This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, no 9, October 2012
Turere Waterfall
22 August 2012
Wet Wednesdays have been the norm this year, but this was the wettest yet: steady drizzle for all but the last of its six hours. ‘Count yourselves lucky,’ said Hughie, and indeed, from the top of the Whakanui Track, on the long sidle across to the junction with the old track, the hillside was alive with running water and foaming streams. There must have been torrential rain only a short time before.
Just past stoat trap no 7 (navigation nowadays is by trap no!), we turned down into the Turere on a SW bearing that soon had us on a well defined spur. Its toe, steep but safe, brought us to the bottom of the side creek from .586, and the waterfall is less than 100m up the main stream bed – now filled with surging, golden-brown water.
Another brief scramble got us to a tiny stony beach from which the fall, audible for some time, was at last visible. It is 350m upstream of its position on the map. The sight gave meaning to the old North of England word for a waterfall: fors or force. The force of it added to a general reluctance to try and cross (the intention had been to climb up the other side and return along the McKerrow track) and we settled quite contentedly for a retreat the way we’d come. The happy faces back at Sunny Grove testified to a memorable day out.
- Party members
- Paul Armstrong, Joan Basher, Marg Conal, Mike Crozier, Tricia French, Paddy Gresham, Justin Kerr, Jan Nye, David Ogilvie, Peter Reimann, Bob Stephens, John Thomson (leader and scribe),Angela Van der Poel, Alan Wright, Warwick Wright