This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, no 11, December 2022
Enter at your peril
It was a beautiful Sunday morning in the summer of 2018 and the tunnel for Kaiwharawhara Stream under Ian Galloway Park in Wilton was waiting to be conquered. The Park used to be a landfill but is now a large sports field.
We went down the ‘tip-face’ just upstream of Ōtari Wilton’s Bush, to enter the black hole. The water was only ankle-deep as we sloshed along, the sound echoing. On and on we went, entranced by the coloured stalactites and villages of glow-worms along the way. At various stages we passed side-tunnels. After 40 minutes light dawned ahead.
We emerged somewhat brown-stained (from the stalactites) into someone’s back yard below Curtis Street. This was a surprise: streams shouldn’t go through back yards! A dog started barking, shattering the peace, and the owner came out. It took a while to mollify him. Then his neighbour appeared, a more forthright character unconvinced by our explanations. We fled up to Curtis Street.
A hot shower awaited.
[For more on tunnel explorations in the Kaiwharawhara/Korimako catchments, see below – including Chris Horne’s famous ‘Super Sewer Tours’: 1998-03-08 Super Sewer Tour Mark III | Tararua Tramping Club (ttc.org.nz) 2000-02-12 Super Sewer Tour | Tararua Tramping Club (ttc.org.nz) 2007-01-28-Trelissick Park-Kaiwharawhara Stream-Kaukau | Tararua Tramping Club (ttc.org.nz) 2021-02-03-Churchill Reserve | Tararua Tramping Club (ttc.org.nz). Curtis Street to Zealandia under Appleton Park anyone?]
- Party members
- Warrick Fowlie (non-member), Peter Reimann (scribe).