This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Exploring Farm Creek tributaries 2023
Farm Creek Adventures
Wednesday 11 October 2023
Phase One
The trip's logistics on the morning were like the weather – not ideal, but you make the most of what is presented. Unfortunately for him, Colin (the trip leader) woke feeling unwell and did not participate; a misunderstanding of the meet-up location by an intending participant lost another pair of boots; and an unanticipated but valuable face-to-face connect with the landowner who had previously granted access meant that just three of us made a late start to the trip in drizzly conditions.
Our first objective was to obtain partial traces of tributaries of Farm Creek that are in public domain, flowing SW from point 630. On a trip a year previously in that valley, there had been consternation that what we experienced on the ground did not match what the topo map indicated. The result of our efforts on this day was proof that the stream location on the map was inaccurate; but not accurate evidence, as we did not follow the watercourses exactly. [More to come on that]
So, satisfied that we had generally achieved objective one, we had a late morning tea.
The second objective of the day was to travel up the Farm Creek watercourse that is in the public domain. The water flow was clear and not deep. Travel up the watercourse was straightforward for the party. There were a few small waterfall challenges but none that required sidling. Lunch was taken at an open slip face about the 500m contour, in welcome sun.
About thirty minutes post-lunch we came to a fork in the watercourse that is not evidenced by contours on the map. With the travel becoming slightly more 'headwaterishly challenging' with vegetation, and consideration being given to time required for the return journey, we decided to scramble up through what proved to be scrappy bush to the Dobson Loop (DL) track.
To get back to the car we travelled down the spur that goes slightly north of west off the DL track from near the 'n' in the word Dobson on the map. Travel down that spur was straight forward and once in the Farm Creek valley, we comfortably made our way across the muddy paddocks to the car. It was a satisfying adventure in new territory for all of the party.
However, there remained the issue of getting exact details about the watercourses.
- Party members
- Bill Allcock (scribe), Colin Cook, Jenny Mason, Robyn Chesterfield
Phase Two
A couple of Sundays later Bill and I returned to Farm Creek to walk the existing watercourses and so correct the topo map. We found that BP33 08 incorrectly maps the three Farm Creek side streams, labelled A, B, C on the accompanying map fragment.
In that picture, black dots show actual stream courses while black crosses indicate map errors: the absence of any significant stream.
Amusingly, Jenny discovered that a 1973 Dept. of Lands and Survey topomap actually got B and C right! Perhaps the errors we found followed from much later aerial photography when the ground cover may have changed significantly. (Note too, that BP33 09 gets B right following a 2022 communication of one of us with LINZ.)
- Party members
- Bill Allcock, Colin Cook (scribe)