“On a Mish” #352 Grandeur on Steroids (Part Two). Upper Rakaia River (Evans Hut). Canterbury. Aotearoa. 7.10.2022. The definition of Grandeur is – Splendour and impressiveness, especially of appearance or style: “the austere grandeur of mountain scenery”. This sums up many places in Aotearoa New Zealand, but in some places the description needs more for it to properly describe what you are seeing. Some places in Aotearoa are grand, some are grandeur on steroids!
Right from the word go we were amongst the mighty mountains of the Upper Rakaia Valley. Having driven the many kilometres of Double Run Road to a point on the other side of the Rakaia River to where the track up the valley starts; we had to begin with a crossing of the river. Luckily a truck belonging to the station barrelled on through and we could follow his footsteps. Once on the other side the long trek up valley began.
Our first port of call was going to be Evans Hut which is about halfway up the long valley. The Manuka Point Station Manager had told us it was near impossible to get beyond Totara Point after heavy rain and flooding, so we took this as our first challenge. At first the going was slow but easy on old farm tracks which guided us around the paddocks of the station.
At one point near the far end of the station the truck stopped and wouldn’t start again. This was very alarming to me at first as we were a long way from any help, and if the truck wasn’t running it would be a difficult recovery. My worry subsided when I saw how unfazed Adam was. A fuse had blown and to get us going again we simply needed to swap a fuse from another plug. This happened a couple more times and meant we lost another electrical function each time. The price you pay for modifying a vehicle from a town cruiser to a mountain climber!
Eventually we got to the end of the track and onto a huge washout. We were warned about this washout and many more up this side of the valley. Most cross over to the southside before here meaning they miss out on Evans Hut. We weren’t going to be those people, so we push on and due to the amount of rocking and rolling I took my first of many walks. My hip couldn’t handle being thrown around inside the Jimny, so walking was much easier.
The day was rolling along unlike us who were bounce like we were on a trampoline made of rocks. At one point we checked the map and realised we had passed Totara Point, easy going from here, right? Spoiler, it got even harder when we got to the biggest washout of them all at Totara Stream…
