Mesopotamia - Gravel Bashing up Forest Creek

I had been excited about visiting Mesopotamia and Te Kahui Kaupeka Conservation Park for a while now and the long weekend had given us the perfect opportunity. This area has an amazing feeling of space and from the Rangitata River you can see forever.




We had intended to tramp Bush Stream and head in to Crooked Spur Hut, but after six fully assisted river crossings, the seventh was too much so we spent a somewhat dispiriting two hours walking back the same way.

So we decided to walk in the Forest Creek end, which is where we had intended to finish the tramp. This is a long boring gravel bash and it was already 7:00pm before we found a suitable campsite.

Time was against us now as we needed an early Sunday finish, but I managed to make it up to Bullock Bow Saddle and then Point 2030.

We camped back near Forest Creek again at the beginning of the track up to Felt Hut. Sunday was back out down the gravel, much quicker than on our inward leg.

Success on the West Coast

Ok, so we had a couple of advantages over previous trips: The track had been recently cut by a couple of Christchurch tramping legends and we had a blow by blow account of the route description from the Remote Huts website. But we really did have a successful tramp on the 'other side' of The Divide.





The longer daylight hours saw us camping at Klondyke Corner for the first time this summer. Then on the saturday we headed up to Pfeifer Biv, via Waharoa Saddle and the Parata Stream. It took about 5 1/2 hours. The biv is located in a beautiful subalpine basin with fantastic views across to Mount Alexander. We headed out to Aickens via a so-so scree slope to access Pfeifer Creek and the Taramakau River.