O.O.M.G – Otematata and Omarama Motorcycling Grandeur!!

_{^{NB: Unfortunately Google Maps doesn’t recognise all the roads we went on during this trip so we’ve done our best with what we’ve got. “Roads” do join the B above Naseby to the A at Otematata and the C below Omarama with the A above St Bathans. You can zoom in on the above map to find the tracks and see where we actually went 🙂}}

Summer has flown by and before we know it autumn is upon us and the window for adventure in reasonable weather is closing. Diaries are so full with work and families and work and families that finding time to go away even for a mere overnight adventure is tough. Steve and I had a grand plan to take our kids camping overnight somewhere to give our partners a break – and thus put some brownie points in the bank to allow for an adventure. We schedule the camping trip on a weekend that ended up being a cold wet blast from deep in the Southern Ocean – not ideal for young kids and outdoors fun!! So, the plans morphed into a camping trip to Steve’s lounge floor, the kids had a blast, partners get some down-time and Steve and I get to drink whisky after everyone else is in bed – a win-win-win situation 🙂

So, with brownie points earned, it was time to start planning. It didn’t take us long at all to decide on a trip we’d both had our eye on since Steve spotted it on some satellite maps prior to our re-acquaintance with the South Island trip back in September last year. The route we spied starts in behind Naseby and links up with Otematata through a high country track. It starts off in Oteake Conservation Park heading up to Mt Buster and then heads across the high country to the back of Otematata Station, before heading down the Otematata River and out to the station house on the edge of Otematata. This requires clearance from the Station owner, but he was more than welcoming when we asked him (for a small fee of $30). Then being on the other side of the mountains the only logical route was back through the mountains again, so we planned to come back over the Omarama Saddle from Omarama back through to St Bathans.

Knowing we had limited time we committed to getting away at a better time than on our last overnight trip, and with a huge amount of surprise to us both we actually managed it. We were on the road out of Mosgiel by 1pm on Friday, and made good time up through Middlemarch, where we stopped for a quick work check in, and then on to Ranfurly for fuel and an ice cream as it was a beautiful warm afternoon. The afternoon was stunning and the road up through the Maniototo was deserted, what a fantastic afternoon to be on the road and we were loving it. We settled into the zone straight away and meshed with the bends wishing we were just setting out on another huge adventure; the pangs for another big adventure still sit there just below the surface wanting to take over any opportunity they get!! We must just keep feeding it with these small but epic adventures until………………..

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From Ranfurly we passed quickly through Naseby and found Mt Buster Road. It immediately changed to gravel and the first road sign said “track not suitable for cars” – we knew we were heading to the right place 🙂 . Not far on was a little parking area and shelter signifying the start of the Oteake Conservation Park and the road heading off up a damn steep mountain face. A sign of things to come as we dropped through a river crossing, this time being able to keep our feet high and dry (it would not stay this way), and off up this steep rocky rutted dirt track. Right away we knew we were going to be challenged, the forearms were pumping as we hung onto the handlebars trying not to fall off the backs of our bikes, it was that steep! And with that steepness came these massive water ruts across the road, obviously in a big rain the water is rushing down the road and it naturally creates these big bumps where it must build up these banks before spilling over the side – we learned quickly not to fly over these too fast when half of Steve’s bags came off.

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As with a lot of this country we then got up onto the plateau where it started to flatten out again, the ruts were still huge, the rocks all over the place, and the heart and adrenaline pumping to dodge them – all the time with huge grins on our faces. A little road headed off to the left, and we knew Mt Buster to be over there, this was the Mt Buster trip so we had to try to get to the top – which actually proved to be pretty straight forwards. What was cool though is that the afternoon was clear enough that we could see up to Mt Cook in the distance – just spectacular and the view just seemed to fit with how we were feeling about the whole adventure so far – stunning and loving it!!

