Wilderness

WHIO find SAFE HARBOUR

YOU WON’T BE ALONE IF YOU’VE never heard of the ‘Apias’. It’s a remote mountain creek that begins as a trickle on the side of Crown Ridge in the northern Ruahine Range, then develops force as it passes through gorges and over waterfalls before finally joining Ikawetea Stream.

Apias is apparently an abbreviation for ‘Any port in a storm’ and the moniker was bestowed by someone who escaped from the tops in foul conditions to the relative shelter of the creek.

My wife Lisa and I have been stoat trapping in the Apias for seven years. The remoteness of the creek and the quality of its water made it a refuge for whio. But, as with other

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