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Found - One Lost Lake:

It seems uncertain who first discovered the Lost Lake and when, and its mythology is not vast. However the modern era begins in 1933 when a large Varsity party of about twelve crossed the range by way of the Lost Lake from Palliser Bay to the Orongorongo river. The party had no appointed leader and one of the first trip boys. lost early in the day, trailed the party through the extremely rough country and caught them up in the evening — but this is by the way. The Tararuas quickly caught on and, until about 1937 ran trips quite regularly to try to find the Lost Lake. However it finally degenerated to sour grapes in these words of "Tararua Story". "A slimy pool surrounded by scraggy undergrowth about 200 feet below the crest of the ridge,the Lost Lake is little entitled to serious attention".

In a very last minute tramp Peter Barry and I got to the top of the Whakanui on Friday night. When, in true tradition, next morning we hauled ourselves out of bed at 9.15 there was a wet mist around. It soon cleared as we moved off down into the Orongorongo river, and at the bottom of Boulder creek we had breakfast. Next came the nettles and scrub of Papatahi, but after two hours we were admiring the wonderful view from the top over the Wairarapa and Wellington. The ridge to the north was tortuous but quite easy going. Forty minutes later there was a likely looking basin on the left and after thirty minutes' tree climbing to see if there were alternative places further north we descended and there below was a silvery little lake.

The formation of the lake is curious, the basin in which it lies is bounded below by a sharp ridge with two niches in it cut by the streams. Further down, the stream drops down a series of high waterfalls; the sides are badly eroded and the leatherwood holds are rather infrequent. For this rotten rock we recommend ropes, iceaxes, helmets and crampons. iBack in the river we hurried off down to the packs at Boulder Creek without stopping for a cup of tea (?) and a kick in the pants at the waterworks.

S.R.

Party: Steve Reid, Peter Barry.