After 5 reschedules over 3 summers I finally covered the small section of the Southern Crossing I hadn’t competed. It was certainly worth the wait – we couldn’t have asked for better conditions.
We were collected from Waikanae Train station at 3.15pm and dropped at Otaki Forks by Kapiti coast shuttles ($100 for a car or 150 for a van as at Jan 2020).
We arrived at Kime Hut just in time for sunset. It always surprises me how much quicker you travel with a small group (2!). It was cold on Bridge Peak so the down jackets got used day 1.
Sunset from bridge peak
There were only 2 others in hut, they were doing the TA – taking the more exciting route as they put it (I agree).
Kime Hut
Saturday we awoke early for sunrise and watched from field peak. We returned to kime and had a leisurely breakfast. Another stunning day with little wind.
Sunrise from field peak
After a day of perfect 360° views, we arrived at alpha hut early afternoon and chatted to those passing through (including runners training for the southern crossing run) and some familiar faces camping and staying in the hut.
mt hector
We waited for friends to arrive realising we didnt know what time they left Kaitoke or when to expect them (lesson learnt). They arrived grateful for a full water tank, it had been a sweltering day on Marchant.
We had a peaceful night other than an earthquake! There is service in one corner of the balcony so we were able to find info on geonet before returning to civilization.
Down Marchant Ridge always takes far longer than I remember, this day was no different. We took a 2 min detour towards bull mound where the track opens up and you get views of ridges all around you.
View from a short detour towards Bull Mound
Once back at the car the consensus was to stop at Brewtown for a pint.
Note no times listed as we had perfect conditions and a small fit group.
I highly recommend kapiti coast shuttles for transportation on the Western side of Tararuas.
For the second time we successfully booked the entire 32 bunk Powell Hut. The plan was to complete the Jumbo Holdsworth loop, however the weather wasn’t playing ball. We wound up with 3 groups, 3 hardly souls tackling the circuit, 18 East Holdsworth, and 5 Gentle Annie. The remainder had dropped out earlier in the week.
Huge thanks to Cliff, Bang and Vignesh for the blog posts on Gentle Annie, the circuit and East Holdsworth.
So Marty says I’ve booked you a bed in the hut, don’t worry we are doing the easy route and can take our time, and girlfriend coming with us. Thought I was reasonably fit despite covid blocking my gym work in UK and I have put on a few kilos. I did Atiwhakatu walk last August no issues, apart from no lights and a nasty long drop, and Marty said this hut is awesome.
Got woken up at 6 am Saturday morning and rushed out. Picked up Teresa who seemed to believe I had had a leg blown off by a landmine in Vietnam.
Got to Tararuas where Laressa pretended to do a count. 5 of us went on Gentle Annie, wouldn’t want to meet her big sister Hard as Annie.
Got to Rocky Lookout, just, Marty said look at view and I went I need water. He took my pack as well as his and we made it to Mountain House Shelter.
Marty said no way he could do 2 packs up the steps so I manned up, I have never so felt so close to death, my heart beating through my chest, I had to stop every 5 metres, but I would not let it beat me.
We turned a corner and Marty said not far now, but I didn’t believe him, worst was the 3 sets of steps.
Got there and Marty said lets do 1 hour to summit, my reply is unprintable.
Went to bunk to recover, couldn’t / didn’t sleep due to chatter, didn’t want to sleep as I would have woken at silly oclock.
Great meal even though rice gate scandal and extra votes/ meals found.
Walked out in rain , not as bad as forecast. Marty said don’t walk on clay but it seemed easiest. I slipped and turtled, couldn’t even get up!
Over a week later and I still cant walk down stairs.
Photo credit: Maj-Britt
Team Circuit, by Bang
Despite the unpromising weather, five of us (Julian, Alex, Byrus – the Shit Weasel, Mr Grey and me) still decided to do the Mt Holdsworth – Jumbo Circuit counter clockwise. We departed right after the big group gathering.
