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).  

Awesome Onslow- Central Otago

Real-time

This must be one of the longest times I've gone without posting a blog, and I do feel a little guilty but it was also lovely to relax and enjoy a break. I didn't waste time though, I've managed to process a whole heap of photos and have them ready for various blogs. This one just to let you know where we've been; I still have a few catch-up blogs to post soon.

We're now in Alexandra (Central Otago) catching up on a few chores after a week of glorious weather and wonderful isolation at one of our favourite 'must re-visit' lakes. And this time with the 5th-wheeler on the back. 

Lake Onslow is situated in high tussock grasslands, 25kms east of Roxburgh at the northwest end of the Lammerlaw Range. The lake freezes and the snow can be deep for weeks on end over winter. The road in, is clay with a rock base and it's very slippery after rain.  It can also be very dusty but we were lucky, light rain a few days prior had settled the dust without giving us any issues although there were a couple of boggy patches.

It was a slow and steady climb out of Millers Flat until we reached the first plateau and turned onto Lake Onslow Road. There we met the country version of a traffic jam. Two farmers having a chin-wag. In fact the one heading in our direction was the farmer who farmed from the Clutha River down at Millers Flat all the way to Lake Onslow. 

He asked us if we'd mind waiting for 10 minutes or so as they were moving a mob of sheep from the lake area to the home paddock for crutching. And sure enough, it wasn't long before the leaders appeared over the brow of the road.

2000 sheep turned- jumping, running, pushing, pooing and baaing- into a paddock just ahead of us; they were taking a short cut to the bottom. I really wanted to creep up the side to get the ribbon of sheep coming over the hill behind but was only allowed to get this close. Never mind, the wait was worth it, we got a good tip from Mr Farmer.

Once the sheep passed we continued on, now slowly climbing up Mt Teviot (851m). I can tell you the photos don't do the climb justice. It's just as well the zig-zag road ahead is a farm track, our road heads to the left around the bend.

Once we reach the top of Mt Teviot, the contours of the land and the views are spectacular- tussock as far as the eye can see intermingled with the green of a forestry block and the fodder crops and pasture lands of high country farms. 

This is looking down the road we've just climbed and back towards the Clutha River valley

We skirt around the side of the Mt Teviot and Lake Onslow finally comes into view, filling a large shallow depression in the tussock plateau. It's all downhill from here and much longer than you would think, it's also an equally tough climb out when you leave the lake.

The area where the lake now is was once known as the 'Dismal Swamp', the lake was created in 1888 by the damming of the Teviot River for a gold claim far below the range at Roxburgh. The flow from the lake is now used for irrigation and hydro-electric generation.

And proving once again that it's not what you know but who you know, Mr Farmer had told us to use the 'top gate' as there was a washout near the bottom gate and we wouldn't get through. We wouldn't have been able to turn around easily either. 

So it was straight down a grassy track to the lake front. David took great delight later in the week asking a couple of visitors towing caravans in, how they faired through the wash out and then asking them why they didn't use the 'expressway'!

The next task was finding a level site, there aren't too many places available as most of the ground slopes towards the lake and it's also covered in great clumps of tussock.

We found a spot behind the fishing huts and with a view of the lake...

...although we had to block the down side up quite a way which meant a big step up into the van. It was also protected from the wind a little, by two shorts rows of trees, the only trees for miles.

If we'd had a key we'd have even had our very own long-drop! Not.

There's just a dozen or so cribs spaced along the ridge on a point above the lake, not far from the river outlet and boat ramp. The last time we visited we never saw another soul, we had the whole place to ourselves for the day. 

This time there were two or three hut visitors during the week and a handful of boaties each day. Lake Onslow is a 'secret' brown trout mecca and when the cicadas are hatching it's game on. The cicadas were late this year (due to the crappy weather) and had only just started hatching during our last few days.

This one 'got away', we were going to keep it but then David decided he'd release it. He got it out of the net and held it up for a photo and it leapt out of his hand, hit me on the arm as it flew past and back into the drink. We didn't feel so bad knowing it was going to be released anyway. 

As you can see we had perfect weather and not before time. There was not a drop of rain in seven days, although we were fogged in until mid morning on a couple of days, the cause of some very low (4c) overnight temperatures. The fog sooned burned off revealing a perfect millpond and warm temperatures. David had the Takacat up and ready to go as soon as we arrived and he spent most days out on the lake fishing.

The old and the new...

And the beautiful...sunrises and sunsets were spectacular.

Lake Onslow is not for everyone, I think you have to be a fisherperson, a photographer or just love solitude to enjoy this stunning area. It's wouldn't be everyone's cup-of-tea........(that's a ploy to stop the crowds from invading) 

The dam outlet

We set the koura pot (fresh water crayfish) most nights and had excellent results and big crays too. I had to be brave and dunk them in boiling water to kill and cook them. I'm a bit of a wuss like that and I very nearly decided to release the first catch of about a dozen crays when David wasn't looking. But I gave myself a stern talking to, I'm not a vegetarian and where the heck do I think my protein comes from! I still felt bad about it, but cheered up considerably when we had lovely cray tail entrees most nights. They taste just like prawns.

Reluctantly, after seven nights and with rain forecast (which hasn't eventuated), we packed up and headed out, back up the grassy track...

...and down the road which was now as dry as a bone and belching dust like there was no tomorrow.

Once we reached the turnoff to Millers Flat, we thought 'what the hell, we're covered in dust now we might as well add a few more layers', so we carried on, travelling right along the top of the plateau and dropping down to Roxburgh instead of  Millers Flat, adding another 12kms of dust to the rig. Not one of our brightest decisions!  

More from the Dismal Swamp soon.