27 February 2010

Leader:  Peter Wooderson

After a pleasant drive 17 of us, including 4 prospective new members met our guide for the day, John Dittmer from the Te Aroha Tramping Club.

Following introductions John gave us a brief history of the various attempts made over a period of 40 years to win gold from this very difficult country.

At 9.45am we set off and inspected the lower end of the Fern Spur incline, then on to the Low Level drive and the remains of the associated compressor house  (usually over looked in the rush to get further into the valley) then continued on the High Level Pack track to the top of the Fern Spur incline where we stopped for morning tea.  DOC has installed a replica head frame at the head of the incline, which is overgrown and not passable. We continued on the High Level pack track crossing the spectacular Butlers incline (at 400 metres long and at an angle of 25 degrees it is the longest and steepest incline in the valley) and coming out at the Piako County tramline where DOC is building a replica winding gear at the head of the incline. We continued on Piako tramway and arrived at the bottom of the May Queen incline, which is the 3^rd and highest (not longest) incline in the valley. DOC has largely cleared and re-laid the old rails. Some of us walked up the rail line, not easy. Shortly after leaving the top of the incline John said “we will take a short cut” and turned left at a private marker at the side of the track. We entered some lovely bush and after a short climb we joined an overgrown pack track which brought us out at Quartzville, an old shanty town established in 1882 where we had lunch in a pleasant grassy area. This is the highest point for the day. After lunch we headed down to Hardies Hut where Malcolm Hardy lived until 1946.

We rejoined the Piako tramway and headed back to the top of May Queen where John takes us off track to an abandoned mine drive - Tony goes exploring but the depth of water deters most of us. We continued down May Queen and along the Piako tramline to the top of Butlers incline where we inspected the remains of the stables which once housed the horses used to pull the wagons along the Piako rail line. From here we joined the Buck Rock track for a short distance before John again takes us off track to show us two more old mine workings. In one a short drive or adit opened out into a large stope with a shaft going high above our heads to show daylight. In the second the drive ended in a chamber with a shaft going a long way straight down with another drive complete with rail line inching past the drop and going some distance into the hillside. Scary… Buck rock track is closed for repairs so it was back to the High-Level track and back to the cars.

Thanks John for another great day in the wonderful New Zealand outdoors.

Peter Wooderson

PS:  We did not seem to upset any of the new members, they all appeared to be looking forward to their next trip.