Laressa’s kick-off speech
The walk from Holdsworth carpark to Atiwhakatu Hut was fairly smooth and easy, and it was good to have a warm up along with some “Adult Jokes”. It took us 1.5 hours to reach Atiwhakatu Hut, where we had a short snack break and I introduced the team to some dried olives. Alex and Julian seemed to like them, but they disagreed with my idea that the olive is a type of fruit. The next 750m of climbing from Atiwhakatu Hut to Jumbo Hut (the Raingauge Spur Track) was a typical Tararua climb, quite steep but lots of fun.
Raingauge Spur Track
Alex and Julian were ahead of me, and I spent 1 hr 50 mins to get to Jumbo Hut. When I arrived they had already managed to get Byrus drunk, somehow.
A very drunk Byrus
The weather was getting worse after lunch, and we had a quick gear up before heading off to Powell Hut. As we walked on the ridge, the wind was getting stronger too, I had to stop and wipe the raindrops off my glasses now and then to see the track.
Julian and Alex tried not to walk too fast all the way to give me some company, how nice they are! After walking for about 1.5 hours we met part of Team East Holdsworth somewhere close to the Mt Holdsworth Summit. The rain stopped for the last part of our walk, and we made it to Powell Hut at about 4pm. The trip from Jumbo to Powell took me 2 hrs 30 mins.
In the mist
Brief summary of East Holdsworth: The large group (18) naturally split in to smaller groups with the lead group arriving at Powell Hut in 5 hours, the last group arriving after 7 hours.
Photo credit: Jude
East Holdsworth – contribution by Vignesh
Nostalgia is how I would describe the rationale for doing this hike. If my memory serves correctly, it was two years ago when Laressa organised the Powell hut round trip last time. It was a long trip going up and down yet it was such a lovely trip. I remember meeting Marty and Peter in that trip.
The previous day, I was packing my bag. I knew that I don’t have to carry too much as our trip lead was offering dinner as part of this trip. Nevertheless, I packed my bag with extra food, gas canister and the rest of it.
Saturday began early for me as I was picked up right in front of my house at around 6.30 am by Alex and Sarah, which was a bit of luxury, Thanks Alex :-). It gets even better as the people mover was comfy like a first class trip with inflight serving of fresh strawberries (thanks Sarah). Sarah and I started chit chatting about our daily lives and the talk veered off to work and somehow ended up talking about doing research, insightful conversations. Throughout the drive Alex was a silent spectator, may be cursing himself for giving me a ride 😦
Our first decent stop was at a café in Featherston where we met some of our fellow hikers Maj-britt, Tiffany and Deborah. After the customary hugs, I went to the lovely bakery and got an almond croissant, which was delicious. Alex got his coffee and brekkie and then we drove off without spending too much time. We reached the Holdsworth car park just before 8.30 am to keep up the word to our esteemed trip leader. As we caught up with the group, our trip lead started dishing out the dinner packs to carry to the hut, which she prepared for the whole group. I need another blog to elaborate on Laressa’s cooking skills.
There are three popular tracks leading to Powell hut and few people interested in taking each of the tracks. Since I have walked two of the tracks before, I decided to take east Holdsworth walk this time. I did not realise our trip lead would also be going with us on this track as I assumed she would take the long Jumbo hut track. This made my walk much easier as a day or two prior to the trip, I was shoulder tapped to lead the east Holdsworth track. Given our trip lead was with us I was not expected to do much, which was quite nice.
Anyway, a small group decided to head straight to the hut through the Gentle Annie track and three of the hard-core trampers decided to do the hard way by taking the Jumbo hut track. But a large (loud) group of us chose to do the east Holdsworth track.
We started at around 9 am from the car park heading towards Atiwhakatu hut. I decided that I should lead from the front at least when the track the flat (heehee). Just before the last swing bridge we met a couple of hikers coming in the opposite direction. One of the hikers resembled an Allblack, but we sort of concluded before they came near us that it wasn’t him. Me being me, I started a conversation with the folks who came across. They said that the east Holdsworth track was closed so they decided to return. Luckily, our own navigator Shayne was with us, who with authority pronounced that it is not a problem and an alternate track is not too far from the sign board. Sure, enough when we reached the east Holdsworth junction, we found the diversion sign to the track.
