Overview
Fri. Feb. 24.
Light showers during night. East wind with fog on back rangers still continues. Dip in Mangahao + breakfast at 6:30 - granose, ham + tea. One Kaka + 4 duck flew over Avalanche Clearing at a great altitude. At 7.5 we left for a walk up the Mangahao River – river-bed mostly of boulders – rock walls here and there. A very extensive high-level terrace, some 4 or 5 chains in width + about 20ft above present river-bed occurs on both sides of river. At some small cascades I took a photo (6) of the river + party. At this point the high-level terrace is seen to consist of 6ft of boulders resting on the country rock. Some of the party rushed off on a pigeon hunt just here but failed to secure a specimen. A little further up-stream a small well-defined fan has been deposited at the mouth of a "slip" gully on the right bank – most of the fan detritus consisted of "Tararua coal" ie. black slickensided slate. As we proceeded the valley narrowed + rocky sides became more frequent. Photo (7) of party in a small rocky gorge with a big
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slip in background. Photo (8) of the party + river-bed at our furthest point up-stream. After a biscuit + raisins we turned back at 9:10 + reached camp again at 9:50. The weather looked more promising as we went up river but rain, + fog again on our return to Clearing + our further movements are still doubtful. We dined about midday + though weather as bad as ever on mtn-tops, some of the party were in favour of establishing a camp on the timber-line of the spur leading to Mt Dundas, so we left Avalanche Clearing at 1:10 and ascended the track blazed yesterday. In the bush on this spur, as also on the spur leading up to Deception Ridge, we saw numerous small trees barked from ground-level up to the height of 5 or 6 ft by deer. Reached yesterday's turning point at 2:45 and the alpine meadow at 3.10pm. The upper part of the beech bush contains in addition to many specimens of the sub-alpine scrub, a great number of Prince of Wales feather ferns. On acc. of the numerous light showers the alpine meadow was soaking wet
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+ we all got wet through. Mr Lancaster secured a billy of water from a gully + after some discussions we decided to camp on crest of spur in a saddle just below the timber-line. Found a good place under a stunted moss covered beech + pitched the "fly" on a rope-ridge pole, gathered great quantities of moss which was dry, in spite of showers, owing to recent dry spell. Mr Pollock lined the floor of the tent with this moss making a splendid dry bed. Had a meal, dried clothes, + took photo (9) of camp + party. Rain stopped later in afternoon but fog still thick on peaks above us. A very snug camp.