West Coast track info needed

DaveM · Post by **DaveM** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 5:04 pm

Hi all,
looking at heading to the coast over easter, and would like some info on track conditions.
Looking at starting with the Mackley (in good condition at the moment), Big River, and Napoleans Hill (only want to go to the tunnels, so if don't have to do whole track I don't mind)

Has anyone done these tracks recently? Is there a certain order for Big River/Napoleans (which is closer to the end of the Mackley?) Any tracks which we could add with the amount of time we have available? (3 days)Are there huts/camping areas on any of the tracks?
I'm told there is an easier track to the Waipuna Tunnels, so you don't have to back track for those not keen on Napoleans, is this right?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

lardy · Post by **lardy** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 5:57 pm

Hi there is a doc hut at big river i dont know if you have to book our not. last time i was there the track was in good condition.

albundy · Post by **albundy** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:10 pm

Haven't done them recently, ie last six months, but last time Napoleon's hill was a piece of piss. Up from the tunnel side and down the other is the hardest but frowned upon. If you are in the reefton area, try going down the waitahu river to montgomery hut, good hard challenging drive and hut at the end. Trout, deer and pigs. Well worth the effort. We head in there once a year for a pisstrip.
Al

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:04 pm

Hey Dave,

Now I have kinda got my truck back after those little sods stole it we're planning on heading into Lake Daniels for the weekend, last trip before we head off overseas for a couple of months. If you keen for the trip your welcome to come along.

Cheers
Mike

krawlr · Post by **krawlr** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:21 am

dave talk to diesel boy hes i the know of the tracks over there but make sure ya give subaru hill a crack near reefton(youve got a winch

)and yeah lake daniels havent been there but whats it like disconowere :?:

looking at shooting down that way mid year......

oldblue · Post by **oldblue** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:57 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, is Subaru Hill commonly known as Petrol Hill, witch is on the way to Big River.
This was named , because only petrol 4wd's had enough tough to get up it with out the need for lockers.
Kevin

oldblue · Post by **oldblue** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:01 pm

Sorry , ment with lockers and no winching

DaveM · Post by **DaveM** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:45 pm

Now krawlr, I hope the "Disconowhere" instead of Disconewhere was just a typo :lol:

Mike,
you doing the track this weekend? Heard Lake Daniels is a good track, so I would be keen.

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:55 pm

Hey Dave, Yeah heading in this weekend, probably meet at 9 or 10 saturday morning in springs junction, then head in, the hut is booked so will be sleepin in the truck and come out sunday, think it costs $30 a truck or something like that, but yeah should be a good trip. If your keen give me a yell 027 245 2360, should be a pretty good trip with a small group, DiscoNOwhere, a 70 series and maybe 2 90's.

Krawlr, totally missed your typo :twisted:

til dave pointed it out

. But yeah Lake daniels is a good trip, just make sure that you book in and pay, heaps of effort has gone into protecting and managing this great 4x4ing spot by a group of dedicated enthuasists.

Later

albundy · Post by **albundy** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:11 pm

can highly recomend lake daniels. never seen so much carnage and pooped tyre beads in all the trips i have been on. our club does this once a year for thje enthusiasts in it. this petrol head hill sounds cool, must give the truck a go one day :twisted:

al

DaveM · Post by **DaveM** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:34 pm

Any room for tents? Will give you a call 2moro nite once I have made sure the truck will be ready. Might have to throw the Mongrels on, to keep up :roll:

oldblue · Post by **oldblue** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:40 pm

Just a little info, you don't pay anything for the drive up the river, its when you go past the gate just on the edge of Thomsons Flat . This is were it becomes private land. If your camping , There is a good spot half way up the valley.
Kevin

SMOKEY · Post by **SMOKEY** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:48 pm

Hi OLDBLUE , if my memory serves me correctly Subaru Hill is the tough way to the top of Napoleon's Hill before you drop down to get to the Tunnels track and named after the old wrecked Subaru at the start of the rutted steep section. Petrol Hill is at the end of the track where you turn right off the Big River track and drive for ages up that narrow winding creek bed, across the swampy flat and then try to drive up the steep,loose shale rock hill with a log across it halfway up. Have driven it twice and both times asked myself why, onces hit the log to fast and had two wheels over the edge second time tried to take the spectators out that where standing on the bank but got to the top.------ PETROL POWERD 70 series.
GET DIRTY, FITZY.

oldblue · Post by **oldblue** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 9:52 pm

Hi Fitzy, Your so right, Subaru Hill was once called Stan Blick Hill, in memory of one of our club members who has since past on .Cheers Kevin

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:48 am

Yeah Dave heaps of room for tents, there might be room in the hut, ya never know but there is another group booked in this weekend. Have you got a winch on your truck?

Later

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:52 am

Hey Oldblue. Thats true enough, but who do you think has secured the access to the track that goes up the river? if your going to drive all the way up to the gate you may as well go through and pay the $$ and support the organisation(non profit). Thats just my take on it anyway.

