I returned to the valley after an absence of more than a year and had forgotten how beautiful it is. That’s a pity, because I’d spent the day before arguing that Meridian Energy shouldn’t be able to put pylons from their proposed dam on the Mokihinui River across the upper Waimangaroa Valley.

On our walk in through richly coloured vegetation, fog and sharp grey rock, we neither saw nor heard the vast coal mine a couple of kilometres away. But power pylons, no matter how skinny, would have ruined the remote and untouched atmosphere.

The camp in Happy Valley looked like the labour of love it is, everything was dry and in order with everything from spare gumboots to binoculars. Having so much gear already on hand makes it the perfect place to lug a baby into. I wondered why we hadn’t come for a week.

Lynley

I was lucky enough to be able to sneak across to the valley on the day the Walk the Walkers arrived at the destination of their epic journey.  We had a lovely walk in, beautiful kai, Heather was presented with some wine (carefully/cheerfully lugged in), and some good photo shots …

Here’s an excerpt from the Walk the Walkers Blog:

“Dear Friends,

Matt from Mot met us here aswell and Emily and I left at 9.30 the next morning, up the bridal path to the top of the incline and along the four wheel drive track to a little old miners hut at the beginning of the track in to the valley.  There we waited for Jonah, Micky and Matt in the chip wagon from 1.15 until about 3.15.  We were on the way into the valley from about 3.45 and had to hurry ourselves to get through the roughest and most dangerous bits of the walk before dark.

Luckily the walk in was dry and sunny, then it snowed the next day and melted before we had to walk out, by which time the sun had come out again to melt away the snow from the day before.”

Check it out -  http://walkingit.blogspot.com/

If you’d like to visit the occupation see www.savehappyvalley.org.nz/occupation for contacts.

Wow, my first stint ever at solo occupying and wilderness exploration. I lived like a prince in what is arguably now New Zealand’s most famous alpine wetland. The post-anniversary weather was great and I had the yurt all to myself.

Over the course of my four days in the valley I encountered a veritable plethora of bizarre animals and plants. Several of which are perhaps new to New Zealand taxonomic science. Highlights included an abandoned golden spider hawk wasp nest, which was filled up with many brightly colored ord web spiders of species I have never before seen. These animals had been captured by the wasp, stung and paralyzed, and then injected with eggs… like living larders!

Myself and Jonah undertook a survey of some of the scree slopes surrounding the valley in search of the elusive Happy Valley Vagrant Spider (see photo in my previous entry). Though these animals were at the end of their lifecycle, we found numerous nests indicating that many hatchlings were produced in the early summer. Hopefully classification of this animal will be pending in the next few months.

I also encountered the largest parasitoid wasp I have ever seen. This beast was bright red, yellow, black and white and was perhaps 12cm long, with a 5cm long oviposter spike. Unfortunately I was unable to document this animal before it escaped.

As per usual, my return to civilization began with the discovery that my car engine was dead. Happy times ensued, alleviated by some helpful passers by… who were keen to assist the man labelled by New Zealand Herald as SHVC’s enthusistic and well-spoken science geek. Cars suck… support Walk the Walk!

-Graham

6 cars squished into 3 at Burnetts Face and off we bumped to glory, the roadend and more rain.  Before the walk we split the donated grub - the occupation now has 10kg! of pasta.  Then off we trudged … into … the rain.  When we got here we cruised up to Stockton for photo ops with good old “Stop Solid Energy! Save Happy Valley!”

Heather and Mick are being staunch supports of the Happy Valley Campaign.  Check out their Walking the Walk blog.  Send them a support message.  They will be on the road for a while.  YAY!!

Happy Valley in the heat of a dry spell was a landscape unlike any I have ever witnessed.

The dense swampy grasslands were firm underfoot and the wind-blasted rock ridges and plateaux were hot and exposed to the Summer sun. This unusual weather for the diverse sub-alpine topography of the Upper Waimangaroa Valley caused spectacular responses in the ecology of the area.