As we were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, Tiffany suggested that we should go ahead and she could wait there with few others. I happily took on board her suggestion and started walking up the hill. As Shayne was walking just behind me, I thought it was the right time to let Shayne take the lead and generously let him along with Nikolo and Cara to go past. In the next 5 minutes or so they all disappeared and was walking with Carla till I reached the open. Along the way Jude, Tiffany, Talia and Paul overtook us and disappeared into the forest. As we were going up, it was getting windier and still had a nicer feel to the walk. Carla took all the time in the world to fill up her smartphone with lovely pictures including me 🙂 ( I am sure she would have discarded most of the snaps with my face :-(). We decided to take a break and have lunch around 12.30 that was just before reaching the tops. As we were having our lunch, Scott, Linda, Bharat and a couple of newbies caught up with us. Once we finished our lunch, Carla and I started walking up slowly (what do you expect after a lunch), we caught up with Scott & Linda who were taking their lunch. As we reached the tops, we could see a couple sitting next to a big rock. We thought they were taking their break and enjoying the scenery. As we closed in, I realised it was Paul and Talia who decided to return and wait for others as they thought it was too windy to go further.
I was scanning the place and started examining the weather. I could feel the heavy winds and the thick clouds coming towards us. But I still did not find that to be that bad to go up. I said to them that I will go up further and check the condition. As I went up, it was getting windier and visibility was only up to 8 meters or so but not too bad to halt. I could still see Carla a bit far behind me taking snaps. I thought perhaps I could go up a bit and get Carla to come to me. After reaching the next top, I couldn’t see Carla from there. I waited for another 10 minutes for Carla to arrive unfortunately I couldn’t see or hear from her. I decided to wait rather than go up as I knew it wouldn’t be wise to move leaving people behind. In the next 5 minutes, for a split second the clouds cleared, and I could see our group walking like a bee line. It gave me the signal to start walking. The track was getting narrower, but I did not find it to be dangerous to walk. In the next 15 minutes or so I reached the T-junction and the signage to Holdsworth trig and the Powell.
I could feel the strong winds in the open and it picked up strength well and truly. It was pushing me towards the edge of the spear. I skilfully managed to navigate with the double confirmation of the track as well the poles. All along I could hear people talking behind me but couldn’t see a thing. As I reached the next T-junction to the Holdsworth trig and the Powell Hut, I decided it wasn’t the day for photo-op and decided to go straight to the hut. As I was halfway through, I could see someone coming up the opposite direction. As the distance the lessened, I noticed it was Sarah the brave heart going up to the trig. We confirmed our intentions and went the opposite direction. I reached the hut around 3 pm, I could see our group well settled in. As time went by the rest of the group trickled in and the atmosphere changed for good. Most of them were busy sorting out the rooms, having a snack, drying their cloths and sitting next to the heater. I opened my pack and grabbed the soup pack. I felt so good sipping the hot soup after the long walk. Just after 6 pm, the dinner packs were out, and the preparation was well underway to cook the dinner. We all had a hearty meal and a mouthful of dessert. You don’t go hungry when Laressa is around 🙂
Next day, I got up early and sat down having the hot readymade coffee. I bumped into Alex, who hinted at leaving the hut early. I obediently took note of the hint and packed up quickly after my breakfast. We were the first to leave the hut after hesitantly saying good bye to the rest of group. We pushed on briskly and in no time reached the mountain shelter. At the shelter I took a few minutes to pull the water tube that was stuck in the bag. Once I managed to organise my bag, we started walking down the hill. It was a bit drizzly, which didn’t both us much. In the next couple of hours we were back in the carpark. I got changed and we happily drove back to Wellington and reached home just after 12 noon.
I’m always curious about how people rate themselves when signing up to the group. Most people are realistic, but it often sets alarm bells ringing when someone claims to be a grade 4 or 5 without giving any recent examples to back this up.
Now I’m not having a pop at anyone, but it is important to be realistic. As an event host I need these grades to be honest, otherwise I’m either going to end up babysitting for the weekend or worse, get put in a dangerous situation.
