The hills that bound the Waimea plains to the northwest hold many stories of true human grit. They also hold many cute birds.

Recently I have been living the ‘good life’, 6 days a week, 8 hours a day on the factory floor to save some cash for uni. So when I was told that there was no work on Monday and that Tuesday was Waitangi day (a public holiday in NZ) I could think of nothing better to do than sleep. However, my parents were planning on going tramping in Kahurangi National Park and asked me if I wanted to come. The allure of an all expenses paid tramp proved too much. Bags were packed on Saturday ready for a three day trip around the backwaters of the Takaka River.

I volunteered for driving duty on Sunday and we were soon thundering in the direction of the Cobb Valley. To get there requires a crossing of the winding road up the infamous Takaka Hill. The first road over this hill (Officially the Pikikiruna range) was a bridle track, which was gazetted in 1844. Its construction allowed for a steady flow of gold miners to flow from Nelson into Golden Bay, specifically Collingwood, which for a period in the 19th century was a booming goldmining town. The track itself was too steep for horses and mail had to be carried by donkey. By 1900 a coach road was built criss-crossing the old bridle path. This coach road eventually evolved into the scenic road that exists today, full of hairpins and lookouts. The road is a vital link for the communities in Golden Bay and has survived the 1929 Murchison Earthquake and numerous massive slips over the years, including some in the 1990’s which cut off the Bay for weeks. Guarding the road on the Takaka side of the hill used to stand ‘The Rat Trap’. Built in 1903, it found its heyday and its nickname in the 1930’s during the construction of the Cobb dam, where workers would often be found by the foreman ‘trapped in the rat trap’ having a pint. When not serving dam workers it acted as a refuge for travelers cut off by the frequent closures of the hill road due to slips and snow. The pub was burnt down in 1994 by one of its owners, a tormented wife who sadly (and ironically) felt trapped by the place.

The fun driving really began once we turned off up the Cobb valley. The turnoff was at the old site of the ‘Rat Trap’. The narrow Cobb road was sealed up until the power station. From there the road was rough gravel, winding around hairpins and across small passages between rocky walls and the river far below. There were a few times that expletives were uttered as the brakes were slammed on to avoid hitting someone coming the other way. Eventually we emerged onto the Cobb ridge, with views down onto the reservoir and the Cobb dam.

The dam was mooted in the 1930’s by an Australian, looking to capitalize on the trifecta of local cement, asbestos deposits in the area and the potential for power generation in the Cobb valley. Although water volumes in the valley weren’t large, the river dropped almost 600m down to join the Takaka River, which equals a lot of potential energy. The scheme was plagued by problems from the start. It turned out that what appeared to be rocky outcrops on the valley floor were instead huge boulders suspended in glacial moraine.TO me this is totally believable. There was a truck sized boulder perched on the side of the road at one point, coming to rest there from further up the hill not too long ago I suspect. The dam was eventually taken over by the government and finished in 1954, reaching a generation capacity of 32MW.

The road built to service the dam provides an access road to a large tract of backcountry in Kahurangi National Park. We stopped at a carpark at the far end of the reservoir. Five minutes further down the road was Trilobite Hut and access to a myriad of tracks and huts up the Cobb valley. We were instead heading up onto the Cobb ridge, past the cosy and historic Myttons Hut which was only 15 minutes up the track. The track up to the ridge gently zig-zags up the hillside and is well maintained. Due to trapping efforts in recent years there has been a resurgence of native bird life in the area. These locals were friendly and very cute.