Rangi Tiapo/Kelly Tops 30th April-1st May 2011

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp no.102

Rangi Tiapo/Kelly Tops 30th April-1st May 2011

I Had known Alan vaguely for quite some time through his being the brother of a very close friend of nearly 27 years. Alan has been a tramper since I was still in primary school and we had talked about getting out together since I ran into him at his nieces 21st early last year. What with him living on the West Coast and with me being busy and other things, we hadn't managed to coincide on a tramp.
That finally change last weekend after he had emailed me about doing a trip in the area mentioned above.I put an email out to some other friends and Brendon, From the recent Bucklands Peaks trip, said he was keen to come as well.
Alan said he wanted to do the trip up to Carrol hut then along the bald range to Rangi Tiapo, dropping down to seven mile creek on the track shown, staying at Dillon's Hut, then back over the Kelly tops to where we started. I had actually already done this trip with the Christchurch Tramping Club back in 06 but didn't mind doing it again. Alan suggested meeting on Friday night, but at short notice I couldn't get away, so we arranged to meet at Kellys creek at 9am on Saturday morning. I was a bit concerned as in my diary it had mentioned that it had taken us 11 hours to get from Kellys creek down to Dillon's hut when we last did it, though it was summer and we had lots more daylight hours. I also remembered that the track down from Rangi tiapo was a bit of a pig and had cause some frustration the last time, but I thought if we didn't muck around we could do it, we had about 9 hours of daylight.
Brendon and I made Kellys Shelter at around 8:30 on a beautiful fine and warm West Coast day, with Alan arriving on time and with another tramper going by the name of Rachel.We were on the track very soon after 9am and slogged up to Carrol hut.Already I saw that this party was going to be a bit slower than the last one I did this trip with not to mention that I had developed another head cold.
We sidled around Kellys Hill at about the 1200m mark and headed along the Bald range towards Rangi Tiapo Staying just below the tops and travelling along some benched areas on the Seven Mile Creek side of the tops.We got to point 1449 somewhere round 3pm and stopped to admire the views. I said that on the last trip it had taken us 3 hours to get down from Rangi Tiapo to Dillans hut and that seeing as we only had 3 hours of daylight left, we should flag Rangi and try to find the start of the track down.I remembered that the track started somewhere near the ridge of rocks and managed to find the indicating cairn about 4pm. There are no other markers leading to the track. As I said, my diary mentioned that it had taken us 3 hours to get down this track From the top and as we were already at the bush line we should make it down in two hours and if we are a bit slower, well we had good headlights.Famous last words.
The top part of the track was as I, remember it, steep, scrubby, slow going but easy enough to follow, with plenty of Dracaphyllum leaves on the ground to make life a little more difficult. I thought we were making pretty good time and the others were confident that it would bet better once we got into the forested part.I couldn't remember what the lower part of the track was like.
As we reached the heavier forested area the track got more overgrown and the windfalls more prevalent, to the extent that we were navigating purely by permolat and we really had to stay alert to spot those.6pm came and so did the darkness and out came the head torches, of which mine and Rachel's are awesome examples. We didn't suffer from lack of light, but soon after dark we got completely stumped as to where the track went as a big windfall blocked us. After 20 minutes of careful searching I finally found it again and on we went only to be stumped again several times.The going was horribly slow and between windfall, holes, bush lawyer, fatigue. the fact that we were all low on water and finally getting stumped again as to where the next Permolat was, it was decided to stay put where we were for the night. Alan did an altitude check and reckoned we were at about 600m.
There was no where to set up tents or even any small flat spots to sleep, so after a quick nibble on snack foods we all snuggled down to an uncomfortable night sleeping on our packs as levelling devices and mattresses, myself using a tree to stop sliding down the hill. I did manage to get reasonable comfortable and the night was wonderfully clear, warm and dry.thank God.
The next morning we were off again to trey and get down the rest of the hill. Daylight didn't make our travel any easier and between 400 and 300 meters we lost the track markers completely and bushbashed our way down before finding the track again on the first terrace. The terrace track was pretty good for a while before completely vanishing on us again.After over two hours to get down thew last 400m, 4 very thirsty and relieved trampers nearly drank the creek dry before heading to the old Dillans homestead hut for breakfast.
At around 11:30am we headed up Seven mile creek for the slog up to the kelly tops and then the pleasant stroll along the tops back to Carrol hut which took about 5 hours. We managed just to get back to the cars before dark, four very tired but satisfied trampers.
The track down from Rangi tiapo was so much worse than I remember it 5 years ago and is all but nonexistent in many parts except for permolat markers. As this track has obviously seen no maintenance at all since I last used it, it's days are numbered.

 On the track upto Carrol hut looking up the Otera valley

 This ones looking up Kellys Creek

 First lunch at Carrol hut

 Carrol Hut with Mt Barron in the background.

 Looking down 7 Mile creek from below Kellys Hill, Rangi Tiapo to the right.

 Cheating

 It looks quite easy from here but...

 The view from pt 1449 up the Tiapo river

 Looking back along the bald range from Pt 1449

 The beds we should have slept in on Saturday night

 Dillons Homestead

 Time to go.

 looking down the Tiapo

 A nice shot of Rangi Tiapo from kelly tops

 Kelly Hill in the distance.