Overview
Sun. Dec. 10.
Up early. Maudie got me breakfast + cut me a nice little lunch. At 7.10am set out on Fanny for the Te Paku trig station on the
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Tararuas opposite Shannon. Took levels with aneroid. Laws gate. Ihakara's Reserve 8.1 am 286". On the cutting on road on south side of Ihakara tableland I noted four kinds of orchid Thelymitra (very numerous), Pterostylis, Mycrotis + Earina - also many interesting shrubs. Reached sorner at Shannon where I turned off from the main road at 8.24 am, 137'. Took a photo[word underlined] (1/2 pl[ate] (1) of Te Paki + entrance to Otauru Stream valley from the road running up to hills. Passed the Bridle Track which goes through a cutting in the extreme northerly end of the Arapaepae Range + runs thence up the main gorge of the Atauru + followed the cart road - known I believe as the Tokomaru Valley road. Crossed bridge at 8.51am 289'. The road runs up the gorge of a tributary of the Otauru following the line, for the most part, of an old bush tram-way. The gorge was at first extremely narrow but further up there is a flat bottom, two or three chains in width. On the right bank the hillsides are fearfully steep + partly cleared, revealing truncated spurs. On the left bank long rocky spurs, cleared + in grass, run up
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to Te Paki trig. or to the adjacent ridge. A farm-house is precariously perched on a knob alongside the road + just beyond this I tied up Fanny + at 9.5 ascended a spur to the ridge forming OtauruTokomaru watershed reaching it at 9.36 am, 1845'. Looking into the head of the Tokomaru Valley I had some surprises. Instead of an unbroken expanse of bush, there are two large cleared areas each several hundreds of acres in extent. The more northerly patch is in good order + apparently well grassed + runs from the river up the comparatively gentle slope which forms one side of the basin-like head of the valley to the crest of a prominent hill situated on the ridge which divides the Tokomaru from the Mangahao. The road which runs up the Otauru tributary crosses the ridge on which I stood, some little distance northward + then descends to the Tokomaru River, running near it down the valley, along the lower edge of the cleared block. Several houses are dotted along this part of the road. I then continued southward along the ridge to Te Paki, following a fence-line right to the
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trig, where it stopped + turned off at a sharp angle down into the Tokomaru Valley. The trig evidently forms the corner pag of a farm. Reached trig at 9.53 am, 2185'. On the top of Te Paki, a decided sub-alpine element enters into the vegetation. I noticed mnumerous mtn. [mountain] cabbage trees, Oleria Colensi, mtn. totaras + other interesting mountain shrubs. Looking north, east + south a wide panorama of Tararuas unfolds itself. Northward lies the Poruriri Range + Kaihinu trig + the Tokomaru Valley North east, rolling scrub-clad summits. East wild ridges + the Mangahao Valley. South east + south, the Dundas group of peaks, Arete Peak, Mt. Dora, Tawirikohukohu, the Square Knob + Waiopehu. Also the head of a large bit of the Tokomaru Valley. Took a photo (2) of the Mt. Dundas peaks + Tawirikohukohu + (3) the Poruriri Range + Tokomaru Valley showing the more northerly of the cleared areas therein. Leaving Te Paki I followed the Otauru-Tokomaru divide to the saddle where the road crosses passing the other saddle where the tramline crosses the ridge + where stand the ruins of the hauling engine which at one time hauled up trucks
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laden with timber from sawmill in the Tokomaru Valley + lowered them into the Otauru tributary valley - the grades of this tramway are tremendous. From the road saddle I followed the extremely tortuous road, 11.25 am back to where I left Fanny + after some lunch, rode back home, passing Otauru bridge at 12.43. Took it easy for rest of day + retired early.