Mt Titiroa Traverse, February 2025
Mt Titiroa Trasverse, Hope Arm to North Borland 5th– 9th February 2025
Two cars headed for Borland Lodge on Wednesday, with the group of six staying at Ryan’s Cottage. Next morning, we left one car at Borland Lodge and Julian managed to cram all six of us and our packs into his Everest, heading for Pearl Harbour at Lake Manapouri.
Clint from River Taxis was waiting for us at
8.30 am, ferrying us through the mist to Hope Arm in 30 minutes, pointing out islands and landmarks on the way. Chartering a boat for six was a reasonably cheap option.
After checking out Hope Arm hut, we set off at 9.20 am directly behind the hut, following the Snow White Clearing Track which climbs steadily through a ‘goblin forest’, before dropping steeply to Garnock Burn. In the bush, just before Garnock Burn, we were entertained by a sole kea sitting on the log preening himself, showing off his wing feathers.
We arrived at Pt1017 about 2.30 pm, tired from hauling ourselves up the ridge and surrounded by thick mist, so decided to camp close to the nearest stream. We found a perfect sandy flat campsite, just where the stream springs from the mountain below Pt 1017.
Next morning, still shrouded in mist, we packed up and set off at 7.30 am towards the summit and within 5 minutes we emerged from the mist into bright sunshine. As we quickly climbed, following footprints up the sandy slope, we had clear views over a vast sea of fog covering Lake Manapouri of Mt Tutuko, the Murchison and Kepler Mountains.
As we climbed the main rocky North Ridge of Titiroa, we were fascinated by the amazing shaped quartz-rich granite tors, weathered by wind, frost, and rain. We climbed our way around them, marvelling at the tiny mountain gentians, edelweiss and hebes growing in the sand, and reached the summit at 11.15 am.
From the summit of Mt Titiroa (1715m), we continued along the ridge southwards, scrambling around the steeper sections on the lower eastern side, with fine views across to the Hunter mountains. At Pt1581 we dropped down towards the North Borland Valley, following a broad ridge to a group of tarns near the bushline. It is just like running down a vast sandhill and progress was quick until we reached the bushline at 2.45pm. There is no obvious track through the dense bush, and although two bits of coloured tape marked a route on the true right of the creek draining the tarns, we think it would be better to follow a spur on the true left.
After pushing our way through the bush, we finally arrived at the North Borland hut and set up camp, at about 4pm. Next morning we followed a well-marked track that leads through beautiful beech forest, passed under the massive rock biv at 10.30, and lunched by the swing bridge that spans the South Borland branch. 5 hours after leaving the hut, we reached Borland Lodge, and Julian ferried everyone back to Manapouri and Te Anau in the waiting car. Thanks to Robbie, Julian, Lynette, Lorenna, and Colin for an epic trip. Jenny Kitchin.