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The track that took us to the top of Mt Buster actually carried on, but we had other lofty goals so have banked that for another occasion. We turned around and headed back to Mt Buster Road, where not far along the plateau, we came across Buster Diggings. In the 1860s gold was found within Oteake on the flanks of Mt Buster and at 1200 metres, Buster Diggings became the country’s highest altitude gold workings. It was a spectacular little spot but we had something else on our mind, Mt Kyeburn (the highest mountain around) and the road that we could see winding up the side of the mountain.

Buster Diggings sits in the saddle between Mt Buster and Mt Kyeburn so we wanted to take the opportunity staring us in the face. We sidled on up the mountain before the track straightened out and headed straight for what looked like a shear scree face, but with wheel tracks already on it we had to give it a go. Some fun slipping and sliding later we made it to the top just below the peak, which tops out at 1636m. We’d done bloody well to get our bikes up this high. We walked the last few metres and were struck by an outstanding view back to the Maniototo, over Dansey’s Pass, and off towards Otematata and Mt Cook.

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We feared the trip back down the scree slope, but in actual fact it was a doddle and back to Buster Diggings for some more playtime we went. The diggings had obviously been used by a lot of bikes and 4WDs to have a bit of fun as there were tracks all over the place, and the loose gravel and undulations gave us plenty of terrain to play on.

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The sun was now getting low in the sky and we wanted to make the most of things tonight to allow us plenty of time for fun and games tomorrow (actually most of the planning revolved around aiming to reach Omarama for brunch tomorrow morning). On we headed and dropped down into the next river valley of Guffies Creek, and followed this along the valley for a while. Here we were exposed to the first proper round of river crossings on this trip, it wouldn’t be unfair to rename this trip the River Crossing Adventure. Time to get our feet wet and really indulge in this country, high alpine plateaus and deep river valleys – the only thing we are really thankful for was that it hadn’t rained in ages (unlike the last adventure we had 🙂 ). A bit of fun later and we arrived at Tailings Hut. We decided to stop here for dinner, we really we to town on some nuts and muesli bars with a swig of whisky!!!

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The next section of road gave us a really good impression of the abruptness of the terrain. We headed back up very quickly over a ridge, it was as steep as the original ascent up to Mt Buster, and then as we crested the ridge it dropped off even more sharply back down into the Otematata River gorge. On our way up this section I came bouncing around a corner and there was Steve stopped, hunched over his handlebars, clearly in a lot of pain – uh oh!!! About now I realised I’d forgotten the first aid kit for this trip – uh oh!! I stopped and Steve was crying out in pain, trying hard to breathe through whatever had happened. Once he could actually speak again he explained he’d been veered towards to inside bank by a rut and his toes which were slightly turned out had caught heavily on the bank and wrenched his leg sideways – miraculously he’d wobbled and stayed up, while not careering off the other side of the track and down the very steep and long drop!!! Well done Steve.

It settled down and he was certain he could ride on, although was obviously not able to weight bear heavily on the foot or stand on the pegs easily. I followed behind for a while as he tested out his leg, all seemed ok and we dropped down and crossed the Otematata River before coming out the other side of the gorge on the steepest incline we’d had yet (and that’s saying something!!). Only once did I come around a corner to see Steve on his side, lacking the finesse to control the bike perfectly was making it difficult for him. But he fought on and got used to the restrictions to finish the day with no more mishaps. As we left the river behind we hit another long open plateau where the road within Oteake headed out to Hills Creek near St Bathans – we’d be there tomorrow. This is where we left the rugged rough and decidedly average public access road and turned into the back of Otematata Station where the roads got to a point it’s really hard to describe – but they were worse than what we’d just left!!

One final drop off this plateau on a very long very steep decline down to Chimney Creek (we were glad we weren’t coming up this one!!), this section was so long and steep that I was cramping up in my front wheel braking hand from continually holding the brake for such a long period, and Steve blew out his back brake from the load. With the light disappearing quickly we were happy to hit the valley and started searching for a place to camp. Happily we found a place before the next river crossing and pitched our tents next to Chimney Creek and settled in for beans, chocolate and whisky. The Grit and Sprit tradition of river, whisky and chats – good times!

