Super tramp
February 2nd, 2008 Posted in Pets Guide The legend of Davey Gunn was inspiring, but Richard
Tulloch preferred to experience the beauty of New Zealand’s
Fiordland with some creature comforts.
New Zealand’s Hollyford Valley was once the exclusive domain of
the tough guys. It was a place for men who forded rivers, slashed
trails through dense forest and stitched up their own flesh wounds
using a darning needle and some fishing line.
Now, thanks to swing bridges, a track and a guiding company,
anyone who doesn’t mind getting mud on their boots can walk New
Zealand’s most beautiful valley. (I realise I’m out on a limb here,
but if someone knows a more beautiful one, please lead me to
it.)
Twelve intrepid adventurers meet in Queenstown for an evening
briefing. Operations co-ordinator Natalie Maxted does the
introductions - Keith and Jo from London, with their boys Ben and
Sam, Shelley and Will from Wellington, Richard from Sydney.
Max unrolls the map. The Hollyford Track runs through World
Heritage-listed Fiordland on the west of the South Island. We’ll be
tramping (bushwalking) 40kilometres over the three days, jet
boating down Lake McKerrow, and finishing with a flight up Milford
Sound. It sounds great.
Max issues backpacks and rain jackets to those who hadn’t
understood that tramping happens outdoors and suggests we get an
early night.
At 6.45am the next day the Bleary Dozen board the minibus that
will carry us to the track, four hours away. When driver Suz phones
our coffee orders ahead to the Sandfly Cafe, we realise we’re with
an organisation that takes survival in the wild seriously.
Over lattes at Te Anau we meet our guides, Bard and Blair. Bard
has spent seven years leading Hollyford walks in the footsteps of
his hero, the legendary Davey Gunn, and tells us his story as our
bus approaches the road’s end.
When a light plane crashed near Martin’s Bay in 1936, tramping
guide Davey set out alone to get help for the critically injured
passengers. The nearest phone was 90kilometres away, but he covered
the distance in just 20 hours by rowboat, on horseback and finally
hiking through unbelievably rough terrain. His heroic feat saved
lives and won him a Coronation Medal.
Suitably inspired by Davey Gunn’s example, we strap on our
backpacks and set off. The undulating track follows the Hollyford
River as it winds through mossy beech and fern forest, fed by the
waterfalls gushing off the snow-capped Darran Mountains. We’re
walking on a mosaic of bright red and gold leaves.
It is magical Lord Of The Rings landscape, but this trip isn’t
just about scenery. Bushwalking with Bard and Blair is like taking
short university courses in geology, ecology, history and, above
all, botany.
If there is one thing the Hollyford Valley has enough of, it is
plants. Green stuff is everywhere. “This broadleaf is tutu,
coriaria arborea,” Bard says. “It poisoned two circus elephants in
1968. These are good to eat, though.” He hands young Sam from
London some berries to taste. “You might notice a slight
hallucinogenic effect.” Sam’s mum looks a bit alarmed. “Joke, bro,”
Bard adds quickly, and we move on.
The Hollyford doesn’t experience the traffic of some Fiordland
tracks and we meet few other walkers. Blair used to guide on the
Milford Track but says, “Too many people walk the Milford just to
say they did it. Here they’re into the whole experience.”
We clock up 17kilometres in just a few hours. On track sections
where navigation is no problem we can string out, walking at our
own pace, though usually we stick together. The group is bonding
and Davey Gunn jokes are flowing: “He must’ve carried his horse up
this bit … Are those Davey’s tooth marks on that tree trunk?”
At dusk we reach Pyke River Lodge, to be greeted by Helen and
Jenny, our young hosts. With a minimum of fuss they offer cleansing
ales, direct us to hot showers, and serve a brilliant meal of
venison followed by lemon pie.
Bard’s stories keep coming: “Davey’s son, Murray, was a
character too. He was worried hunters might mistake his favourite
brown mare for a deer, so he took white house paint and wrote HORSE
on her flank. On the other side he painted COW. He reckoned city
slicker hunters were too stupid to know the difference. Besides, he
needed the milk.”
