huge avos in the top of Windy Creek. We sidled left as usual and arrived on a steep prow with an almighty drop on both sides. We had been a bit optimistic and only taken a 12 metre short rope, 4 karabiners plus a few slings. This was clearly inadequate. My attempt to do a classical abseil down into the head of Long Creek with a 12 metre rope was shall I say unrewarding and not recommended. So we headed left and very carefully descended a broken rock and ice face for maybe 50 metres to a steep snow slope. Then followed a long sidle across increasingly soft steep snow slopes to a saddle overlooking Long valley. Once across it was an easy walk to the Telford Saddle.



It was now about 3.00PM as we headed into Telford. At first the snow slopes were firm but lower down we started breaking through and it was horrible in the creek where we sunk in up to our knees or crotch at ever step. Now it was a real fight to keep on in increasingly difficult conditions and on dark we managed to reach Telford Bivi. Boy was that good, like the proverbial beating your head on a brick wall it felt good to stop. I got a fire going and a brew on and we enjoyed a well earned rest after 11.5 hours on the go. Telford Bivi is delightful, a two person hotel complete with 30 year old cans of tinned peas and other delicacies left over from the retreat of the New Zealand Forest Service. I could see relief on Paula face at having arrived in Nirvana. Despite the relative comfort I had a good sleep and we were up again in the dark and off at first light. It was a repeat of the drunken lurch forwards into soft snow though not as deep as we made our way down to junction with the North branch of Telford. Then it was climb up the North branch for about ¾ of a Kilometre. Unfortunately we headed up too soon and ended up on the wrong side of a huge slip. This we followed up around the head wall and into some scrub and into some rock buttresses where we found an easy route up to Bull Basin.

This was a huge expanse of deep snow as we made our way down into the Upper Wairaki. It was a beautiful sunny day and soon enough the snow would not support us and we broke through often. It took us 4.5 hours to reach Upper Wairaki Bivi. Just before the bivi we started a huge deer that bounded out of the scrub and on down the valley.

By now we were seriously worried we might not make it back to the car by dark as most the options involved high crossings from here. In the end we decided to plough down the Wairaki valley all the way to Lower Wairaki Hut which we reached in another 3 hours and then strike north over open tussock country to the east of the mountains on farm tracks back to Dunrobin which we reached on dark after a 12 hour day. Paula’s feet were starting to fall apart but my hydorcrocs saved the day. Then it was back to Blackmount and on to home comforts.

A Traverse of the Takitimu Ranges from Blackmount to Aparima via the Brunel Peaks by Paula Macfarlane and Stanley Mulvany on 29-31 August 2008