Mick Calder
Seventeen intrepid travellers from the Wellington Central Probus club met our TRANZIT bus driver Les Cockeram at the Interislander terminal and prepared for a bit of a Cook Strait experience. We braved some horizontal rain, a delayed ferry departure due to strong southerly winds, and three to four metre swells in Cook Strait. This was the first leg of the trip to travel through Molesworth Station to admire the grandeur of the place while soaking up some of the history.
These were merely the opening bars in this comic opera. We were halfway across the Cook Strait when the Port Authority closed the port of Picton because wind gusts were too strong for ferries to berth, even with assistance from two tugs. So our ferry stooged around in Queen Charlotte Sound, doing the marine equivalent of an airline holding pattern by sailing up and down Queen Charlotte Sound. Originally this was to be for one or two circuits lasting just a couple of hours, but by the time the two ferries ahead of us had berthed and discharged we had done six circuits and the waiting time had stretched to eight hours. The usual three and a half hour journey took 13 hours!
Arriving at the hotel in Blenheim at 3.00 am meant we only had three and a half hours before setting out for Molesworth in our 4WD bus. The road through Molesworth is reasonably easy but our driver Rick Sterling was a fount of knowledge on the history of the station and the people involved, as well as having lots to tell about the surrounding countryside.
Molesworth Station, the government owned beef cattle station in the high country at the head of the Awatere Valley in Marlborough, covers 180,000 hectares which means it is bigger than Stewart Island. Māori had trekked through the region seeking new food supplies and routes to greenstone sources as attested by later discoveries of remnants of their encampments. Then European settlers investigated the region for stock routes from Nelson/Marlborough to Canterbury before it was opened up for extensive farming operations in the 1860s under leasehold from the Crown.
1Farming operations involved burning off the scrub including the dense growth of Matagouri or Wild Irishman (Discaria toumatou) and Spear Grass or Wild Spaniard (Aciphylla colensoi) to allow sheep and cattle to graze. But the sheep denuded the grassland with the assistance of an influx of rabbits.
In 1939 the leaseholders of five sheep and cattle runs finally decided they could not succeed against the ravages of diminishing income, rabbits, invasive weeds (Sweet Briar – Rosa rubiginosa and Tussock hawkweed – Hieracium lepidulum) ), and the harsh environment. The government took over four of the runs (initially the original Molesworth and Tarndale Runs , and later in 1949 the St Helen’s and Dillon Runs) to operate as one enterprise.
The Government forgave the various unpaid leasehold debts, installed Lands &Survey (now Landcorp) as manager, and set about a programme of recovery.
The new management plan specified cattle only, and the numbers were steadily built to a peak of 10,000 head. The rabbit problem was virtually eliminated, a controlled pasture renewal and grazing plan was introduced, and the financial position improved. A new approach to environmental (climate change) management has seen cattle numbers reduced to 6,000, but profitability maintained due to better management techniques.
We drove through the station on a beautifully fine calm day – a complete contrast from Day 1. Rick told us about the characters who took up the original leases as well as those who had lived and worked on the station, such as Bill Chisholm, the taciturn manager from 1942 to 1976. For lunch we picnicked at the cob cottage (the original homestead) at the northern entrance to the property. It was going to be a 65 km drive over the single lane shingle road from there to the “back gate”.
Some of the party were a little jaded after the previous long day but we stayed alert to enjoy the wide open spaces with very few cattle to be seen as they had been moved to summer grazing in the next valley. The road climbed over Ward Pass and down to the Acheron River and eventually to Acheron House.
This was an accommodation house for drovers and other travellers moving through from Marlborough /Nelson to the Canterbury and beyond. It had become run down and demolition was being considered but the Canterbury branch of the Historic Places Trust and Lands and Survey decided it should be saved and restored. Our day finished at Hanmer Springs with the delights of a cold beer before dinner and a dip in the hot pools to revive our spirits.
Day 3 was definitely devoted to 4WD country.
We travelled on SH 7 through the Lewis Pass for a morning tea stop at the start of the St James Walkway and on to Burnbrae, where we took the less travelled route north on a corrugated track through the dense beech forest with a few fords crossing the many creeks in the area.
The route took us lurching around tight bends and through numerous stream fords to climb over the Maruia Saddle and follow the Matakitaki River to Murchison for lunch. Then it was back “off-road” with slightly better conditions from the morning run, through the Mangles Valley and the Braeburn Track to Lake Rotoroa for a quick stop to see admire the scenery, gaze in awe at the eels under the jetty, and avoid the sandflies.
We finished our day at the Alpine Lodge in St Arnaud where some enjoyed a quiet walk in the beech forest down to view Lake Rotoiti.
The final day was almost an anti-climax as we merely investigated the source of the Buller River, assembled for a group photograph at Kerr’s Bay and then trundled down the Wairau Valley to Renwick and Spring Creek to Picton for the ferry trip back to Wellington.
The weather was perfectly fine, so the crossing kept to the schedule and we arrived in Wellington safe, sound and on time. A great time was had by all thanks to Pat Rutherford for her perfect organisation and to TRANZIT Tours and the magnificent driver Les. We will forgive them for the initial less than perfect ferry crossing.
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