Heels 1976
Mt Arthur, Easter And Fine Weather
Mt Arthur, Easter And Fine Weather
By Gimme Shelter we crossed the Moutere Plains towards the spiky skyline of the Arthur Range. This was my first visit to Northwest Nelson, former home of trilobites, graptolites and many other long-dead inhabitants of New Zealand.
The weather was beautifully fine as we picked our way through the debris of the floods of one week before and traversed the Graham Valley to Flora Saddle and the beginning of the Arthur Range. At the bushline at dusk we dumped our packs and swarmed up onto the promontory above to bask in the rays of the dying sun and watch the purple valleys fill with darkness.
We made an easy start towards Mt Arthur next morning. There was rumoured to be very little water on the ridge so it was a pleasure to fill Ian's one-gallon water bottle for him, and invite him to carry it. The route onto Mt Arthur looked barren and steep at the top but proved to be quite straight-forward. We talked to a local shooter about the ridge past Mt Arthur but he didn't have much to say on the matter and seemed to think that we might be in danger of falling off the edge of the world if we went too far past the top.
Undaunted however, we pushed on, always near the ridge crest until we did come to an edge. Not the edge of the world however, for the continuation could be seen some distance below. The most important question, obviously, was how to pass the discontinuity and Wharry, being less sceptical than most, recced a route down on the Leslie side. After an interval he reappeared on the ridge below and we carefully sidled down towards him. By now the Twins were making a big dent in the skyline ahead. A traverse of the ridge between the two summits had been described as "quite difficult" but we expected an easy sidle; not, however on the steep and exposed Leslie side which faced us. We would obviously have to go round the back. Confidence is a good thing.
The rock was very pleasant to climb on - only right and proper since it was Mt Arthur marble - and we made our way to a notch in the east ridge of the north Twin and looked down into a rather awe-inspiring basin; no easy way down. Think again. Nick and Wharry thought the top might be a good way to go, where to I'm not sure, but it did appear to be a worthy scramble as I watched their tiny silhouettes traverse the summit and creep down to the top of the big overhang which constitutes one of the "difficulties" of the divide ridge.
The way down into the basin from our spot on the east ridge was not obvious but did not prove difficult either, and we were soon scrambling across screes in the shadow of the South Twin. Time had passed quickly - also energy - so we chose the nearest basin and pitched our tents amongst the hummocky golden tussocks and crashed.
Next morning as I reached the ridge top I heard the sound of Ian's blunderbuss being detonated a number of times followed by the most dreadful screaming. Pigs, it seems, like humans, do not enjoy dying at the end of a rifle. We rushed forward and assisted with the butchery. It's a bloody business shooting, and I prefer not to ponder on it. After the Twins the range is less steep and it reminded me in some ways of parts of the Ruahines. We lost the geochemists for a while at one point, collecting trinkets. By early afternoon we had arrived at the saddle above the Wilkinson. We read the rain guage, had some lunch and plunged off down and down and down till we reached the Leslie, whence we turned upstream for a couple of hundred metres to an idylic campsite. We enjoyed the company of a friendly weka around the campfire that night and the sky stayed cold and clear as ever.
The upper Leslie with graded tracks proved a pleasant way to the Tableland the next day. We made a camp at the Bishop's Cave and roamed the Tablelands for an afternoon and a morning before returning, some to our first night's hut on the Arthur Range, and others to a camp in the Graham.
Those who wandered along the range were: Ian Jowett, Lynn Jowett, Nick Logan, Jude Faircloth, Wharry Keys and Bryan Sissons.
B.S.