This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, No.1, February 2022
Gollans Stream M and S/F
17 November 2021
The weather forecast was for strong winds and some showers. At 3 p.m. on Tuesday, only three people were confirmed for the Medium trip to Gollans Stream in the Eastern Harbour Regional Park. Joan Basher asked if the five members who were confirmed on the Slow Fit trip could be switched to the Medium trip. They were planning to go over to the Holdsworth area, but that would be a long way to go with an unpleasant weather forecast. Soon after, emails started coming in and at 9 a.m. on Wednesday there were 17 club members ready to start walking.
The trip started at the Days Bay Pavilion, then climbed up the Kereru Track and went down a trap line to Gollans Creek. The trap line was relatively easy to follow, but 17 people can easily get split up. Morning tea was at the S bend. There it was realised that none of us had actually followed the creek through the S bend and gorge, preferring the sidle track instead, so that was an excuse to follow the creek. It took a while, no waterfalls but a lot of scrambling, some wading through cold water, some crawling under logs - slow progress with a large party. Lunch was eaten a relatively short distance further down the valley. After lunch, two of the party headed out via the Hawtrey Route. At Butterfly Creek the Slow Fit people headed up the middle ridge over Hawtrey and back to Days Bay, while the Medium party took the easier Mackenzie Track out to Eastbourne. All up seven hours for the Medium and eight for the Slow Fit.
- Party members
- Joan Basher, Colin Cook, Trish Gardiner-Smith, Jim Gibbons (leader and scibe and photos), Susan Guscott, Carolyn Jenkins, Justin Kerr, Alan Knowles, David McNabb, Diana Morgan, Sieny Pollard, Jane Pyer Mautner, Diana Munster, Marilyn Richards, David Ogilvie, Penny Salmond, Peter Smith.