This article was published in Tararua Tramper, July 2025, p.16, with a map and photo.
West Mangaone Stream circumnavigation
!
Meeting time at the Mangaone Road end was 8:45a.m. The weather was beautifully fine but there was a punishing frost making its presence felt. The road in was white in places and the car was advising us of a 0 C degree temperature.
Nine of us hurriedly sorted out our gear and put on additional layers before striking off to try and warm up. A short time later we arrived at the base of the ridge for our initial 400 metre climb to reach the nominal top of the water catchment. As usual, about 15 minutes into the climb, we stopped to remove the additional items of clothing now deemed unnecessary. The route for this trip was done in January 2024 by a party led by Wayne Perkins, and recce’d by Peggy and myself about a month ago. We were aware of some tricky navigational issues on the route but were confident we would get confused only once or twice. Confidence misplaced as it turned out ...
After morning tea, supplemented by some amazing homemade chocolate chip biscuits (Edmonds Cookery Book, 36th Edition, 1994, p.41) we headed off towards the first notable change in direction, a ‘right hand down a bit’ turn that was overshot but quickly rectified. Between this point and lunch a couple of additional direction changes were slightly missed or marginally overshot. Nothing too disastrous, but enough to warrant close attention to the map and the compass bearing needed to get us to the desired place for lunch. We knew from our recce how to hit the correct leading ridge back down to the Mangaone Track, and, after another false start, we were sorted and back on the correct ridge line.
After a relaxed lunch, we struck off down the ridge. The correct spot to divert off the ridge and into the West Mangaone Stream was correctly identified (sighs of relief from everyone) and we descended quickly into the creek about 200 metres above the track and corresponding bridge. We were rewarded with a brief afternoon tea stop on our way back to the road end.
Just over 10 km traversed in 6 hours 10 minutes. A great day out in some mildly challenging terrain.
Chris Munn (nominal leader, biscuit maker and scribe) and Peggy Munn, Lois Buckrell, Marg Pearce, Marilyn Richards, Sue Scott, Howard Symes, Karen Vaughan, Cathy Wylie