The question is: “What is the highest grade trip you are comfortable with?”
It is not, “what do you aspire to be, or used to be when you were still fit?”
List Your Skills
You need the total package, it’s more then just fitness. Bush-craft skills such as navigation and first aid are also required. If you are doing hard trips then you should be concerned with the safety of yourself and others.
I always roll my eyes when I see a profile where someone is listed as a grade 4 or 5 yet they don’t list any skills. It makes it difficult to evaluate if you are realistic about your abilities, therefor you’ll probably be a liability!
Good past trip examples?
The examples are mainly based on the Tararua Ranges as it’s on our door step. If you’ve not spent much time there then be humble and modest. They can be extremely punishing compared to other places you may have walked.
Generally speaking I don’t rate “Great walks” as anything above a “Grade 3” they are all easy to navigate and most have manicured paths.
As for the Tongiriro crossing, just remember that it is only a day walk (light pack etc) and whilst spectacular it’s not the most challenging trip if you have nice conditions.
Personally I have myself down as a 4.5 because I do like to get out of my comfort zone and see how far I can push it. There is always room to improve.
I know a number of event hosts who are reluctant to host trips as they have had to deal with people who have signed up for trips that are beyond their current grade. It’s never much fun when you have to carry someones pack, or have a needlessly long day due to people not reading the description or being realistic.
Thanks for reading and for keeping your profile up-to-date.
I’d like to start with a big shout out to the team (Julian, Laressa, Alex, Yadgar, Katerina, Emma, The Shit Weasel, Mr Grey) for making the challenging but WONDERFUL weekend happen.
We did a loop from Mitre Flats Hut to Dorset Ridge Hut via Mitre Peak and Adkin, Middle King. Here is a chart made according to my timing:
Day
Route
Distance
Estimated Hours
Actual Hours
Friday
The Pines – Mitre Flats Hut
7 km
3-4 hours on Topo
2 hrs 40 mins
Saturday
Mitre Flats Hut – Mitre Peak – Dorset Ridge Hut
12 km
5-7 hours on Topo
10 hrs
Sunday
Dorset Ridge Hut – Adkin – Middle King – A bridge close to Mitre Flats Hut – The Pines
18 km
12 hours by Julian
13 hrs 30 mins
The walk to Mitre Flats Hut was easy, we had a couple of detours as it was dark, but generally, it was smooth.
Saturday was the hardest day for me as my stomach burns all the time due to bad sleep at night. Also, we had many long breaks which slowed us a lot down.
I did better on Sunday, we only had 3 5-10 mins breaks as I could remember. I could do better if I haven’t twisted my ankle.
Glad to be with the best trampers as there are always new adventures and I always have a lot new to learn and experience.
This is not a Great Walk
I always beat the DOC estimated times for NZ Great Walks and some other walks but not this time.
First thing I learn from this trip is: as we go deeper/higher into the forest park, the estimated times will be harder to be defeated, which somehow makes sense because only people with reasonable fitness can make it, but most travellers can do Great Walks.
Wish I could know that earlier and make this trip easier. I mistakenly defined this trip as a trip which could be slightly harder than my recent ones so I didn’t optimize my packing: as usual, I brought a 400ml bottle of sun cream, a container of sake, many snacks and a huge power bank etc.
It surprised me when I noticed that no one expect me brings alcohol for this trip, that barely happens on my other tramps with them.
Drink water wisely
I have a bigger fluid intake than most people and had never considered it as a problem except for a big belly.
On Saturday, my 3L hydration pack ran out quickly and I had to drink from a lake on Dorset Ridge while waiting for water supply from the others. I tried to reduce the drinking frequency, the amount of water taken each time on Sunday, but I ended up running out of water again. I’ll be trying to drink less next time.
Always apply sunscreen
UV rays here are intense, always have sunscreen on!
I only applied sun creams once as I didn’t want to slow the others down and I thought that would be ok and the sunburn will recover after a couple of days as usual. Wrong again as I still have them 10 days after the trip and it hurts.
