Day 35 – Lake Ohau to Maitland Stream

I made quick progress in the morning, around the side of Lake Ohau on a dirt road. When I came to Lake Ohau station, I knocked on the door of the homestead. Two days ago, when I called for permission to cross their land, the woman on the phone said “No problem, just come knock on our door when you get here so we know for sure when you’re walking through.”  An iconic Kiwi farmer answered the door, barrel-chested and wearing shorts with his workboots.

“Right-o, thanks for letting us know. You know where you’re going?”

“Yep!” I answered, perhaps a little to quickly.

“Good as gold, good as gold.  The track’s up there, give us a ring when you’re out the other side.”

I set out on the four-wheel-drive track he’d indicated, ascending quickly up one of the mountains bordering Maitland Stream. The track was covered in sheep exhaust and I thought, as I climbed, how sick I am of tramping across station land.  Give me a good beech forest any day.

Lucky for me, my DoC brochure described this route as “a well-marked track through beech forest beside Maitland Stream.”  Well, there was Maitland Stream waaay down there, and I could see the beech forest staring only a couple kilometers up it. But the bluffs around it were getting steeper, the road was climbing higher and my chances of climbing down there were becoming slimmer. I convinced myself I had missed the turnoff from the farm road onto the trail proper, and started scrambling down to meet the river. Along the way I found several well-worn but unmarked tracks. They all turned out to be sheep tracks – often useful in rough terrain, but merely deceptive today.

I joined the stream, and still no orange markers greeted me. I strained to see some on the other side, but no luck. I followed the true right upstream for a bit, and even found a track or two, but no markers.

Perhaps the brochure was just wrong, there was no track, and I’d just have to use the river as a trail. That isn’t an appealing thought: the river is slightly high from recent rains, and very cold.  Further, I only have three full days left to get across to the Ahuriri and hitch down to Glenorchy to meet Blair.

I made camp while pondering these things. I figure I can get my feet wet in the morning.