Piano Flat Swingbridge Walk

Catch-up, I have a few posts to do before I continue on with Lake Onslow. This last one from Piano Flat and two or three left over from the Catlins and Winton earlier in the year. Hopefully I can get to do them over the next week while we take a break and spend a little of what's left of summer on the banks of a river in Central. I've had 4 swims in two days- that's 4 more than I've had in the last two years! I don't mind the +30c temperatures when I can cool down.

Back to Piano Flat- there was one more walk we wanted to do, a loop walk up one side of the Waikaia River to the Jack Egerton Swingbridge and back down the other. If you've been following my blogs for awhile you'll know that I 'collect' swingbridges, photos of course. They also provide a target, something to aim for on the longer walks. 

This was a 4 hour, 8km return walk according to the information and part of the walk was along the gravel road. We decided to drive to the walk exit point onto the road and then walk the 4km return section on the same side of the river. Which was just as well, as it was very tough going and took us 4 hours anyway.

We hadn't driven far up the road when we came across another digger, which we had to crawl behind until he moved a lot of debris off the road in front of him and found an area to move over...

...and once we got passed him we had to wait again while the tree trimmer machine finished sawing and moving his smaller branches off the road. You'll recall from our 4WD trip to the end of the road we had a chat with another digger driver clearing the road over the top of the range. You'll also remember that I mentioned the narrow bush tunnel formed over the road, well the chopper made short work of that. Talk about a road make-over! 

We pulled into a clearing beside a stream just in front of the machines, they had about 10kms of bush to trim ahead of them (and 12kms back down the other side). We headed off down the track beside Post Office Creek and after returning later in the day machines hadn't been back past.

It was a short distance down the track to the river, which looked absolutely stunning; quietly serene, with deep pools and large rocks...

...and in an unusual chartreuse green colour, highlighted even more where the sun shone..

Unfortunately the track was tough going, much of it had washouts into the river below...

...and debris laying across it (check the DOC orange arrow)...

... and tree slides over it. Most of it was from the recent (2 weeks before our visit) flash flood that swept down the valley. I don't even think we got to the halfway mark (1km) before we were questioning whether to go on or not. 1km doesn't sound like much but when you're constantly avoiding obstacles and watching where you step it can become very tiring. David was keen to turn around but the bridge spurred me on and we decided to carry on.

You can see flood debris caught in the bush beside David and above his head in the 2nd photo. This was a massive flood, the river bed isn't that narrow here and we're about 3 metres above the river.

As we move further up the river the number of fallen trees lining the edge grows.

The bird life was prolific and we had many visits from the local bush robins/toutouwai along the way. I'm guessing they hadn't seen anyone for awhile, they were all keen to check out any disturbed leaf litter or overturned log. 

From our vantage point high above the river and amongst the bush cover we saw several good sized trout...

...including this school doing circuits.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity but was actually only just under 2 hours, we caught sight of the swingbridge ahead of us and then as we got closer, below us. We had to slip and slide down to entrance level and be very careful not to slide even further over the edge of the rocks and into the river below. 

We found a safe ledge to sit on near the bridge and had a well earnt snack. I've been unable to find out who Jack Egerton is and why the bridge is named after him, so if anyone does know please leave a note in the comments (update- thanks to Geoff, we now know why, check the comments).

Of course after coming so far to see the bridge, I've then got to cross it. It doesn't look too bad here but it was actually quite intimidating, one of the scarier ones I've been on. 

It creaked and groaned and swung wildly- I kept having visions of all the trees passing under it during the storm and wondering if DOC had checked it out afterwards.

Holding on with one hand I still managed to take a few photos, this is looking downstream. David told me if he'd brought a rope he'd have climbed down into the river bed to give it some perspective. Yeah right.

 Looking upstream through the gorge, those are car sized boulders there.

And just to give it perspective, can you see David sitting on the ledge to the right? (click on the photo to enlarge) The water level during the flood was at least 8 metres high through here, there is debris caught in the trees where he's sitting.