First time to sleep outside the hut
It’s my first time to sleep on the deck outside instead of on the bunk bed in the hut. It’s breathtaking that the stars were filling my eyes, but I didn’t sleep well on Friday.
Special thanks to Laressa for carrying my pack and not giving up on me all the way, lucky to have a PM covering my ass.
Thanks to Julian for having me on board, you proved again that you could be a nice person and you did come back looking for us.
Thanks to Alex for carrying my stuffs too, btw you surely can cook.
Thanks to Yadgar, Katerina and Emma for the encouragement and good company, sorry for keeping you wait.
Well the group is a tramping group we are also a very relaxed and social group several of us also enjoy a good weekend camping. After a busy period including exams and also being unable to do any tramping due to injury I thought a quiet weekend camping would be a great way to recover.
Plans
The original plan was to camp at The Pinnacles but something about my events means the weather goes against us. The forecast for strong to gale force winds and rains meant great weather for ducks but not the best camping weather in an exposed area and no cooking shelters.
Great weather for the ducks at Kaitoke Regional Campground
A decision was made to camp at the Kaitoke Regional Campground instead. Most people went in on Friday evening after work with some loose plans of doing a couple of days walks over the weekend.
Hikes
With the weather being ok on the Saturday morning it was decided over a very late and leisurely breakfast it was decided that we would do the Norbett Creek Loop and also explore Rivendell, a location in the Lord of the Rings.
Norbett Creek Loop
The Loop starts at the campground and follows Norbett Creek, takes in the Pakuratahi River Walk and includes the Kaitoke Strainer House which was part of the original water treatment plant for Wellington.
Checking out the view at Kaitoke Gorge Photo Credit: Ben
Part of the original water system
Smokey enjoying the view during a short rest
Kaitoke Gorge
Rivendell
Rivendell is the home of the Elves in The Lord of the Rings and was a filming location. There is a short loop walk with information panels about Rivendell as well as the filming on location. Rivendell is the location from which Frodo and the Fellowship left from on their quest to destroy the ring.
Panel showing the height of different characters in the Lord of the Rings
Learning about Rivendell
The Fellowship Credit: Ben
Leavingfor Mount Doom
Ridge Track
Is a track is a longer track that runs from the campground Te Marua. Over lunch there was some discussion on the afternoon plans with the option of a group doing the ridge track. The rain had set in again so it was decided to wait. Mid afternoon there was a break in the weather and a small group decided that they wanted to do the track. It was decided that they would be dropped off at Te Marua and they would walk back to the campground.
View of the Hutt Valley from Ridge Track Credit: Ben
The group that did the Ridge Track were pleased they did it and made it back to the campsite just before the weather broke again.
Social
It was a very relaxed weekend with a range of club members on the event. Friday nights dinner was the responsibility of individuals but a small group organised to do a shared meal of a beef stir-fry. As usual meals were a great bonding time involving much discussion of a range of topics, lots of banter and laughter.
In the evenings the drinks and snacks came out as did Cards Against Humanity which is often popular and often reveals the true nature of a person. What made it more interesting is several members of the group had never played Cards Against Humanity but very quickly found their stride.
Drinks and Cards Against Humanity Credit: Francis
We broke camp mid Sunday morning before the weather turned on us again.
Everyone had a great weekend and are looking forward to the original planned camp at The Pinnacles being held at a later date.
Snowy hut is one of those unofficial huts in the Tararuas, although it is actually marked on the map if you know where to look. I decided to post a last-minute trip to make the most of the good weather on Saturday.
This will be a tad wordy as I was intent on learning as much as possible rather than taking photos, but I still got a couple of good shot of The Shit Weasel doing his usual happy epic stuff.
I love how carried away he gets, but I’ll point out that you don’t need to rush out and purchase any gear. I’d even suggest not spending your gold on any gear until after you have done the course. This way you’ll have a better understanding about what equipment you actually need, along with what is suitable for the trips you intend to do.
The NZ Apline Club will hire out all the gear you need at exceptionally good rates if you become a member. Typically $5.00 per item per week, or everything for $25.00.
