November 4th
The wind has picked up big time, last night the gust reached about 40kph or so the local weather app said. We dropped the pop top on the Toy just in case. This morning the plan was to head back into Featherston and go to the Fells Museum. First we had a slight hold up in the form of cows!
We had to stop because white tape was stretched across the road. In the distance cows were seen heading in our direction. The farmer was nowhere to be seen!
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| No farmer did turn up so as the last cow crossed in front of us Ian drove over the tape. |
The museum? It was shut!!! Only open on the weekends and bank holidays. Maybe tomorrow then.
Next plan was to walk the Rimutaka Incline trail to Rimutaka Summit. A good walk of 7 km which should take about 2.2 hours.
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| Note the poles Marilyn! |
It's an easy walk, or so it said. Didn't account for two geriatrics, one is just 70 and the other fast approaching! And then there were the knees. Not the best for me and Ian is starting to feel them too. (His knees not mine) Anyway the first part was okay. 2 km to Cross Creek station where the 6 Fell Locomotives used to operated from. Click the link above, It’s fascinating reading.
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| Top left the station. top right the turntable. Bottom left what is left of the workshops and bottom right showing the line of the track. |
The gradient of 1 in 15 to the summit seemed a relatively easy climb...for those able boded anyway. We headed off for the 5 km walk. That gradual climb took it out of me. What had been the start of an adventure soon turned into an endurance test. Even Ian suffered, not so much with the knee but the calf muscles screamed mercy at every step. For those that say 1 in 15 is not steep, I challenge you to walk that continual climb for 5 km!!
Anyway, the Loco would have gone through two tunnels, I decided that getting to the tunnel would be a good place to turn around. But that bloody tunnel was always just around the next corner. In fact just under 4 km had been walked before Ian finally spied it in the distance.
We knew the summit was close but how close. Ian walked ahead, came rushing back and said a swing bridge across the gorge looked amazing and wow, we must go over that. I was very reluctant. Not that I was scared mind, no it was the wind. Those gusts sweeping down from the ranges and along the gorge were ridiculous. In fact at one point both of us had difficulty in keeping our feet! Ian was determined to have a go, so I sent him ahead.
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| That's Ian retrieving his hat, |
He quite rightly decided it was too dangerous especially as a particular strong gust of wind took his hat clean off. (Which incidently had been fastened around his neck with a cord,) He was very lucky it landed on the bridge but then had to let go of the ropes to retrieve it. The movement and vibrations due to the wind was enough for him to decide to turn back.
So the disappointment on not reaching the summit was great. Just the swing bridge and a very long dark tunnel would have to have been negotiated and the summit would have been ours.
The journey back seemed endless especially as the knees really didn't want to function properly. It took roughly 1 hour 40 minutes for us to arrive back at the Toy. In the end we had been walking for nearly 5 hours. Would I do it again? Most definitely and this time to the summit. Just have to get all the aches and pains sorted first. This was an amazing walk and not to be missed if visiting NZ.
We headed back to last night's camp site by the lakes. This time a prime spot was had. The lakes have white horses on them so strong is the wind and the pop top will not be going up!
And wildlife today
5 comments:
Good on you for getting as far as you did on the walk. And a good decision not to cross the swingbridge. I am sure it's safe for the foolhardy even in the wind, but if you two don't want to take it on, then that's a sensible call in my view.
Featherston is renowned for the wind - you will find it's less windy as you move away from there, either down to Martinborough or up towards Masterton. My hunch is it'll be pretty windy at the Pinnacles, Cape Palliser and Ngawi ...
Enjoy the Fell Engine Museum!
Mxx
Looking forward to the Fells museum and am actually glad we did the walk first. We read about some of the histories on finger posts as we walked up the incline, but it will be good to get the fuller picture.
Xxx
We walked the whole incline from Kaitoke to Featherston. Took all day. We were dropped off by coach in the morning and picked up the other end in the afteronn. It was the easy way to do it as the steep climb was all downhill! It was DOC summer trip out of Whanganui and was very long day but well woth it. I remember the final walout through the bush being the hardest as it seemed to go on forever. We finsihed the day with a visit to the Fell Museum. We were a bit younger and fitter then.
Wow, that's some walk, Mary. That must mean it's all flat from Kaitoke to the summit. If only we had known, although I still don't think I could have done the whole 18 km.
Pretty easy going on that bit of the walk. The fell engines pulled up from the other side. To do what we did you need to be dropped off and picked up. It took 8 hours.
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