Kapakapanui Working Party

3rd-4th April 1965

Two trampers, Kevin and Andy, splashed thru' the Ngatiawa stream to the foot of the Kapakapanui track. There was no sign of anyone else, so we collected firewood and sharpened our slashers.

Presently John and Tom arrived. We set up camp, then gathering tools under our arms, we sailed forth up the hill, taking indiscriminant swings at inoffensive ferns and tufts of grass, drunk with the power of destruction.

The worst part of the track was the top half. There the bush and undergrowth had grown so profusely that the original track had disappeared completely. It was in this region that Mr Langer, of the N. Z. B. C. Symphony orchestra, died last September after becoming bushed. We could soon appreciate why and how. Mt. Kapakapanui is over 3,600 feet high and its sides are thick with bush. The Ngatiawa stream is a placid little creek, hardly more than one foot deep at its deepest. Yet a friendly farmer told us that during the Langer search the Ngatiawa was in such flood it could not be crossed even on horseback.

The weather was overcast and just cool enough to make you keep working. After a spell for lunch we carried on. page break Tom and Kevin went down early to get dinner under way, and John and Andy kept working till it was almost dark. Goring back down we could already see the vast improvements in the track.

Next morning we were away to an early start. The nuisance of working on Mt. Kapakapanui is that you have to climb so far before you can start working. We had cut to about 2,000' the day before and had to climb to this height before we could start.

Colin Smy the and Joe Walker came just before lunch and we managed to get a few dises nailed up. We kept chopping away, cutting not just scrub but whole trees until John called out it was 3pm. and we just had time to climb to the top if we wanted too. So we downed tools and set out for the top. We found to our gratification that we had cut/within ¼ hour of the bushline and the summit was ½ hour beyond that, through thick snow grass. From the top we had a magnificent panorama of the entire coast, Kapiti, the South Island, Wellington, Renata Peaks, the Northern Tararuas, and Otaki Farks, unfortunately the dress circle" and Hector were shrouded in mist.

After considerable contemplation and the taking of photos we wen down, collecting the tools on the way. Tom did a fast trip and when the rest of us arrived we found he had built a cairn of atones at the foot of the track, folded up the tent, extinguished the fire, and packed his gear. Well done Tom.

We others packed up and tramped out to the road. Colin and Jo whizzed away on Colin's bike, Kevin went home with some deerstalkers who had come out at the same time we had, and the others went in John's car.

It had been a constructive weekend, but it was a pity there were not more bods present, as there were still several hundred of fact of track still to be cut and the whole track is still to be disked. This will necessitate another working party into this interesting and little known part of the Tararuas.

A.J.

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Saves: John Rhodes, Jo Walker, Colin Smythe, Andy Jackson, Tom Clarkson, Kevin Poarce.