Not all Level One courses are equal
The course is so much more then just learning to kick steps, walk with crampons and basic use of an ice axe.
To add to Marty’s post, we also spent time discussing weather and avalanche hazards/conditions.
Monitoring the local conditions a week before any mountain trip has become second nature, the more you time spend doing this the more aware you become of what risks are and how to manage them.
Whilst it’s really important to know how to use a transceiver and practice doing avalanche search rescues, it’s something which you never really want to have to face in a real life situation. It’s really important that the group makes good decisions, has good plans, along with knowing when to turn back or postpone a trip.
The NZ Alpine Club Level one is simply top notch. They had one instructor for every two pupils, there is a huge amount of knowledge to be learnt and my little pea brain simply tried to take in as much of that as it could.
Finally… Level Two
Level two builds upon what you learnt you level one and adds some rope and climbing skills.
Theory Night
We meet in Bivouac Outdoor where we get to meet each other, do introductions, run through what we need for the weekend and practice tying knots.
One of the group puts his hand up and asks “What is an Anchor?”
I try not to laugh, even though it’s not really funny! Why would anyone sign up to a Snowcraft course without doing some basic homework? Surely you’d have done some reading and watched some videos to know what you were signing up for?
OK, I probably take things to an extreme by tying some rope to my kitchen cupboard door to practiced tying knots with my thick gloves on. Actually that’s not even half of it, I got some knots mastered using only one hand and having my eyes shut which really isn’t needed.
I don’t expect anyone to be that committed or obsessed, but not knowing what an anchor is plain and simple muppetry!
A dangerous approach
We had an interesting trip up to Mount Ruapehu as we had a car crash just before we got to Levin. Thankfully no one got hurt, but it’s well worth pointing out that the journey to the mountains (or returning) is often far more dangerous then being up there.
I’ll spare the most of details, but we managed to get another car sorted so not all was lost. We rolled in just after midnight so only missed the Friday night briefing.
My little rant…
Saturday morning and I find myself in the same group as Anchor Man!
My heart sank, he’s one of two members in my group who have done the WTMC (Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club) Snowcraft Level one course.
It turns out that they have not covered half of the basics which the rest of us learnt on the Alpine Club level one course. They have no avalanche awareness let alone used a transceiver before.
I have to introduce them to avalanche.net.nz/ and explain heaps of the level one stuff that they really should already know. It’s a very slow morning and I’ll make no secret about how frustrated I was. My goal was to gain as much as I could out of the weekend, yet being with these clowns was like driving a car with the handbrake on…
I’m slowly dying inside as all the other groups head outside to practice new skills whilst I’m stuck inside sucking eggs.
I’m aware that it’s not the fault of our instructors who I have nothing but praise for.
I’ve since found out that the Alpine club will not be accepting anyone from the WTMC level one course next year. Problem solved 🙂
Anchors
I quickly became aware how versatile an ice axe is. Level one only teaches you to use it to walk safely on the snow. What you learn in level two is that you can use your axe to cut groves into the snow to create an anchor. There are many types of anchors you can make depending on what the snow pack is like and what equipment you have.
Bollard Anchor (photo stolen from Tilmann)
I’m not going to explain how it all works as you really need to do the course to understand and put it into practice.
Climbing
We also got to play with some technical ice axes. Climbing with two axes allows you to tackle much steeper terrain and my inner monkey loved it.
Next I intend to improve my climbing skills. Maybe a post for the future…
If any of you are keen on doing Alpine trips next year then I recommend joining the Alpine Club. They are a super friendly bunch of folk an are very smart about how they run trips.
Feel welcome to pick my brains if you have any questions.
So after seeing photos of my WTG Meetup buddies climbing Mt Ruapehu in 2018 I wished I was there doing it. I went on ebay over summer & purchased alpine gear (always looking for a bargain). I had no idea about any of the equipment, I just knew i had to try it! Up till now alpine, snow and those scary sharp steel ace axe & crampon gears seemed way too next level adventure, but it looked just so incredibly amazing, I had to!
