During this impromptu adventure, I navigate a river, leaping from one moss-covered rock to another, ascending a valley, and finding a plane wreck.
Originally, my plans did not involve this spontaneous bush exploration. While visiting family in Wainuiomata, I had intended to meet up with a friend after that, but he was unavailable. With some unexpected free time, I seized the opportunity to photograph Skerretts Creek and the remnants of the old water catchment infrastructure littered throughout the site. Initially, my intent was not to embark on an extensive expedition because it was the afternoon. But with near perfect weather, my curiosity led me further than I had planned.
For decades, I have wanted to see the Kittyhawk plane wreck that hides within the dense bush and river at Skerretts Creek. In fact my first expedition was with a group of kids in the early 1970s. We had been up here a few times and I remember scaling a fallen tree across the creek which was quite high up the valley. In fact, I think we must have walked passed some of the wreckage, because we certainly did go a long way up the creek. However, it is hard to spot because the parts often blend in with the rocks in and around the creek.
Anyway, on the last trek up there as a kid, my friends and I got sidetracked when we saw what looked like a firebreak. In hindsight, it must have been a slip. We crawled up the steep lose pathway and one of the kids dislodged a loose rock and it rolled down the hill toward the rest of the party. It just missed one kid, so we yelled out to another to watch out. Unfortunately, while crawling up the steep grade, he looked up to see what we were yelling about, and the rock nicked his forehead as it bounced over him and cut his forehead. Needless to say, we got the hell out of Dodge after that and assisted our friend to get home. Since then, I sort of lost the desire to venture that way. However, for the last 20 years or so, I have thought about looking for that plane wreck.
So back to this impromptu trek. My goal was simple, capture some photos of the creek and surrounding bush and get a taster for the future expedition to the plane wreck that I had planned. As I found myself gradually ascending the valley, I was a bit zealous and went much further than I planned. Sensing the imminent proximity of the plane wreck looming, I had to first ascend a small waterfall, and manoeuvre over and through challenging rocks (nearly slipping in the creek a couple of times). Then my intuition paid off. There it lay—a V12 Allison Motor from a Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk, nestled amidst serene surroundings and ignoring everything nature has thrown at it so far. The plane crashed further up the valley of course, but over the decades, floods and slips combined with gravity have moved the motor and other parts down to different locations. But here was the engine. Closer to civilisation than it had been since that fateful moment in 1943.
What to do now? I took some photos of course and capped it off with a couple of short videos. This was, without a doubt, the highlight of my day, closely rivalled some 25 minutes earlier when I frolicked through an enchanting gully blanketed with blooming lupins. See the photo to the right if you think I’m joking.
As I retraced my steps back down the valley, my mind was already crafting plans for the future expedition to uncover all the wreckage sites of the plane. Anyway, bush bash 4 to come.
Special thanks to Tony Weir for the location of the kittyhawk engine.
