Jim’s Hut

Near the end of Mom and my brother’s time here, we took them to Jim’s Hut, a spot in the bush up the river, about half an hour’s drive from us. We took two four wheel drive trucks (this was before diesel prices went through the roof!), and packed a picnic lunch.

We ate lunch on the porch of the hut, overlooking the Ahaura River. What a lovely, peaceful spot!

The boys took their uncle across the river in the cage.

After lunch, we drove back the track to where we could walk to Hamer’s Flat. I had never been down that track, so I enjoyed seeing the trees and ferns–even though it started raining and we got quite wet!

Simon stayed behind the others to keep me in sight, and stopped every time he got to a sheltered spot, to wait for me.

Mom stayed at the vehicles, so I took pictures and brought back samples of a lot of the ferns I found, to show her.

Hamer’s Flat. This was used for cattle grazing until the late 1990s.

The hut was where people slept and ate when they were caring for their cattle. It is in pretty rough shape now. Apparently, the track used to be drivable! It has slipped away a lot by now, and there is no way to drive it at this point.

Heading back up the track from the flat. I didn’t stay in that position in the line for very long! All the younger people move much faster than I do.

This picture is near the head of the track, where it is still in good shape.

After we got home, Mom tried to identify the fern specimens I brought her.

A few weeks ago, our older boys announced they wanted to take us to see the area in which they have been hunting possums occasionally this winter. We got home from church about halfway through the afternoon, and quickly took off up the road to the east out of town. When we got to the track that leads to Jim’s Flat, we turned off the main road. The boys wanted us to see the hut and the cage that goes across the river at Jim’s Flat. However, when we got about halfway there, Simon, who was driving, suddenly pulled off and stopped. He had found a walking track, which they had been looking for for some time. (It doesn’t work very well to find a poorly-marked track in the dark!) We decided to walk along this track and see if we could find a hut someone had told them about. The track turned out to be easy to follow. It looked like it was probably a bush railway line at one point, likely when the area was logged a hundred years ago or more. It is straight and fairly level, and built up a little from the surrounding terrain in most places. There are a few very muddy places, but we discovered that if we walked right in the middle of them, the ground was firmer than at the edges! The biggest problem we had was that a few years ago, a lot of trees had fallen down across the track. It was likely the cyclone we had in February 2018, right after we moved here. Someone had gone through with a chain saw and cleared enough of the track that we could get through. A couple of those spots the trees were so thick that we pretty much went through a tunnel! We never did find the hut. We think we got close to it, but we were in danger of losing daylight and being stuck out in the bush for the night, so turned around. It was a great walk, though! We all thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s wonderful to have older sons who love to take the family on an adventure.

Did you notice the moss and ferns? They are very typical of the bush around here. We get plenty of water!

Here are a couple of photos Gayle took at Jim’s Hut the first time they went there, in early July. This cage on a cable goes across the Ahaura River. The boys usually take it across the river to go hunting possums. Apparently it’s really exciting when the river is in flood! I’m not anxious for a ride on it myself.

Jim's Hut