Otaki Forks - a DOC camping area

Otaki Forks - a DOC camping area - January 1999 By now the temperatures were back up towards 30 degrees so we headed for a camp site in the hills called Otaki Forks because of a river divide. It is a DOC site down the end of a 19 km road which gets very narrow and is single track gravel for the last 5 kms. The road hugs a steep hillside and we discovered it had suffered a number of serious washouts in a storm in November and the site had been cut off for 4 weeks - it is still an interesting journey! The site is just above the river which has some deep pools suitable for swimming amongst the rapids. The site is surprisingly big and could probable take 50 - 100 groups and is one of the few DOC sites with a caretaker and even some flush facilities although the water is a boil for three minutes job as usual. There are lots of walks although we did not have much time to explore them and it was too hot. We had a quick barbeque with the Red Devil - some glorious filet steak which had been on offer at $15 a kilo at a roadside butcher as we left Castlecliff. It came at the top of the list for steak we have cooked ourselves - done with a few bacon scraps alongside to get some good flames to sear it. Evening fell fast due to the surrounding mountains and the tent was covered in condensation even before we got into it. During the night one could hear a stead drip as water fell from the roof onto the groundsheet at the front, fortunately not on us.

After moving the tent into the sun in the morning to dry it well it was back down the narrow road heading for Wellington. We stopped for a couple of walks we had failed to attempt the previous day and to look at the river and interpretation boards. It is always worth getting the DOC information sheets before going to any of their areas and checking local information as there is always fascinating background. Otaki Forks used to be a thriving logging area with saw mills and several tramways going into the bush. There was even a post office until 1942. Some of the walks go to remains left over from the logging days.