This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 82, no 3. April 2010
Pyramid, amongst the Camelbacks
17 March 2010
If, instead of crossing the pipe bridge to the Ohau car park, you continue up the Gladstone Road to the end, you are ready to climb Pyramid Knob. Wayne had permission from Daniel Kilsby to take a farm road on a bit further before climbing to the bush edge. At once you are on a good track, cut presumably for hunting but well cleared by Wayne of recent obstructions. It climbs comfortably through the usual well established second growth of these parts – fire? milling? farm clearance? we couldn’t decide – and just over three hours from the road had us on top. Well, just past the top actually, for the top has three metre scrub on it. But just past was an open bit of tussock where we greatly enjoyed some wind- free sunshine as we ate, drank and surveyed the Johnston Creek catchment and the northern Tararua tops beyond the Mangahao, and wondered just how rebarbative the scrub would be if you carried on to Marquee in one direction or to Tawirikohukohu in the other, for the splendid cut track stops right there. We returned as we came as far as spot height 632. From there, Wayne had sparsely marked a route down a spur to Waiti Stream, emerging where the last side stream on the TR comes in, and while he continued to ply his secateurs, the rest of the party was detailed to tie extra orange ribbon to mark an otherwise not very obvious route. Many thanks to Daniel and Wayne for a pleasant seven hour day.
- Party members
- Rhonda Billington, Glenys Evans, Wayne Griffen, David Ogilvie, Bob Stephens, Bill Stephenson, John Thomson (scribe), and Bill Wheeler.