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Day 2 dawned to another dry but high overcast day, expected to warm up nicely again. And on we headed with brunch at a proper cafe in mind. The day started immediately with a deep and slippery river crossing – glad we didn’t have to do that in the dark last night!! And then straight after that we came out into the Otematata River valley again, here is was wider and more open than any of the previous valleys we’d been in so we relaxed into the morning nicely. The road also improved, suggesting the station staff come up this far more often in their vehicles. We found out later that they muster all of the terrain we went through yesterday on horseback and almost never take a vehicle up there.

As we headed down the valley it was clear there was a lot of water damage and in places the road was re-routed around slips and big holes. We followed what looked to be a re-route to find out that it was more of a second river bed but in the spirit of adventure continued to follow it, certain it would meet back up with the road a bit further down. Fortunately we saw the massive drop off into a big swampy hole that loomed up a bit further on, partly because I got caught in a wet rut and went down in the flash of an eye.

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We spied animal tracks that headed off round the side of the hole and followed these, bouncing along through the shrubs before finding a crossing of the rocky river bed back onto the road. This only took a few extra minutes as I got stuck on a steep bank and needed a bit of pushing from Steve along with me rocking the bike back and forth with the throttle before opening the tap to get the back wheel up the bank and on with our morning. We followed our way down the river valley passing by a few huts for the station staff and getting the joy of some actual bridges across some of the side streams.

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As the Otematata River headed off towards the Waitaki Valley through another gorge, we turned away and headed up a gully onto the ridge and got a glimpse of civilisation for the first time since leaving Naseby yesterday afternoon, in the form of some farm buildings. From the ridge we headed off the road and onto some of the farm tracks across wide open paddocks, these tracks were super fun. As we crested the ridge to look down onto Otematata, the views out over Benmore Dam and Lake Aviemore were just incredible. We loitered around for a while on the tops enjoying the beauty and serenity of the spot before heading down the steep rocky drop off to the station via rugged farm trails, more fun for all 🙂

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As we reached the farm yards we headed off to the station house to pay our dues and give a big thanks for the opportunity to spend some time in such an awesome area. We’d thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and felt lucky to have be allowed to explore the rugged back blocks of the station. In totally understated fashion the farm hand took the money and the appreciation without the blink of an eye, and when we suggested it was pretty steep and rugged back there, he looked at us like we were a bit strange – we are strange, but were still fairly accurate in describing the terrain, he’s surely just accustomed to it due to working on the station.

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Phase 1 was now over, what a blast we’d already had! We headed up the highway to Omarama hoping that phase 2 was going to be just as cool. In Omarama we stopped for fuel and to borrow something to try and whack my clutch lever back into position. Remember the gentle bike drop I had that morning in the rut, it’d bent my clutch lever up a bit, which made it a bit difficult to get my toe under and gripping the lever to change up. Some whacking and levering later we got it a bit straighter and headed off to the Wrinkly Rams for a big brunch to fuel ourselves for the afternoon ahead. A scrummy feed along with some great yarns with other bikers passing through, including a guy we’d also ran into the day before at the petrol station in Mosgiel who was on his way to a bike rally in Waimate and a guy who’d just about been mowed over by some tourists on the wrong side of the road just up the way towards Tekapo.

Refreshed and ready for more action we looked at a back road/track route up to the Omarama Saddle area, and headed into Omarama Station to see if the station owner was amenable to us going across some of his land. In short, he was a grumpy man and made it very clear he was very unhappy we’d even had the idea to ask. No harm done we headed up the more “main” Broken Hut Road through Berwen and Twinburn to the base of the saddle. Here we hit the very northern point of the Oteake Conservation Park again and had a choice to make, the West or East Manuherikia River Track. The east version is more a direct route over Little Omarama Saddle and classed as the easier route through to St Bathans. The west route heads over Omarama Saddle itself and then down the Manuherikia River West Branch via “numerous” river crossing (as stated by the DOC website). What we found out in the numerous is a bit of an understatement!!!’

