My good friend Gordon Colmore and I try to get away midweek for an overnight trip once a fortnight or so.
Both being Christchurch based, our normal “go-to destination is the Avoca Valley via the Harper. It only takes us a couple of hours to get to the beginning of the trail and the drive from Christchurch towards the mountains is fantastic, feeling the stress of city life drop away as the mountains get closer.
A few weeks prior to this trip, we had headed up the Wilberforce as far as Moa Hut before returning and heading up the Avoca where we came across the publicity team from Maxxis Tyres on a photo and video shoot with some good friends of ours. They included Aaron from Xpeditionz, Alfie, Fijiannz_4x4 and Adam Crouchley from rental.jimney.co.nz.
We had a great night camped out near to Bassins Hut and decided that on our next trip we would head further up the Wilberforce all the way to Urquhart’s Hut. We knew that the track as far as Fanghill was easy going but I couldn’t remember the track between there and Urquhart’s Hut. I had only been up there once and it was a while ago. In fact, it was the weekend that lockdown had been announced. We went in and when we came out, the world had changed. I wrote an article about that trip which was aptly titled “The Last Waltz”. You can find the article at www.nz4wd.co.nz/article/last-waltz-wilberforce.
Quite often, Christchurch is blanketed in low cloud which dissipates as we cross Canterbury Plain. The morning of this trip was no different. The weather forecast informed us that there was an extreme high pressure system sitting over the South Island and we were sure that we were going to be in for some spectacular weather and accompanying scenery.
By the time we got to Lake Coleridge, the weather was perfect! Cloudless blue sky and not a breath of wind. I knew that the photos were going to be epic.
I apologise to Gordon for the number of times that I stopped to take photos, but I really felt like a child in a candy shop. It was that good.
Despite my constant photo stops, we made good progress to Fanghill Hut where we stopped for lunch. Fanghill is a private hut and the notice posted on the door by the owners makes this quite clear, with any trespassing being dealt with by the police in Darfield. Maybe they have had problems in the past, but this did seem quite over the top.
From there, we headed back down a very bumpy track to reconnect with the main route up the valley. Not long after, having gained the river bed and driving through the matagouri bushes, we came across a couple of stags and half a dozen does. We were both surprised to see them so low down and in the middle of the day.
A couple of km further up the valley we came across what appeared to be three generations of the same family out to get a deer for the youngest. They had been out all day and hadn’t seen anything. When we told them what we had just seen, I’m not sure if they believed us, but they headed off pretty quickly in the direction that we had come from.
The further up we went, the more difficult the track became, with the rocks becoming boulders and making our progress pretty hard work and slow going.
I was certainly happy that I have ACFab steel bash plates back to the transfer case and they were really paying for themselves! Gordon kept asking me if we were on the “track”. I couldn’t see a “track” and, following the easiest line, we were way off the route that I had logged on my previous expedition. The river must have changed quite a lot over the previous few years.
I don’t normally mind a bit of riverbed work, but this was very slow going and hard on the trucks. Later inspection would show just how hard it had been. With the light fading, we were both about at the point of giving up when we found a way out of the riverbed and up towards the hut. It had been quite a long day and much longer than we had both expected. Happy to be at our destination but not looking forward to heading back out the following day.
Urquhart’s Hut is an historic hut and quite “rustic”. It would be a great place to stay in a snow storm, but we decided that our diesel heated tents were going to be more comfortable.
Gordon, who has done many things in his life including high country mustering, pointed out some writing in the hut. It was left by Gerald Goodger, the owner of a station on which Gordon had worked and prolific deer culler. Gerald spent the summer of 1957-58 at Urquhart’s Hut, during which time he shot 1850 deer. That is the stuff of modern hunters’ dreams.
The following day, we were up before the sun had reached the camp and everything was frozen. The ice reflecting in the sun was spectacular, but didn’t really come out in my photos.
It had been -10°C when we had called it a night and Gordon was very happy to have his new diesel heater. Not looking forward to retracing our tracks, we had a leisurely start waiting for the sun to dry the tents before packing them away and getting going.
As quite often happens, trail finding was easier on the way out and easier on both the humans and the vehicles.
On the way back, we spotted a stunning waterfall on the other side of valley. It was less than a kilometre, but the way over to it looked quite rough. I was keen to have a look and take some photos, but Gordon was over all the bumping around and opted to stay put and wait for my return. The ride across the valley was actually quite easy, compared to what we had been through and I was thinking that this would make a great campsite for our 4x4Explorer Adventures Wilderness Camping trips.
I was glad that I had made the effort. The waterfall was spectacular and a short walk from the truck led me to its base where there was a beautiful swimming hole. This would be a great place to cool off on a hot summers day but as this was snow melt, I’m sure that the water temperature wouldn’t change and it would be very “refreshing”.
Once I’d taken it all in and ear marked a potential campsite, I went back to meet Gordon and head out.
We had intended to drive back all the way down the Wilberforce and then out on the road that passes Coleridge Village. However, being later than we had anticipated and having had our dose of boulders, we took the same route out and were soon driving down the side of the Wilberforce feeder canal.
We aired back up and said our goodbyes. Gordon’s Jeep has a high output V8 and he drives a bit quicker than I do in the aging Prado, so we made our own ways home.
It had been an epic trip but it had cost me dearly. My front sway bar was snapped off which had damaged the brake pipe and led to a CV failing on the next trip. My mechanic once told me that I should think of what I do as “motorsport”. I keep all my garage invoices in a dark folder that rarely sees the light of day once I’m back from a trip. But hey, what price on fun?
Details about our trips can be found at www.4x4exploreradventures.co.nz.