We piled into the Van for the 6.15pm sailing on the Thursday night, settling quickly and introducing ourselves to those we had not met before (amongst the 9 trampers, that meant for me, every one). The original plan for the trip was to have a look around the Mt Owen area (and summit), but the weather forecast caused our plan B to be enacted, which was to stay further east and allow the high plateaus of Kahurangi NP to soak up some rain that was expected from the west before it got to us.
The Letham conservation area is a place seldom visited by trampers some 90 km out of Picton, not far from the Wairau River valley. There was a newly marked “Wye” track that we would explore, with the possibility of a diversion over Mt Impey, if possible. The Hidden Hut would be our turn around stop, before we would head back out to the Van via Boulder Stream. The area is initially farmland, with beech forest further in.
Spending a moonlit night at a convenient DOC campsite, we upped sticks and got ourselves to the end of the Letham Road and tramping by 10am. After a short tramp along the 4WD track following the very pretty Letham River valley, we followed the Wye track up to and along the ridge that would take us to our campsite for the first (and third) night of the trip. This entailed a long steady climb from under 500 meters to a peak of 1149, and with some ‘powerful undulations’ it had our party puffing in no time.
At lunch we maintained the EM tradition and took great advantage of the warm sun, and basked, before we picked up again and moved to our campsite for the night, beneath the saddle between Mt Impey and Mt Bounds. At this point I should comment that the club recipe book is a winner, all of the meals we had on this trip where top notch, a great idea whoever that was!
Day 2 and we were packed and away by 9.30am. We headed for the saddle where we would stand, stare and make up our minds about how we would attack the rest of the day. Once we got there some of the options apparent to us on the map were denied, the route from the bottom of the saddle to 1430 and beyond to 1451, while not necessarily impassable, was given a miss in favour of taking the track to the Hidden Hut. Once there we could make an ascent of Mt Impey from the hut via Parkers Spur.
The trip down from the saddle was enjoyable and allowed a good stretch of the legs and solid pace, though it also introduced some members of the party to Spaniard grass for the first time! Once we had reached the hut, we (who were still tenting) set ourselves up and basked in yet another extended lunch, until 3pm when the party of Mt Impey ascenders set off on their journey. The 850m climb up and return took it out of the team and all welcomed the warmth of a riverside fire, another well cooked dinner and ‘smores’ (2 chocolate biscuits sandwiching a toasted marshmallow).
Day 3 had us return to the campsite of day 1 via the same saddle, after a late start of 11am waiting for the worst of the rain to burn off, also allowing us to enjoy the morning chorus that is so impressive in these parts and for people to comment on my having potato flakes for breakfast. Once started we made quick pace and arrived at the site after about 4 hours of solid walking. Unpacked and readied for the evening Tony soon had us hunting through the trees for standing dry beech so we could set up another fire and enjoy some more toasted marshmallows after dinner.
Day 4 had us packed and away by ¼ to 9, early so we could make the ferry with time to spare. The trip out was initially along the same ridge we came in on, but we then took a turn and headed down one of the spurs into boulder stream, where there was a 4WD track that we could follow out (2 of us eschewed this and stuck to the stream). Presently we had all collected ourselves at the van and where ready to return to civilisation!