The decision was obvious, we were doing well for time and loved some adventure and a challenge so headed off up the west route. This tacked up the Omarama Stream valley and just as we were about to head up the rocky, rugged and steep saddle track we ran into a group of trampers who’d stopped for some lunch. It was the University of Otago Tramping Club on their first outing for the new semester, good for them we thought after we headed on, we were glad to not be walking this track and be on our bikes. The landscape was immense again and it was cool to look at all the tracks heading all over the place, hoping we had some time to come back and explore some of the other trails. We reached the summit of the saddle and stopped for a quick breather while Steve composed himself for the steep descent obviously with plenty of loose gravel and water ruts. Steve was preparing for a slow descent as remember his back brake has given up the ghost on the last descent of yesterday, it had briefly made a reappearance this morning before failing again. He wasn’t savouring the prospect of what lay in front of him!!

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Steve safely made in back to the valley floor with no hairy moments and we got our first experience of the Manuherikia River West Branch with one crossing before reaching Top Hut. We stopped at the hut as a couple of guys in a 4WD were there taking a break too, they were on a scoping mission for a 4WD club weekend outing. As they headed on we lay on the grass for a bit as the sun had come out and it was beautiful and warm. We both nodded off for a quick recharge before I woke with a start, I had a solution to an issue I’d had with my digital speedo for the last 5 years. The housing for the battery is not snug and with the bike always rattling around it rattles the battery which then loses contact with the terminals and when I turn the bike key off the speedo shuts off. I’d tried so many different solutions to pack the casing enough to keep the battery snug, but always had success for a short period before it’d fail again. I woke to a new idea and got to work while Steve slowly rose from his slumber. I’m happy to report that the speedo made it to the end of the day without losing contact which is the longest it has worked for in months, maybe years!!

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As we left Top Hut we knew we were headed for “numerous” river crossings, but weren’t quite sure how many that might actually be. Reading later we found out that there are something between 18-32 crossings, and it felt like there were 50. The guys we’d seen at Top Hut had said there was nothing too serious, but you have to remember they were in a 4WD. On bikes, what might be a simple crossing for a 4WD could turn hairy pretty quickly if you struck a big rock underwater or some terrible rock snot, getting you bumping and sliding around. The answer was to get some weight on the back wheel, open the tap a bit and hold on for dear life!! And this method seemed to work pretty well, although both Steve and I had a couple of dodgy moments each. We both had one similar incident where we were bumped off course by a big rock and this careened us into a bank as we exited the river, minimal harm done except for a small pride dent.

I had one slightly hairier moment where I got bumped and it headed me out of the wheel tracks and towards a big bank, the answer was to either go down in the river or find out what was on the other side of the bank – the answer was a hole, some rocks and a way out (a few feet further right would have sent me off the river bank and into the river) – whew!!!

So, to the bits that didn’t go quite so well…..in a fairly innocuous looking crossing, a bit deeper and wider than most but slow flowing, Steve hit a rock, bounced onto some rock snot and went down in the middle of the river. I came up behind and was quickly stopping and dismounting to get in and help him as he pumped full of adrenaline and lifted his bike back up. With some skillful balancing he managed to get back on, and we both individually crossed our fingers as he tried to start his bike again. She fired immediately and with sopping wet boots and jeans Steve boosted out of the river onto the far side. Whew, no harm done!!

Now the worst thing about riding second in a situation like this is you then have to go through what’s just sent Steve down. So with apprehension I gunned it, held on tight and boosted out the other side. The heart rate drops again!!