As we explored, we encountered a riot of colour as the hardy Denniston vegetation made the most of the strong sun to put forth flowers. We also encountered several specimens of a large and unusual Tunnel-web Spider in the Zen Garden behind the Occupation Camp. This animal displayed fierce territorial behaviour when we attempted to photograph it. Peter Jackson based the giant spider Shellob on a similar native species in his movie Return of the King. Despite this, Tunnel-webs are not dangerous to humans.

Happy Valley was identified by the Department of Conservation in 1998 as an area of high invertebrate biodiversity. The area has never undergone stringent study by taxonomists so mostly this biodiversity is still unclassified by science. This spider is one of several local lifeforms in Happy Valley that may warrant further scrutiny.

If you encounter any unusual animals or plants in Happy Valley, please attempt to photograph them and record the area in which you found them. Any incoming data can be forwarded to savehappyvalley@yahoo.com -Graham

Another mint day perched next to a global treasure.  The occupation is now replete with the alpine butterfly!  Yep campers, G & S led us to victory over the truckers hitch.  We even got a mission to St Pat’s dam where the Mollymawks live.  There was about 100 of them and heaps of olive green and dark brown spotted eggs!  Ake ake ake Happy Valley fans!

17-19 November 2007

A group came in (including my nearest and dearest Megan) for a camp working bee over the Canterbury Show weekend. We pulled down the yurt, built up a base with rocks and faced the door east to catch the sun and miss the rain. Had to do a bit of head scratching to figure out the best was to put it back up. Note to the Council: it is a temporary structure and we do not need resource consent so go away and do some worthwhile work. I slapped up a new table since the old one was on its - ahhh - last legs . . . Did not a bad job given the situation but it is not as “rustic” as the old one. We left Greg at camp and headed out under cloudless skies.

Alan Liefting

14 November 2007

Went for a walk over to the Blackburn Pakahi to the north of Happy Valley. It would be a nice area if it was not for rutted 4WD tracks all over the show, stuff from old mining operations, litter, burnt out car seats and all sorts of rubbish showing that some people just DO NOT CARE about things.

13 November 2007

Rain day. Been good weather until now.

8 November 2007

Pete, Francie and Greg headed off leaving me alone with the wekas. I have never seen the little buggers as cheeky as they are here in Happy Valley. I will never forget the time when a weka dragged off a three day old tramping sock while we were bivvying in the bush over in Kahurangi National Park. What was it thinking? Why did it want a toxic, sweaty sock? Anyway, the wekas here at the camp are always on the prowl. If you are not careful they steal your lunch out of your hand. They seem to like tea leaves as well. Decided to stay in the valley another week - have to work on my relationship with the wekas.

7 November 2007

Another few visitors. Francie and Pete walked in separately during the afternoon. Greg took Francie and I on a neat walk to a plateau to the south of Webb Stream. We were up there in the late afternoon and early evening and the combination of the landscape with the sun low in the sky made it quite a magic place. Problem was that looking north we can see what is remaining of Mt Fredrick being hauled away as part of the Stockton mine operation. There was a lot of dead trees, and these are BIG trees, that were dead in one of the guts heading down into Webb Stream off the mine site. Looks like they are hit with acid mine drainage or siltation. Got back to the camp late to find that Pete had arrived and boiled up the thermette.

5 November 2007

Greg came in during the afternoon. Just as well that I was wearing clothes at the time.

3 November 2007

Did stuff like oiled the tools, fixed handles on things that needed handles fixed and spent ages designing a candle holder made from a tin can.

1 November 2007

I headed into Happy Valley for a week at the camp. Headed out onto the track with a pack load of food and a stack of books. Not feeling too fit - might be the heavy pack or too much time spent sitting on my arse. I sweated my way up the sandstone bits marveling at how the sandstone underfoot is the grippiest rock I have ever tramped on. The extensive sandstone pavement is a weathered, lichen encrusted grey. It is yet another unique corner of New Zealand. The track had been nicely rerouted to avoid all the muddy bits which makes the tramp a little easier and so I made it to the camp in good time. Dylan, who had been occupying the camp, left things in good order and left a note saying that his stay was pretty neat. That night I heard the weka, ruru and kiwi calling which is just a little bit nicer than the sounds of boy-racers and sirens in the city.