New Zealand Walk: Round the rugged rocks - Roaring Meg Pack Track
The Roaring Meg Stream rises on the western flank of Mount Pisa (1961m) in the central reaches of the Pisa Conservation Area, Otago, and flows south-westwards into the Kawarau River.
No one really knows how it got its name. In Maori it’s known as Te Wai A Korokio (“the stream of Korokio”), a person who may also be linked with the plant korokio (NZ wire-netting bush) that grows in this area. To European settlers it was first known as the Kirtle Burn.
Several legends suggest how it later became known as the Roaring Meg. One says that it was named after Maggie Brennan, a turbulent and voluble red-haired barmaid from the nearby Kirtleburn Hotel.
More likely it was named after the nature of the creek itself, which cascades steeply and noisily into the river. Until the bridge was built, the Roaring Meg was always a difficult ford for pioneer goldminers. Roaring Meg is certainly an apt description when it’s in flood, borne out by another version of the name’s origins.
A party of diggers were accompanying two ladies from a dancing saloon. At the first stream they came to, the gentlemen carried the ladies across, one of whom made so much fuss and noise that they named the stream after her: Roaring Meg.
In contrast her female companion was perfectly calm and quiet, so the diggers named the next stream they came to Gentle Annie.
The poled Roaring Meg Pack Track begins at the recreation reserve on SH6, site of the original hotel, across the road from an automatic powerhouse, built in 1936 to supply electricity to the giant gold dredge, the Austral-Malay, which worked the Lowburn Flats until the 1960s.
The source here is a 10-metrehigh dam located 3.6 kilometres
upstream. It feeds two generating stations with a combined output of 4000 kw.
This route was first used by Maori, who crossed the Kawarau River on a natural stone bridge over a slot gorge, located just upstream from where the power station now stands.
From the natural bridge, they followed along the Carrick Range, up the Nevis Valley and into Southland. The natural bridge was used by the first European settlers, but has since collapsed.
Climb through the scrub to the upper power station access road, and you will immediately witness a fight for recovery.
In this vicinity, an excellent example of community cooperation for conservation finds expression in a scheme to eradicate Pinus
contorta, weed plants that would smother the surrounding hills if left uncontrolled. Spraying, logging and hand-cutting of saplings are slowly winning the war.
Proceed uphill to the storage dam, where a large sign indicates the start of the pack track through Skeleton Stream.
From this ford (tricky at high flow) the trail contours on slopes high above the Roaring Meg gorge and is dotted with fascinating rock formations resembling the face of an old man, piles of pancakes, twin towers and a spaceship on its launch pad.
Spectacular spates of spiky Spaniards rove the rambling rocky ridges, a hazard for the unwary. After a couple of hours, the track descends to cross the Meg near the entry of Plank Stream.
Follow Plank Stream for 200 metres and you will find yourself in a lair fit for Smaug.
Slab-like cliffs overhang the grassy valley from both sides, falcons swoop from cracks in the crags, and the pristine waters of the creek gurgle placidly by. It is an idyllic spot to camp or break for lunch.
The trail grades out north onto an undulating tussock bench, and keeps its distance from Meg for some 2.5 kilometres until relenting to meet her at a sharp horseshoe bend. On the other side at this curve is a private miner’s hut, once fitted with a coal range but now a shadow of its former self.
From this point a 4WD track ascends to meet the Lowburn - Cardrona walk at Tuohy’s Saddle (1140m). Gold workings in Tuohy’s Gully are worth exploring before descending around a collection of farm buildings to the carpark on the Waiorau snowpark access road.
The nearby Cardrona Hotel offers historical ambience and liquid refreshment for weary
wanderers.
Otago’s spectacular shrub and tussock-covered mountains are one of New Zealand’s iconic landscapes. They host a unique range of herbs and grasses that in turn provide habitat for many insects, lizards and birds, including the critically-endangered Grand Skink (mokomoko) found only here. The preservation of this magnificent high country for the benefit of future generations is an ambition worthy of huge support.
If you have a hankering to undertake this walk, Footsteps Aotearoa NZ would be pleased to make it possible. Contact them: footstepsanz@gmail.com, 021 172 3244, 07 544 9509.