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Not long after Steve had gone down, and the general apprehension growing with each passing crossing we reached one that was wider and faster flowing than any we’d faced so far. Steve was in the lead again at this point and started in the right wheel track, got a big bump right in the fastest flowing bit that sent him upstream and into the left wheel track and then further left but with a bit of gas he managed to scramble out the other side. Now my turn, with the apprehension now peaking I tried the right wheel track too, and was going well until quicker than you could say “bloody rock snot” I was down in the middle of the river. I scrambled up and tried to get my bike righted quickly, but she just kept slipping further away on the super slippery rocks. Steve had now dismounted and rushed back in to help and we finally got her upright. Unfortunately while she was down I had noticed the exhaust was pointing directly upstream and the fast flowing water was flowing straight into the exhaust and thus into the engine!! Dammit!!

We pushed her out the far side and got off the road and started to analyse the situation, (along with the big graze on my right thigh) – now do you remember our last little overnight adventure up to Serpentine Church and the river crossing challenges we had there? Well, luckily we learnt a thing or two about dealing with bikes with water in the engine from that trip and got about unpacking my bike and stripping her down to get the water out. As we worked an older couple we’d run into just back up the valley at Boundary Creek Hut came by, and reminded us of the key step we’d missed while up near Serpentine Church, to turn the engine over while the spark plugs were out to blow any water out of the engine itself. This was useful as it reminded me of what I’d read about following that last trip. Now, not only was there water in the engine but also in my topbox, so everything I had in there was saturated. Was I going to have to ride all the way home on a cool evening in wet riding gear and undergarments? Fortunately I remembered I’d put my polyprops into my roll bag that morning thinking I wouldn’t be needing them at all today. Result: I had dry clothes to put on to keep me warm to get home 🙂

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So we ejected the water from my bike, emptied my topbox and let my pride try and catch up. And she fired up first time spitting water out of the exhaust, woohoo, and we were off again. A couple more crossings frayed my nerves completed before we hit the carpark signifying the end of the Manuherikia River West Branch. Things opened out and we blasted down to St Bathans and the famous Vulcan Hotel for some dinner.

The ladies behind the bar were fabulous and more than happy for us to wander around in the pub in our long johns while our wet gear tried to dry some by the wood burner they’d fired up for us. They also cooked a mean feed of nachos, some of the best we’ve had anywhere on all of our adventures – YUM!

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We also struck up a conversation with an older fella sitting outside the pub enjoying a beer on his own. As it turns out he was visiting the Vulcan Hotel for the first time, and was using the visit as an excuse to avoid a party a lady had invited him to, and he had reason to not want to attend. He didn’t offer the sordid details but we got the picture 🙂 . A guy from Wellington also struck up a conversation as he was attracted by our DRs; he was a member of a DR riding group in Wellington. We discussed their exploits and the merits of the wonderful DR. We then go onto some of our exploits, and he seemed to think we’re pretty out there in what we get up to. Steve and I discussed this later and, although not really thinking we were crazy or out there, realised that maybe in others eyes we might be. What do you think? Are we crazy? Please let us know if we are!!!

After a great feed, some good yarns and some relaxing and re-energising we hit the road with nicely warmed boots and riding gear for the final blast home. We separated at the turnoff at Kyeburn and I headed home via Palmerston and Steve headed down through Middlemarch. I got home and soon after got a text from Steve saying he’d been hit by an owl somewhere near Middlemarch, it’d given him a good whack and the absolute shits. He pulled over to compose himself and went back to find the dead owl on the road. Poor thing!!!

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So this trip was an absolute blast and we’d achieved so much (again), and we’d only been away 32 hours. It’s amazing how different our skills feel after two epic day and a half adventures. We have been challenged in ways we didn’t think we’d be challenged and come through with grit and determination (and a bit of sprit!!!). We just don’t feel like the same riders (and men) we did a mere 3 months ago, there is nothing like a bit of adventure to give you all the learning and growing opportunities you need 🙂