Paringa River – Marks Flat – Otoko River

5-13 February 2022

Geoff had been planning a return ascent of Mt McCullaugh in Fiordland for a long time. The frequency of storms had created issues on previous trips where extended glacier travel demanded periods of settled weather. The proposed route allowed flexibility to climb high on good days and retreat to valleys on bad days to make the most of variable weather. That appeared to be tested when a red weather warning for Fiordland coincided with the start of the trip. Geoff considered that it was better to get Huey’s tempestuous bad mood over with before the trip than during it! The road was washed out between Franz and Fox, so we were off, but on the less direct road route. We stayed at a back-packers in Haast.

Day 1 of tramping started with an exciting jet-boat ride in Ben Monk’s boat to the Paringa – Otoko Forks. The Paringa had dropped significantly and ran clear above the forks but the Otoko was still discoloured. The other half of the party admired the track work that Jane, Geoff, Raymond and Sven had recently done on the way to Tunnel Creek Hut. The jet-boat put us well ahead of schedule, so we reached the proposed day’s destination of Tunnel Creek Hut at 3pm. Geoff had proposed that the first two days with heavy packs should be short but that meant the second day’s destination was just up the hill, “up” being the operative word. With a bad weather day forecast, the attraction of being a day ahead of schedule was too great, so Day 2 was squeezed into Day 1.

The rock bivouac at the head of the Paringa was only 3km away but 1000m higher. The first section was typical valley-side climbing; pull up on roots, step, then slide back. Point 542 was a welcome respite with a view, followed by a short downhill then uphill ridge travel. Gary had an unpleasant introduction to being the slowest in the party. The team took some of his group gear to lighten his load. Finally, we reached the tussock without having to bash through a scrub belt and began the search for the rock bivouac. It wasn’t obvious but the track-clearing party knew its location and the whereabouts of a helicoptered food drop left from the track-clearing session two months before.