13 January 2017 - Kohaihai DOC Camp, Kahurangi National Park, Westland

We remained in Karamea yesterday, the rains worse than the day before. Much of the Domain was flooded and deterred me from making the most of our down time to do a load of laundry. 

Our possie from the river bank at Karamea

Mid-afternoon during a drier spell, I ventured up on to the bank behind our camping spot to view the Karamea River; muddy brown and swollen to the very extent of its natural bank. We had thought we might wander up the river bank and to the estuary if the weather eased sufficiently, but the path was overgrown with rain sodden weeds and did not encourage us.

However this morning the weather promised improvement and I was able to dispose of the rubbish without wading through a flooded yard. We were intent on leaving no matter what and as we headed the short distance back to the centre of “town” saw clearer skies all about. Finding the day’s newspaper not yet in, we drove up to the carpark for the Fenian Walks in the lower Oparara River valley and parked just beyond the quarry. 

The Fenian bridle path

Following the Murcheson Earthquake in 1929, slips in the backcountry filled the harbour here, bringing an end to shipping in Karamea. An engineer by the name of Bruce Halley proposed to straighten and contain the Karamea River in the belief that a greater flow would scour out the harbour. It involved building a system of stopbanks along the river and rockwork at the estuary. Rock came from this quarry, the remnants of which we parked in today. Despite all the work done, the harbour remained unworkable but Karamea gained the basis of an excellent flood protection scheme.

But the track we walked was much older than the quarry, once a bridle track to 1860’s goldfields up in the ranges. During the depression, government organised work schemes reopened the area, the track restored to packhorse standard, for a time serving over thirty individual miners. Gold recovery was modest, the project a bit of a phizzer.

Crossing the slip

In the 1950s a hydro electricity scheme was proposed for the lower Oparara River, but soon abandoned because of constant landslides. Today it serves as a delightful walking track which can be taken right up through the bush and north to the Oparara Caves, a wonderful experience for those in small vehicles or those willing to take a commercial tour. We drove up to these ten years ago in our previous motorhome and realised then that it was not a road for anything but a small vehicle. Now it is actually closed to anything bigger than that, which is just as well, although I would have liked to revisit. They really are quite wonderful.

Waves breaking at Kohaihai

Today we walked up to the second junction to the Fenian Caves, an hour and a quarter walk according to the sign in the carpark. The track climbs gradually, high above the river, offering only glimpses until one reaches a bluff from where a many tiered waterfall can be seen through the dense vegetation across the otherside of the canyon. The track was not as muddy and flooded as the Charming Creek walk had been, this better drained. Nor was it the “highway” we had found the earlier walks to be; or perhaps the tourists had been turned off by earlier muddy experiences. We saw robins and weka and heard tuis high in the trees. We encountered few fellow walkers, the first of whom warned us of the slip across the track about half an hour from the start. This was passable; we clambered over the muddy tree roots holding onto the supple jack vines that stayed firmly in place. No doubt a chain saw weilding ranger will arrive at some time in the next week to clear it all away.

The Kohaihai estuary

And speaking of rangers and DOC, the Fenian Caves loop track we did not do, has a warning to would be walkers: that because there is a 100 metres tunnel through which to pass, “each person will require a good torch/flashlight. It is also advised  to wear warm clothing, sturdy footwear and a safety helmet”. Mostly good advice, but who carries a safety helmet about with them just in case they want to walk through a cave?

We lunched on our return and continued on the loop road out to the main coast road, travelling the twenty kilometers or less to the end of the Heaphy Track at Kohaihai. As we drove around looking for a flat spot to camp in the DOC camp, we were disappointed at how small the area was. There are few spots that offer sunshine for power generation and level for gas fridge health. We took the only one we considered half decent and found ourselves in one of the more popular thoroughfares through to the beach.

Stirfry-by-the-sea in the making

This afternoon when we arrived, there were several children swimming in the small estuary of the Kohaihai River; a sight so rare over the past few weeks. But beyond the dunes, the sea raged against the rocks, a wild west coast sea that only fools would venture into here.

Keeping in tune with the summery feel of the afternoon, Chris cooked a delicious stirfry outside on our camp stove. Perhaps there will be opportunity for more outdoor activities if the weather holds?