After dinner we go armed with torches to feed a swarming mass of
eels in the river. Then we visit a nearby glow-worm cave before
finally staggering into bed. Been a full day, eh bro?
Bard wakes us at dawn with a Maori song as Helen and Jenny
prepare eggs Benedict. It’s raining. Annual rainfall in this area
is a whopping four to five metres, but “there’s no such thing as
bad weather, mate, only bad clothing”.
We slip on Gore-tex jackets and slosh along, our boots filling
with water. It’s fun. We feel as though we are on an adventure,
albeit one that ends in a nice warm lodge.
We cross a long swing bridge that takes us to the ominously
named Demon Trail. It’s rough - twisted tree roots and treacherous
slippery rocks along the banks of Lake McKerrow. On a wet day like
this, even Davey Gunn would have found it daunting.
Fortunately we have Bard, and Bard has a radio. A jet boat is
summoned to whip us down the lake to the site of Jamestown, where
an ill-conceived attempt was made to create a settlement in the
1870s.
Jamestown could have been a major port for trans-Tasman
commerce, were it not for a few slight drawbacks: the road to it
was never built, and sandbanks rendered the river mouth
unnavigable. Government planners abandoned the starving settlers
they had sent to take up the new land, and eventually the settlers
were forced to abandon Jamestown. Only rotting trunks of apple
trees remain above the graves of children.
We tramp on through ancient podocarp forest where tangled vines
and ferns cling to massive trunks. Our guides’ enthusiasm for the
forest leads us to appreciate not only the 1200-year-old towering
rimu trees, but also the tiniest orchids. Blair knows words like
tmesipteris, which I intend to use in Scrabble one day.
There are streams to wade across and we are wet through, but
when we emerge at a hut in a clearing, we find that the hot soup
fairies have left us lunch. Maybe we’re not in total
wilderness.
The rain starts to clear as we reach the rocky coast, though
there is enough mist to add magic to the peaks surrounding lovely
Martin’s Bay. We make an excursion off the main track to visit a
fur seal colony; then jet boat back to our lodge, which is tonight
serving fresh Stewart Island salmon with excellent Marlborough
wine. “How’re the legs feeling, OK?”
Next morning it’s a two-hour wander along the deserted beach,
past old Maori hangi sites, where stones cracked by fire remind us
that we weren’t the first to enjoy fine seafood here.
Bard shows us how sap from flax plants relieves the itchy bites
of sandflies. Yesterday’s rain kept the sneaky little critters
quiet, but now they are making up for lost time, feasting on my
wrists and ankles. Surprisingly, flax juice really seems to work -
they ought to bottle the stuff.
After lunch Cessnas land behind the lodge to take us on a short,
spectacular flight over the famous Milford Sound. And there’s Suz
again with the minibus, taking coffee orders. We’re back in
civilisation.
Email addresses are exchanged and promises made to send the
photos. Our thanks to our guides are heartfelt. They’ve been
caring, intelligent, informative and entertaining. They’ll do it
all again in two days’ time, but not for a moment did we catch them
running on autopilot.
You can walk the Hollyford Track independently in four to seven
days, carrying your own supplies and staying at Department of
Conservation huts.
Anyone of reasonable fitness can comfortably manage the walk, so
if you’re looking for a serious physical test, the guided tour may
not be for you. It is an ideal wilderness experience for those who
enjoy a moderate walk in the woods, and these are some of the
greatest woods we’ll ever see.
The writer was a guest of Hollyford Valley Guided
Walks.
TRIP NOTES
* Getting there: Air New Zealand flies to
Queenstown via Auckland or Christchurch from $658 return, plus
taxes.
* When to go: The Hollyford Track can be walked
year round. Hollyford guided walks operate from October to April
and cost NZ$1655 ($1465) per person including all meals,
accommodation and transport. See http://www.hollyfordtrack.com.
* Suggested reading: The Land Of Doing
Without: Davey Gunn Of The Hollyford by Julia Bradshaw,
Canterbury University Press; and Tramping In New Zealand
by Jim DuFresne (Lonely Planet).
Source: The Sun-Herald
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