Lake Onoke Spit

I am still on leave so took the chance to go visit the other end of the Ruamahanga River today – the Lake Onoke Spit, the barrier between the waters of the Ruamahanga system and the sea, on the shore of Cook Strait.

The Lake Onoke ‘spit’ is a mixed sand and gravel barrier beach that has formed by concurrent processes of marine sedimentation and tectonic uplift. In the process it has impounded an embayment to form a shallow coastal lake, Lake Onoke.
Mixed sand and gravel beaches are uncommon shorelines types and the examples that occur in New Zealand are internationally significant. The shallow coastal lake and gravel barrier system is one the largest of its kind in New Zealand and its relatively unmodified state makes this feature an outstanding example of its type.
I was expecting to find the colony of Caspian Terns that my friend Colin Scadden has been documenting for many years, but I saw no sign of it. I was accompanied by Black Backed Gulls at times, and saw a few shags, oyster catchers, dotterels, and a group of four gannets, swooping along the shoreline, parallel to the coast.

There were signs of visitors, including this shelter which has probably been constructed over the summer.

The spit is partially colonised by plants, including the lovely nihinihi, Calystegia soldanella. Those of you who are gardeners will recognise this as a member of the convolvulus family. It does not grow naturally inland, so I assume it is frost tender.

In many New Zealand coastal places Hare’s Tail Grass, Lagurus ovatus, is a common component of the flora – here on the spit it has made one or two extensive lawns, which look quite pretty in late summer when the seed heads are full.

On my way back along the spit I found a fish - but the birds had found it first!

Chamberlain's Creek and beyond

Today is the first anniversary of the day I started walking down the river. As I am on leave, I celebrated by walking up into the bed of the Ruamahanga from Roaring Stag hut, venturing further upstream than I have ever been.
It is about a 150 minute climb up and over a steep hill from Putara to get into the river at Roaring Stag, and then another 75 minute clamber to get as far up the river as I went today. The river gradually gets narrower and, at the place I stopped, it is in a gorge. I even walked past the dreaded Chamberlain's Creek, the most dangerous little creek in the ranges according to some. Looked calm with summer flow, of course.
I did not need to swim on any of the pools, but I would not venture past the point I finished at without a party to help.


I have talked to others about the last remaining section of the river – and none of my tramping friends have ever been into the upper gorge, which suggests it is not a place for the fainthearted, and perhaps not a place for a nature-loving bushwalker – much less a 56 year old one.
Time will tell whether I am spurred to clamber up to Cattle Ridge, for example, and then drop down through untracked country into the southern arm of the river, then out through the two upper gorges.

More time on the river

The Mangatainoka River










This weekend I journeyed north to Putara, to take the next steps along my river walk. I walked in to the headwaters of the Ruamahanga by going up the valley of the Mangatainoka (of ‘Tui’ beer fame) then crossing a ridge to Roaring Stag Hut.



Roaring Stag Hut











It was blowing real hard there, and the swingbridge was rocking as I gingerly crossed over it. The wind took my hat on the way. I managed to sneak up-river and downstream shots as I went over.















I jumped into the river bed there and rock-hopped another two hours down to just below Cleft Creek, the point I started my journey last February. On the way out, I used my still camera to take this video of myself crossing an un-named stream – reportedly the largest stream in the Tararuas without a name.