Later

oldblue · Post by **oldblue** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:39 am

Tell me, who has secured this access to the Station Creek, as I thought it is on Crown Land. I was told just the other day by a share holder, you only pay for the use of Thomsons Flat

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:19 am

Oldblue

I assume that you use the 3km stretch of shingle road that gets you from the state highway into station creek, this access has been threatened in the past, and who knows what would have happened to it had the wilderness lands co not purchased thomsons flat.

In general 4x4 access is being eroded, it's a fact of life that we will not have free and easy access to wilderness areas for 4x4ing, why not support our own who have made an effort to secure this spot, and you never know maybe we could secure more such fantastic locations to use.

I'm not going to argue with you over it, it's just my take on it, at the end of the day $30 is nothing, no one is getting paid, this just helps the wilderness lands co cover the costs of it's activities. Plus if you've driven in why not stay at the flat and appreciate the great area.

Later

oldblue · Post by **oldblue** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:05 am

Thanks for the reply, Iwas just clearing up your statment ,that the river is NOT subject to a charge, You still have not said who has the rights over the river

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:55 am

I think you might be missing my point. You are correct, the company only owns from the locked gate in, so yes, to that end you can drive up to that and not pay. What I'm saying is that if you are going to do that why not stay, pay the fee and support the organisation. I believe that it will be in our best interests in the end for the purpose of maintaining the access.

The river itself as I understand it is in the "queens chain"/public access to waterways, so there is a 20m strip eitherside of the river that you have access to, but not unrestricted access, so take it to the enth degree and what this means is that either you would need to stay within 20m of the creek, I dont think the track does, or there needs to be a legal road, again dont think there is, so rights to driving the track are not clear cut, but I dont believe that that is the problem, its the shingle road that heads from the SH to station creek that crosses what I believe is crown land, and I dont think it is a legal road, and this is the access that was threatened in the early days of the company, and who did the work to maintain this access? The Wilderness Lands Co i believe.

Anyway it's your choice, support or not support, through the gate or not, but I'm pretty sure that if the wrong people purchased the flat when it was forsale the track wouldn't be open access now.

Later

albundy · Post by **albundy** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:13 pm

Our club pays $20, but I assure you both, it will be the best $30 ever spent. That Thompsons Flat is something else. Hope you boys have practiced your recovery skills.
Al

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:25 pm

Hey Al

Yeah it's great fun aye, will be a good chance to try out my new tyres and winch, can't wait aye.

4wda · Post by **4wda** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:23 pm

Disconewhere - you are right in that this whole area would have been lost (including the theoretically public river) if it had not been for the good will of John Thompson (previous landowner) and a few motivated energetic 4wders back in the ?late 80s/earlly 90s (can't exactly remember when).

Maybe a bit of history - John Thompson and his rellies had owned the flat for a number of generations but times were hard on the farm (Maruia Valley)and he needed $$$ and had to sell. A number of us who had been going there for years had built up a very positive relationship with him like when he knew we were up there he'd use our presence as an excuse to come up and "check the cattle" he grazed there. Quite often he'd stay for a number of hours thru many boilings of the billy, demolish half a batch of home baking and then potter off again in his old Landy without even checking the cattle!

He was determined to keep the Flat in kiwi hands - he's that kind of bloke. He could have made bigger bucks selling to some overseas bidder who would've built an exclusive wilderness lodge and flown people in for hunting and fishing for a very large fee. He didn't - instead he sold to the bunch of 4wders who saw the writing on the wall and put in a hell of a lot of work to form the Wilderness LAnds Company (WLC). 115 equal shares were made available to the Canty, West Coast and Nelson/Marlborough 4wd community - first in first served. Share No1 was gifted back to John Thompson as a goodwill and he still grazes the flat today - although its for a fee.

Yes, there are some legal technicalities as to where boundaries are but the access from the main road is definitely NOT public and has been hard fought for by WLC. Without their efforts the whole lot would be history.
Fact is it is a block of freehold land totally surrounded by the DOC estate - they'd much rather it wasn't there. If it came up for sale these days they'd probably grab it real quick.

Its a brilliant 4wd opportunity in superb scenery - there's been a lot of carnage to vehicles over the years and the trip in can be as hard or as easy as you want to make it. The flat itself has taken many victims and from time to time is closed by WLC to allow if to recover from vehicle too much vehicle usage.

Sorry about the long post but sometime a bit of background info helps folks get a better picture.

Cheers

DaveM · Post by **DaveM** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:45 am

Mike,
thanks for the trip, had a great time, would've been better spending a little less time being recovered (and it was very dry up there :oops:

).
Looks like I need to take the grader blade off the front, and put nice little Hilux diffs on the Hippo.

Pass my thanks on to everyone for the awsome company (and recovery help :roll:

) and hope to catch up with you all again when you get back from your holiday (have a great time)

Dave.

PS If you need somewhere to store the disco, I have the perfect place :twisted:

Disconewhere · Post by **Disconewhere** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:09 pm

Hey Dave

Yeah was a good trip aye, was pretty dry for sure. The safari went pretty good, you did'nt need much more towin than the disco

. I'll catch up with ya again when we're back in NZ.