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DOC Land
Altitude: 559m to 1288m. Gain: 793m. Loss: 630m . Gradient: 12 deg (Moderate-hard)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) - Occasional rivers (3/6)
Note: Initial parts of this route climbing to Te Iringa cross private land, and landowners permission may be required. The latter part of the route from Te Iringa to the Gentle Annie is on crown land.
Heading north from Cameron Hut to the back of the flats, and taking the marked, cut track turning upriver at the signposted junction, the route starts with a pleasant 1km stroll across the flat. The swingbridge over the river is gone, but it can be waded in normal flows. The track opposite is another matter – marked with permolat, but completely overgrown. Following it upriver, there is a signpost to Te Iringa, hidden there in the scrub, but no sign of any track to go with it. Instead we push through the thick manuka until we find the spur marked on the map.
The first 100m up the spur is scrubby and tough, but soon the scrub retreats off the crumbling gravel ridgeline, and going improves. There’s a good ground trail, laid down by many deer and a few boots, and soon regular permolat markers appear. The track is steep, but not precipitous like the descent to Cameron. The scrub stops, just as the gradient lessens, and the track becomes a series of short ascents to knobs, with flat sections in between. Scrub again becomes more common, but there’s a well traveled track, and someone is clearly cutting it occasionally. Finally the spur tops-out into tussock, and we sidle/climb to the main ridgeline beyond. All up a steady 800m climb, but reasonable going once out of the manuka scrub at its base.
Once on the main ridge there’s an excellent track running south-east. No markers, but a well used, well worn ground trail – eroded down over a meter deep in places. This heads SE towards the Gentle Annie road summit.
At pt1191 the track swings east (a small campspot in the beech copse at its head, no water). It drops rapidly, the track well cut and well worn through increasing scrub. Swinging south, it heads over a small outlying knob, then drops, zigzagging the face to the road-summit visible below. Vegetation becomes more verdant and aggressive as we near the road, and the track becomes overgrown – the cutters clearly losing the battle in these lower altitudes. But still an easy track to walk.
We emerge though claypan to the old roadbed, which we follow 20m to reach the summit of the current highway. No sign marks the track, just a route left for those in the know.