Cameron Valley

Press, 29 December 1986, Page 22

Cameron Valley

MARK PICKERING

The Arrowsmith mountains are a huddle of peaks offset from the main divide by the long trench of the Rakaia River. The Maoris knew them as Unuroa, which' could be translated as “the tall, withdrawn peaks.” It’s a quirk of geology that isolated the Arrowsmith, but it gives them a style and character their own.

Spean creek bustles in. From there, though it is not obvious, the best route is to avoid the river moraine and stay well on the true right, climbing some several hundred gradual feet up a low tussock spur dotted with the occasional pine tree. Gradually a track emerges and curves around the main part of the moraine to arrive unexpectedly at the back door of the hut. The hut has nine bunks and a good view of the Arrowsmith peaks. There is of course little wood here (and nothing to burn it in) so a primus is essential. Mt Arrowsmith (9100 feet) was first climbed in 1912 via the Lawrence Valley — an easier route. Not until 1937 was a first ascent made from the Cameron Valley — an understandable lapse of time.

Their peaks are as sharp and preposterous as a punkrockers hair-do, but the colours are milder greys and browns.

The popular route to the Arrowsmiths is the Cameron River, a narrow self-con-tained valley which makes for a simple one-route tramping trip. The Canterbury Mountaineering Club has a hut at the head of the valley and from there you can venture closer to the glaciers and ice-falls.

The peaks are sharp and the rocks crumbly. Some of the peaks such as Marquee (7925 feet) are hard rock scrambles but most of the other are the province of the well equipped climber. Upvalley from the hut is a noticable “tramway” of moraine which gives an excellent view over the icefalls of the Cameron and Arrowsmith glaciers.

Life most high country tramps you need a car to get there. Drive to Mount Somers township (approximately 100 kilometres from Christchurch) and take the Ashburton Gorge Road inland towards Erewhon and Lake Clearwater. After about 20 kilometres you reach the Hakatere Station and a junction of roads.

Turn north toward Lake Heron and follow the road as it winds about the lakes and bronzed hummocks of this huge tussock basin. There is a picnic and rest area by Lake Heron itself, and from here its about five kilometres to a broad flat tussock plain where you can see the Cameron Valley entering on the left. • There is no signpost or any clear indication of where to expect the entrance of the valley itself, two kilometres across the flat

Winter or summer the Cameron Valley can be visited. The Walk should take six to seven hours at a comfortable pace, and probably five to six hours return. It is steady open grassland tramping, pleasant, but exposed in poor weather. It would be almost impossible to be stuck by flooded rivers. Distance from Christchurch: 150 km.

Services: Petrol, store, tearooms at Mt Somers township.

Information: T. N. Beckett “The Mountains of Erewhon.”

There is a faint four wheel drive track which could save half an hour’s tramp, but for an ordinary car it is better to stop by the main road and walk..

Maps: Lake Heron 573, Godley 572 NZMS 1).

The route up the Cameron stays entirely on one side, the true right (see illustration), and you should hardly need to get your feet wet. Gravel stretches of river, bits and pieces of sheep and cattle trails, and tussock flats can be followed with little difficulty. Early on there are clumps of matagouri and briar but these soon thin out and it becomes solely an alpine landscape.

Mt Arrowsmith looks temptingly close, but its almost 17 kilometres upvalley to the hut and will take the best part of the day. Halfway up the Cameron, on the other side of the river, is Highland Home, a four-bunk musterers hut. About 3 kilometres above there the Cameron closes into a small gorge. This can be easily followed close by the river past a loose rock slip, but it is actually quicker to climb up a hundred feet or so onto the obvious grass shelf and follow that along and back and down to the river past the gorge. The upper Cameron flats have good stock tracks on the true right to where