TRIP REPORT : Easter Trip – Rimutaka Forest Park – Tapokopoko

 Saturday-Monday :   27–29 March 2005

An ominous weather forecast and the lack of takers meant that we did not leave for Waerenga Hut until Sunday afternoon.   Chris and I stayed there that night, meeting Barry Dent and Sue Freitag at the Orongorongo River next morning to climb Paua Ridge (which is really a spur), leading to Tapokopoko, 843 metres.   Leaving copies of the species list in a plastic bag hanging on the clothesline at Paua Hut in case of late starters, we began our climb through hard beech forest with ground cover of flowering scarlet rata and dense, sweetly scented Earina autumnalis.   Soon we were in podocarp / beech forest with emergent rimu, beech and miro supporting massses of epiphytes, and an understorey of nikau among abundant matai and miro saplings.   A few very large northern rata were on adjacent spur crests, sparking a discussion on the long-term Landcare Research project in the valley, into the effects of possums on rata.   As we climbed we noted the absence of fuchsia, except for one tiny, browsed seedling, sure evidence of possum activity, though two tall Raukaua edgerleyi saplings had fortunately escaped this fate.   We had compiled a species list on our recce.   two weeks before, but had time to get only half way up Paua Ridge on that day, so additions this time were many, including Leptopteris superba and Hymenophyllum pulcherrimum.   On the summit of Tapokopoko in spooky cloud forest we found a collapsed bivvy and an old Ecology Division (DSIR) notice still in good condition.

Participants: Monday only: Barry Dent, Sue Freitag; Sunday–Tuesday: Chris Horne, Barbara Mitcalfe, (coleaders).

Postscript: BotSoccers planning to visit the Rimutaka Range should expect radical changes to waterways and plant communities near the river.   The Orongorongo track is passable, though all its bridges were washed out during the storm on 30 and 31 March when about 450 mm of rain fell in the Valley over a 36-hour period.   Browns Stream, immediately north of Waerenga Hut, flooded so severely that the foundations of the hut were undermined and a vast fan of boulders and tree debris spread about one-third of the way over the Orongorongo River bed.   Four of the hut’s piles were washed away.   Alan Wright of Tararua Tramping Club reports that the hut has been jacked up and the piles replaced temporarily with tree trunks.   The future of the hut is to be discussed by the club and DOC.

Chris Horne