St James Mailing Pass

[Suza]

On Sunday afternoon we set of from home in St Arnaud and headed for Mailing Pass in the St James. As we left St Arnaud I stopped in at the shop to pick up a paper for Lisa and Greg who man the toil gate on the Rainbow road. This is something that we have done on most trips through the Rainbow and is something they really appreciate, unfortunately the shop was out of papers.
Not long after crossing the six mile ford we had an unfortunate run in with a 80series cruiser who ran us off the road and then kept going and then as we descended the hill after St Roans well we meet a Hilux when we were about 3/4 of the way down who refused to back up so hooked reverse and proceeded to back up to the top as the driver wasn't happy with the choice of passing spots, never mind he did smile and wave his thanks when I got to a spot that I could get the whole Safari off the road for him.
Not to be phased we carried on and shortly after had a catch up with Lisa and paid the $25 toll and then carried on into the rain towards Molesworth and the St James.
The Rainbow Road is all in all in good nick although there is signs of some rough repair work that I don't think will last the season if the rain continues. The road on the other side of Hells gate (the boundary gate between Rainbow Station and Molesworth Station) is in very good condition at the moment, with only some slight corrugations.
We carried on down the Hamner Hydro Road toward Lake Tennyson without seeing another vehicle.
The Turn off for the Maling Pass track is 1.8km south of the turn off for Lake Tennyson. To get 4x4 access into the Maling pass track you need to go online to http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recrea ... le-access/ fill out the form and get the combination codes for the gate, the same is needed for Edwards Valley. Once we turned in I was looking for the locked gate and was surprised that unlike the gate at the Edwards valley end it isn't right there at the start you drive in for a bit over half a km before you get there.
The drive over Maling Pass is very scenic and is very straight forward. Someone has done some fantastic work in maintaining the track and in ensuring that the water has somewhere to go by forming valleys across the track to let it out. The East side is a gradual climb and sidles up a small valley to Maling pass following Maling stream, my family really enjoyed the way that the valley looks with its grassy terraces that the stream weaves through. At the summit we were treaded to a great view down into the Waiau river. The west side is steeper than the west but not steep enough to make my wife who doesn't enjoy steep stuff any concern, the decent works it way through a mix of open grass land, mountain Beech that is hung with old mans beard (The lichen not the weed). and then lower down mataguri and then large grass flats down to the river. The track is straight forward with only one muddy section about 50m long that caused me some concern if it got to saturated but it had a good rock base to it as it turns out.
Down by the river there are heaps of great campsites and DoC has supplied a very clean and relatively new Long Drop at the tracks end.
We spent 2 nights camped down by the river and had a great time on the 2nd day we went exploring up the Valley toward Waiau pass as I had heard that there were wild horses up there and the girls were keen as to see them but the noise that 3 excited teenager girls makes was detrimental to us seeing any although all the sign I cut was old with no fresh sign of horses anywhere but reasonable deer sign.
When we headed back out a fisherman who had come in the night before asked to follow us out as he was unsure if his x-trail would make it out alright as it was steeper than he had realized and was unsure how he would go with highway tyres and no low range, he drove out without any problems.
Once we were out we headed south for the Edwards Valley track s we were very keen to find the hot pools that I heard about. The Edwards Track is starting to show signs off wear and tear and is need of some work if it is to stay easily manageable for all. Anyway we found the hot pools and had lunch there. someone has been busy here at some point too but this time with a bag of cement and has created walls to keep the warm water in the down side of this is that years of sediment has built up which my wife and eldest daughter found a bit off putting. To get to the hot pools head down the Edwards Track about 11km till you ford Edwards river just before Cadwallo Stream just after the ford you turn left onto another track that takes you up onto a terrace drive keeping left along the terrace following Cow Stream till you can't drive any further and then walk another 200 - 300m following Cow Stream from above and you will be there, well worth the visit.
Key thing to remember with these areas is that access is fragile and we need to keep to the tracks and not go beyond the signs at the track ends. One of the things that pissed me off more than being run of the road was that there is sign that someone had gone out of there way to drive around the road block at the Maling pass end.

[slide]

Got sore typing fingers?
Good trip report
Cheers for the tip of the hot pools

[Im a Tumor]

Very good report.
Glad to hear theres new Deer sign up there. Trucked and i were up there in march last year and it seemed the Deer population had been wiped out by the local Commercial Heli Hunting companys

[Suza]

Very good report.
Glad to hear theres new Deer sign up there. Trucked and i were up there in march last year and it seemed the Deer population had been wiped out by the local Commercial Heli Hunting companys

When I went in for the working bee on the Edwards in November 2012 their was a black heli out of Hamner dragging out large numbers, he had 20 odd carcass's sat at Followers Pass entrance just after 8am
So I too was happy seeing the sign back in there

[Suza]

Got sore typing fingers?
Good trip report
Cheers for the tip of the hot pools

The fingers are all good spent far too long typing that up though
If you go to the hot pools there is another track that drops of the terrace down to Cow Stream that looks like the camping would be good.

[KiwiMoose]

The deer are there and waiting to be shot. Well, one less waiting now We went over Malings the second week of Dec, got spotlighted a few times by other blokes and two vehicles went across the river. Tsk tsk tsk. Track is the best I've seen it on 3 trips now, great spot for a drive and a camp.

[Suza]

The deer are there and waiting to be shot. Well, one less waiting now We went over Malings the second week of Dec, got spotlighted a few times by other blokes and two vehicles went across the river. Tsk tsk tsk. Track is the best I've seen it on 3 trips now, great spot for a drive and a camp.

On our last night the wife and I were walking back to our campsite when I saw headlights coming over the pass and thought here come the spot lighters so we light the camp up nice and bright and waited till the 4x4 came along the road passed the camp where I made sure I was standing by the road to say hi, turned out to be the fisherman who would follow us out the next day. Having had issues with spot lighters before including being shot at a few years back by a pissed dick I do tend to get a bit protective and proactive

[evolution02]

Thanks for the trip report. Thinking of going thru Rainbow rd in Febuary on way to Kaiteriteri.
Might detour off and find the hot pools now. I have attached a map pic can you look and see if my flag mark is not to far off

Cheers
Brendon

[Smurf]

We spent New Years at Lake Tennyson, Planned to go through St James but two out of our three trucks had sustained damage in Reefton, earlier on our trip so we just parked up for two days at the lake before spending a night in Hanmer and then heading home.
We are planning on heading back in in a few months so the directions to the hot pools and the camping area are awesome.

Our traffic highlight was recovering a SWB Defender and 20 ft caravan that drove into a bank on the upper Buller road.

[Suza]

Thanks for the trip report. Thinking of going thru Rainbow rd in Febuary on way to Kaiteriteri.
Might detour off and find the hot pools now. I have attached a map pic can you look and see if my flag mark is not to far off

Cheers
Brendon

Hi Brendon
Head down stream from your flag till you see where the bluff that is marked starts and they are about there

[evolution02]

Went thru the rainbow rd from Hanmer yesterday. Diverted up the Edwards pass track to find the hot pools. Someone has put some effort into making the pools, I did notice the empty concrete bags. Had lunch then back out onto the rainbow rd and thru to Nelson. Road and tracks pretty good only neede 4wd for the small hill climb up to the pools. Even saw 2 cars going thru the Rainbow rd
Was quite a long day. Left Hanmer at 10am and got to Nelson at 5pm