Here’s another interesting and informative adventure from Kemble and Jane.
The Location
The Last Resort Walk is on the Riversdale Station, on White Rock Road, which is the last access to the Wairarapa coast going South. The station is very old – it was part of a land grant to a New Zealand Company immigrant in 1845 and has been in the family ever since. It’s not what you could call intensive agriculture, with some paddocks that are mostly grass close to the homestead (many now silted from the floods) and out the back a great deal of Manuka with grass in clearings.
The area was hit by massive back-to-back storms at the beginning of July. The ground was super-saturated, unstable in parts, and that had quite an effect on the walk.
Day One
Getting There
We (Jane, Kemble and our son Josh) drove from Martinborough to the start of the walk on White Rock Road. This road was still very much showing the impact of the storms. Fulton Hogan had two teams working on it and they had coned it off and declared it closed from a point some 14 km short of the station. We carried on, to the dismay of our little Toyota and probably endangering our insurance if we had had a misfortune along the way.
Arriving at Riversdale Station we were met by our hosts, Ben and Georgie and their family of dogs.
In a separate area more dogs were heard barking “ They’re just the farm dogs” said Georgie. We didn’t meet them. They have probably had less training in greeting visitors.
The track briefing and an extra challenge
Ben’s briefing and directions included the description of a game to be played on the walk. You try to identify which of nine Councilors from a fictional local government agency is trying to oust the current mayor and take over. The guilty party being the Councilor missing from their usual location. There are clues along the way and nine locations, one for each councilor. There were ten but the Gnome was washed away in the floods and has been deemed innocent posthumously! Some time there will be a draw from correct entries for a cash prize, but Ben wasn’t sure when that would be. With all the flood repairs and rehabilitation they may not be able to afford it for a while.
After the briefing Ben took our luggage and food to our destination (The Last Resort accommodation). This was a very good thing since it meant we were carrying “just” day packs with lunch, drinks, coats etc.
We had brought our walking poles and thankfully a spare for Josh. Given the ground conditions and the state of the stream banks, walking poles were essential.
The Walk
Day One was round 10 km, with over 600 metres of climbing. At times it was really challenging, steep tracks up hill after hill. Many small river crossings made tricky by the severe storm five weeks ago. This storm damaged the riverbanks, soaked the ground and generally made sections of the track extremely boggy!! Luckily for us we started the walk on a fabulous day, cool but sunny and some wind but NO rain! That would have been awful.
We spent quite a bit of time on the game, which was mostly on the first part of the walk fortunately as I don’t think that we would have been all that interested past four hours or so on the track. We decided the threat to the mayor was XXXXX, (we don’t want to spill the beans – you may go there yourself).
Towards the top of one of the climbs – a dry one:
We were pleased to have our individual bags of scroggin – delicious dried fruits, mixed nuts dark chocolate… yummy and very helpful in keeping our energy and spirits up. We also had two flasks of coffee, black for Josh and white for Kemble and me. We had some with our sandwiches at lunchtime and the last 1/2 cup when we were about 1.5 km from our destination and needed a final boost.
Eventually all good things and long walks come to an end and we were very pleased to arrive at The Last Resort accommodation.
Accommodation
There are two buildings, one for dining & living (with attached loo) and then a short walk down the hill – the sleeping block – four bedrooms and two bathrooms with hot showers and flush toilets! Yes, we are getting, no have got, really soft.
The accommodation is sheltered from the wind (as much as possible) with a variety of trees – natives, pines, eucalypts. By the deck of the living area there are sturdy daisies, a large jasmine and a wisteria that will be lovely in flower.
Day Two
Day Two
We had planned to walk down to the coast but overnight the wind howled, the rain and hail fell. When a sluggish drawn arrived the theme continued -wind, rain and hail. Obviously, day two was really meant for sitting, reading, watching the wild sea and thinking how fortunate we were to be inside in front of a dry Manuka-fuelled wood burner.
Around 2pm a lull and cabin fever drove us out for a short walk. We inspected the first part of the return track (very muddy) then started on the track down to the Coast. After 20 minutes or so a huge and ominous dark cloud blew up behind us. Expecting heavy rain, we turned back but not so – a few hundred meters from the hut it started to snow!! We were very pleased to get back to the fire and comfort of the lodge.
The storm continued overnight. Nothing like the rain the region had six weeks ago though – wind, showers, hail and snow flurries, and enough unpleasantness to have us wondering nervously what the walk out would be like. We found an ancient, battered radio and through the static heard more snow was predicted, to be 200 metres, which is the height of The Last Resort, so the thought of having to go considerably higher was a worry.
Day 3
The sky looked more promising than on Tuesday. We had breakfast, cleaned and packed, made lunch, refilled our snack bags and headed out. Straight up a steep rise and into the mud. In fact, the weather was much better than Tuesday, with a few showers and brief spatters of hail and mostly reasonably sheltered from the wind. Even so we used pretty much all our warm clothing including coats and multiple layers of merino. It was cold and very bleak at times, though we warmed up on the steep sections.
The walk out was 10 k approx. with about 360 metres of height gain, just about all-in-one hit. We caught glimpses of the sea (calmer than Tuesday) and snow on the Tararua and Aorangi Ranges. Did we mention the mud? A particularly sticky clay variant. At times we felt we were carrying a small tub of margarine on each shoe.
Our gaiters were very good and useful but mud seemed to catch under the straps, eventually pulling the strap out on one occasion and the extra weight added greatly to the energy requirement to keep moving. Further up the hill the track was much drier but extremely steep.
We met Ben and three of the dogs on their way to pick up our bags and belongings from the house. He assured us that the streams weren’t up (good news as there are quite a few of them). They were all scoured out in the July storms leading to a fragile 1-2 m. bank and getting in and out was not easy especially for the vertically challenged. It was as well we had Josh with us; he was very helpful in hauling up the oldies.
Ben encouraged us to go up to the highest point on the track where they have a picnic table to enjoy both the 360-degree views and lunch … in point of fact it was incredibly windy when we got there so young Josh did the five-minute walk to the top and said “yes, great views and OMG the wind”. So we found shelter and rested against a bank to enjoy our coffee and lunch. And the sun came out.
After a long descent the track traversed round the edge of the river flat for several kilometres, boggy and crossed by numerous scoured streams. The river flat felt as though it should have been a better option but there were impassable bluffs that rose directly from the river, so you really had to stay higher.
As is often the case, at the end of a tramp the last few kilometres are a bit bland and seemed very long.
On the Tuesday night Jane had dreamed that the storm had washed away our car parked at the farm, so it was a relief to find it where we’d left it. With a day and a bit of rain the road was in much worse state on the way out and by the time we finished the unsealed section the car was looking distinctly rural and had bottomed out a few times – fortunately no damage.
Our final thoughts
We would recommend “The Last Resort Walk” but you need a reasonable level of fitness and good equipment, certainly in wet and cold conditions. No doubt it’s very special in summer when you can get down to the beach for a swim and check out the waterfall.
For more options and details check out Riversdale Station The Last Resort Walk.
Thank you
Another informative and interesting hike. Thank you Jane and Kemble for your story. I am very grateful for your time and effort in putting this adventure together.
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