Done and dusted, another swingbridge added to the bridge photo album. After a brief rest we headed off a little reluctantly, back down the track. We weren't looking forward to all that hard work again, traversing the track in reverse. It actually wasn't too bad as we pushed on without too many stops (although there were a couple of stumbles); we'd seen most of it on the way in. 

I even put my camera away in my pack which is unheard of, but not before taking this slightly out of focus photo of New Zealand's smallest bird (6-8cm), a female Rifleman/Titipounamu. They are often high up in the understory and flit fast between trees calling to their family as they go with a tiny high pitched peep-peep. They run fast, spiralling up and down the tree trunks, gripping small branches and twigs as they lean out to check for insects.

And I got my camera out again when we passed the pool with the large trout in it; he was in close and the water so clear.

Of course once we had completed the walk we were pretty pleased with ourselves that we'd done it. It was worth all the effort.

And now a few more photos because I won't be doing a blog on the extra day that we stayed at Piano Flat when we crossed the river from the campground and went birdwatching back up the track we'd walked a few days earlier. We had a few awesome finds.

Excitement! Fresh deer poo in the clearing across from where we parked.

I really wanted to sit up all night to catch them in spotlight but then I would have had to fight off these little buggers. Evans= 3, Mice =1. Although we think we caught the one that got away, he fell off the tyre and into the flexi bucket half full of water and drowned. They'd found my supply of wild bird seed!

Not far from the clearing and right in the middle of the track I found this dead New Zealand Long-tailed Bat/Pekapeka-tou-roa, possibly a dropped late night snack for a ruru/morepork (native owl) as one wing had a tear in it.This is our one and only native land mammal (although there are 3 species of bats), our other native mammals are all marine animals; dolphins, seals & whales. Bats are seldom seen and this was our very first sighting, albeit of a dead one.

Possibly on a par with the bat was a good sighting and a long view of not one, but two Shining Cuckoo/Pipiwharauroa fledglings, squawking and chasing their frazzled foster Grey Warblers/Riroriro parents around the bush. Shining cuckoos are usually heard but seldom seen, they are masters of camouflage. The adults fly in from the Pacific Island in early spring, find a warbler's nest to lay their eggs and then swan around until it's time to migrate back there in autumn.

Two fledglings are rare as it takes a lot of work to feed them, especially when they are twice the size of their parent (photo is a little out of focus, I so need a faster lens).  

Piano Flat- Beyond the Bridge

Real-time

Another quick blog post before we head off into the back-of-beyond for another week or so where there'll be no internet. In my last post I said we were about to pull out of Piano Flat that morning. In fact it was such a lovely sunny day we decided to stay on for another 24hrs. Why travel on such a gorgeous day, something we've had very few of this summer.

We're now staying at another 'flat'; first it was Cattle Flat, then Piano Flat, and now we're at Millers Flat in Central Otago, at the local campground so we could do all the laundry and stock up with supplies from Roxburgh before heading off tomorrow morning to one of our 'must visit again' places. But you'll have to wait to find out where that is!

Piano Flat Road ends and Whitecoomb Road begins at the little white bridge near our campsite.

Whitecoomb Road carries on winding and gradually climbing through a narrow tunnel of bush for another 12kms up the Waikaia River valley before it too runs out and becomes a 4WD track that climbs up onto a plateau and across Old Man Range, eventually dropping down and exiting near Fruitlands in Central Otago, just up the road from Roxburgh.

The only open area of the road is at Whitecoomb Creek where the recent flash flood has swept through causing quite a bit of damage to the bridge abutments and the surrounding creek banks. The creek obviously still yields a bit of gold as there are several mining permits nailed to surrounding trees and the bridge. There's also a rough camp of tents and shelters nearby. 

Just after crossing the bridge, we come up behind a digger slowly making it's way up the road, we still have another 5-6 kms to travel to the end of the road and we wonder where he's heading to. He's obviously been through this part of the road already, as the sides have been cleared and the road is smooth and a little wider. After a kilometre or so, the driver finally finds a place to pull over and let us pass, it'll not be the last we see of him today.

Eventually we reach the end of Whitecoomb Road. We've been gradually climbing up out of the bush and we can now see the top of the range ahead of us.

