23 February 2025

The January/February Wilderness magazine had an article from a couple who had tramped into Barlow Hut in April of 2024. They described the journey up the Makaroro River to the hut as …”the whole valley was a flat shingle wasteland with a massive gravel load”. Also described in the article was how someone on a quad bike had made it to the hut. A club member, at a club meeting, was to confirm that her nephew had recently made it, by quad bike, to the hut. With a visit by the club, scheduled; it was with interest that we anticipated the changes that had come about with Cyclone Gabrielle.

The day was fine, partly cloudy with a moderate/cool head wind. It was from the historic Yeoman Mill Site at the end of Wakarara Road close to the Makaroro River that the day tramp started. There is a well-defined vehicle entrance to the river bed from the site where there was a large, track-wide puddle. Fortunately there was a well-worn walking track to the right of this so no need to get one’s feet wet yet.

On past trips it was at Gold Creek that one had to leave one’s vehicle however that had changed. Oh, had it changed! The river bed was a wide expanse of shingle. We continued to follow the track left by the 4WD vehicles right to the hut. There was only one shingle embankment with manuka and beech left that we crossed. All the others had been washed away. With all the shingle washed downstream the swimming holes of previous trips no longer existed.

About three quarters of the way up the Makaroro River and above a rocky bank at the junction of a western tributary; there is a large orange marker indicating the Colenso memorial and start of the Colenso Spur Track. The Colenso name honours William Colenso who was a printer, missionary, explorer, naturalist, politician who had moved from England in 1834 and died here in 1899. About 12 metres up above the river is a small rock cairn with a plaque referring to William Colenso.

Today the river was flowing right alongside the rocky bank of the Colenso Spur Track. Some years previously the river was running on the opposite side of the river bed and river bed vegetation had obscured access to the rocky bank. To get up the rocky bank, one can either use a chain tied to the rock face or close by, climb up free hand a stepped rocky face. Both options required starting in knee deep running water.

At this point the party of 14 was to split in two with Colin, Judith, Nic, Paula Lou, Steve and Simon heading to Barlow Hut via the Colenso Spur and Barlow track. Christine, Karene, Reiny, Selina, Sean, Glenda and Anne continued up river.

The Colenso Spur Track ultimately leads to the top of the Ruahine range, but has a junction where one can turn off to the Barlow Hut. If going to Barlow Hut this way, one is traversing two sides of a triangular route. It’s about an hour and a quarter to Barlow Hut junction and about three quarters of an hour to the Barlow Hut from Colenso Spur Track.

For about thirty minutes it’s a very steep scramble uphill, zigzagging, holding onto vegetation. The initial uphill track gets quite narrow as it passes around the top edge of a large slip caused by the close by western tributary. Gradually the track gradient eases to meet the track junction 300m above the riverbed. A brief refreshment stop at the track junction and we’re off again. The track gradient quickly gets steep as we drop down to the river. A couple of large trees blown over, block the track requiring us to find a way around them.

Not far from the end of the track, the track gets quite narrow as it passes around the top edge of another large slip alongside a side stream. Then another surprise, the track drops nearly vertical for 8 metres with only a few trees/roots to grab hold of. At the bottom of the near vertical track it’s only a couple of minutes to get to the hut having crossed the side stream and cutting through a bit of bush behind the hut toilet.

The river trampers, after 43 river crossings, made it to the hut in 3 hours where the 4WD occupants, 2 adults, a toddler and a dog named Steve were having a picnic. They had taken 40 minutes to get from the mill site to the hut. After the newcomers explored the hut and marvelled at its elegance we settled to have lunch. Christine used her time after lunch to gather seed for the Forest and Bird nursery.

Barlow Hut is a Lockwood style and was built in 1983 by the NZ Forest Service and named after the Barlow family who were early settlers in the area. It is a standard 8 bunk DOC hut.

Return downstream was done in relays; Christine, Karene, Reiny and Sean were first to leave before the A party arrived. The A party arrived 1½ hours after the B party and imparted their opinion of the tramp, as described by Simon’s narrative, and settled to have lunch. Shortly after Selina, Glenda and Anne started their tramp downstream closely followed by Paula and Judith. Nic, Simon, Colin, Lou and Steve who were soon to catch us up.

On the way up, near Gold Creek, Anne had become separated from her walking pole; having lost her grip on it while crossing the river. It floated just out of reach and sped up when it was swept away by two river channels joining together. This was when she gave up the chase. The other party was of the opinion that we’d find it on the return tramp. Thank you Steve for the loan of a walking pole. On the return trip the group started the look out. Colin was sure that we would need to go to the mouth of the Waipawa River. Fortunately this was not the case. Christine was to find it lying across an exposed river channel not caught up in the detritus of the river. A special thanks to you all for looking.

It was a great day, good for those who were hut bagging and tramping new tracks. Welcome to Karene who was on her first Sunday tramp having previously tramped on an ad hoc tramp. Thank you all for your company. Special thanks to Simon and Steve for driving the van and Colin for taking his car.

Party: Judith M, Colin J, Paula K, Nicholas W, Lou C, Simon W, Stephen B, Christine L, Sean C, Glenda H, Reiny S, Selina C, Karene F, Anne D