With a growing interest from members of my 4WD club in touring trips, Ashley, my normal touring companion, decided to run a touring trip into the Mangahao dams for the club. Although this was a trip well suited to the shorter winter days, reports of slips and road closures in the weeks leading up to the trip caused a bit of anxiety. However all went well, with a period of fine weather and a final check with the appropriate authorities confirming the road was open.
The day of the trip was fine and cool at our meeting point at the Shannon railway station. With its surrounding gardens and fields, this was a very pleasant and social place to relax with a coffee and pie from the local café before starting the trip. Leaving the station, it was a short run to the car park at the Mangaore power station. The car park mainly services the white-water park (300m of the river just downstream from the power station) which has been set-up as a competitive kayaking course.
Although this has a nice picnic spot on the bank of the river, we just stopped briefly for a short walk to see how high the river was (very high) and view the power station. This was first commissioned in 1924 with a total of 19.2MW capacity but has since been upgraded to 38MW and is now recognised by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 2 historic place.
As we headed on up the hill, we saw a “Road Closed” sign. Hoping that this had simply not been removed after the recent clean-up, we continued the climb up to the ridge, seeing many signs of cleared slips, some of which were still dribbling a few rocks onto the road. Luckily there were no challenges and we were soon near the top, where I stopped to enjoy the view down the valley and get a photo.
I would have liked to get photos from higher up, on the ridge road that goes up to the radio mast at a high point. Unfortunately this has now been gated. While disappointing, I can understand the owners’ desire to protect their land, especially when several banks on the side of the public road we were using were scarred by tyre tracks from people having a play. The people who abuse areas never seem to realise how much we all lose because of their actions.
Stopping at the first dam we were surprised how low the water was, especially given the recent rain, however I assume from the flow downstream of the dam that we saw earlier that the power station was in full production.
An interesting addition to the area was a couple of newly-built seats on a cleared bank above the road opposite the dam. Getting to the seats was a scramble up a muddy bank, but the area appeared to be under development as a car park for dam visitors, although given the gate and “Private Property” sign on the driveway up to the area, it may even be the start of a private residence.
After some time spent walking the top of the dam and enjoying the beauty of the area, we continued with a short run to the next dam. The main challenge here seemed to be parking, with several people reversing back out of the side to the dam road as I arrived. I joined the overflow, parking on a conveniently wider section of the main road and walking down to the dam. I got some very nice photos of the dam with the bush-clad hills reflecting in the lake as I walked down – something I never see when I am driving. The car park and main part of the dam were in deep shade and very cold, however the sun was pouring down on the grassy bank on the far side of the dam and there was a steady flow of people crossing the dam to find the sun. This would be an excellent place for a picnic so long as you have a good head for heights crossing the catwalk over the spillway.
On the short run to the third and final dam, I pulled off to explore a side track we hoped would lead down to the river. It did, giving good access almost to the riverbed, with a final section onto the bed being a little cut up by the side creek due to recent rain. Returning to the main route I joined the rest of the group at the third dam. This was meant to be our lunch spot, but while it was sunny, there was a cold breeze that made standing around a little unpleasant. The solution was to return to the more sheltered riverbed for lunch, which also gave people a chance to use the 4WD capabilities of their vehicles. It was a very pleasant lunch spot, although warnings of hydro activity causing rapid increases in levels were noted and meant that everyone was ready for immediate departure if necessary – after all, the lower reservoir would need to be refilled soon.
Our relaxing lunch break was followed by an equally leisurely return trip to Shannon and the end of the trip at about 3:30. This was quite an early finish, but a welcome one, with most people needing several hours to get home, especially given the Sunday evening traffic build-up on SH1.