We know it's the end of the road because of the steel gates and warning signs. The gates are locked over winter due to the remoteness of the area and sub-alpine conditions up on the plateau. It's up on the range that a group of thirty eight 4WD enthusiasts got caught out in blizzard conditions last year, and spent 24hours stuck in thick snow waiting to be rescued. 

We decide to take the left hand track first (called Canton Road), it heads back down to the river valley and to a bridge I can see on our map. There's a bit of a knarly ford to cross, David has to remove our towbar tongue so we don't scrape  on the rocks on the way out.

The track then drops sharply down through a couple of bends...

...before the Canton Bridge comes into view below us. The bridge was used during the early gold mining era and Canton Road, which continues up the other side, took miners to the settlement of Potters.

Now the land is part of the largest privately owned farm station (65,000 hectares) in New Zealand, Glenaray Station.

There's a locked gate at the far end of the bridge so we can go no further. Later in the week, after our drive up the valley, a motorhome forum friend (hi Glen) called in to say hello, he was part of a 4WD group that had the key to the gate and permission to drive over the station. They were heading up to Blue Lake (see pin on map below) to explore.

The Waikaia River looks pretty benign here...

...but not far around the bend the water flows through a long narrow gorge with grade 5 rapids and waterfalls. 

Looking upriver the water is so still it hardly looks like it's flowing, its crystal clear and a beautiful emerald green. It would be great to explore by kayak through the cool interior under those trees.

I walk back up the track leaving David cleaning the windows on the ute! 

We drive back up to the gate and take the other 4WD track that rises sharply up the range, we'll go as far as we feel comfortable with, we can't afford to get stuck or damage the ute- it tows our home! The digger has been through this section recently too, and the track is smooth and wide and easy going for a few hundred metres. We pass a parked SUV (bottom centre of the photo) with no one in sight, and we wonder where on earth the people could have gone. Perhaps they are bird watching or hunting in the bush, maybe they've run out of petrol.

Across the valley to the right you can see Canton Road(track) winding it way up the hill from the bridge below (click to enlarge)

Not far past the vehicle the road takes a major turn for the worse and becomes rutted with deep wash outs scouring through the centre of the track. We stop at the next bend where we can safely turn around. We'll not go any further today we decide, but then we both want to see around the next bend 'just in case' it comes right. 

This is the view back down the Waikaia River Valley looking towards Piano Flat 12kms away.

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I walk up the track and around a couple of corners to see how far from the top we are and if the track gets a little easier for our 'shiny'. More danger signs greet me...

...and the road carries on for some distance and I still can't see the top of the range. I make an executive decision and decide we'll definitely turn around. 

I take a panoramic shot of the valley before returning to the ute (click to enlarge & use your back arrow to return to the blog).

And we head back down the track, meeting the digger again, making his way up towards us. We pull over at the only available area to let him pass and David gets out to talk to him (he's the only person we see all day). We find out that it's his vehicle parked on the side of the road further up, a work mate has dropped it off there as that's as far as he'd got in the digger sorting the road out. He'd taken the digger back down the road to Whitecoomb Creek for the long weekend, out of the way, in case there were any idiots looking for a joyride.

He tells us that he's slowly making his way up and over the top and across the range, all the way to the other side and it'll take about 2 weeks. He's sorting the track out- and the many bogs across the top. I wonder what he does with the bogs- digs them deeper? He told us he was called up there the other day to pull a Toyota (he says in disgust) out, the driver had gone around a bog instead of through it. Through it and it's a rock base for good grip.   

Apparently Whitecoomb Road will also be gravelled in the next few weeks. Any more work and it'll become a State Highway! We decide we'll check the road out from the other end, when we're over that side, see how far we can get from that end after the track has been cleaned up a little.

We stop back down at the creek for a late lunch and David clears these small waterfalls of debris for me (what a good husband he is) so I can do a slow shutter (1/15) shot of them. Problem is I've left my tripod behind and a filter that would help me, so this is the best I can do hand held. Not too bad though.

The grasses that surround the creek still have the night's rainfall sitting on the flower spikes...

...the droplets of water twinkle and sparkle rainbow colours at us as the sun passes through the clouds overhead. Nature's beauty shines through in the most common of things.