So the 2019 winter season approached, NZAC was running the introductory level 1 snowcraft course to members, so I joined the club, got on the course and the rest is history! The introductory & theory night in town prior was informative with Alex from NZAC going through what was to be expected and checking our equipment, I learnt how to put my scary sharp toothed crampons on!
We had great weather for the weekend, a large group of learners, amazing teachers and we were put into small groups night one at the Ruapehu lodge. Lodge shared kitchen communal dinner and duties were assigned Friday night when we arrived.
Kitchen Duties
All my apprehension of the alpine “sharps” were immediately alleviated on the Saturday morning when it was time to don them.
The day was spent gently climbing up the icy valley with practical tuition & learnings introducing us to the many techniques and use of equipment for alpinism including avalanche search & rescue using person location transceivers. snow probes & shovels.
Failed Snow Cave Results In Theoretical Death!
My attempt at “make a snow cave shelter” was a fail, I had no idea what a snow cave actually was until now, learning, learning, learning!
It’s addictive, the best feeling being out on the tops in the snow, can’t wait to do level 2 snow craft with NZAC next season, I love it!
But wait there is more! NZAC put on a follow up newbie alpine trip for us all to Angelus hut in Nelson Lakes mountains shortly after for us to really experience alpinism and try out our newly learnt skills. More about that epic adventure can be found here…
Jan’s Hut is a ‘tramping for softies’ hut in the Orongorongos. You can book ahead and have it all to yourself. It sleeps 9, has gas laid on and a fully equipped kitchen. Not to mention an indoor flushing loo and a shower!
I’m always keen to try a hut I haven’t been too before, especially when it’s a short walk in from the Catchpool car park and with no pressure to do anything but loaf around. And the weather forecast for the weekend was looking good.
By 9.00 a.m. we’d met up in the carpark, doled out the shared meal prepped by our trip leader Laressa into various packs, and were on our way on a sunny, windless morning. The hut is on the ‘other’ side of the river from the Orongorongo track, but with little rain recently it was barely a trickle and we reached the hut in about an hour and 20 minutes.
The day was just too good to spend inside, so I allowed myself to be persuaded to have a go at Mt Matthews. I’ve had a lot of knee problems this year, and though I’ve tried to keep up the walking and tramping my fitness has definitely suffered.
Off we go
After about 90 minutes we reached the point where the
Matthews Stream joins the Orongorongo River, showing itself with a wide fan of
gravel, and a helpful large orange triangle. Pretty soon we came to the sign letting
us know how far to go to South Saddle, and to the top of Mt Matthews. “Fair
enough” I thought. “I’ll just go to South Saddle and then turn back”.
It’s a sign…
Onwards and upwards we went. A bit of dithering on my part, about whether to go over the huge fallen tree or down and around it, meant I was suddenly out of sight of the rest of the group. But plod on I must. Before I knew it, I was out the South Saddle, and it had only taken around 45 minutes. “Go up just a little further” urged my companions. “The views are amazing, and then you can decide what you want to do”.
Sure enough, after another 10 minutes or so we reached a grassy spot at around 640 metres with great views across to Wellington and the snowy peak of Mount Tapuae-o-Uenuku in the Kaikouras, as well as down the Mukamuka stream to the south coast.
Looking towards the mouth of Mukamuka stream
Well from there, it’s ‘only’ another 340 metres to the top,
so what could I do?
The views from the top were amazing, hardly any wind and we had plenty of time to have a well-deserved lunch break and snap out a few selfies and scenery shots. Laressa tells me it was her sixth time to the top and best weather ever!
A bunch of happy trampers – L to R – Trevor, Jude, Maj-Britt, Sue, Laressa and Vignesh at the top of Mt Matthews – Ocean Beach, South Wairarapa in the background
Going back down was as hellish as I thought it would be, but
assisted by knee supports, hiking poles, nurofen and good mates, anything is
possible. Jude kindly stayed with me all the way back and we arrived at the hut
at 6.45 pm ready for a bit of a sit down and a huge helping of Laressa’s curry.
And the cheese cakes were epic!
The Broken Axe Pinnacles are a jagged ridge line that run between the South King (1531) and McGregor (1540) in the Tararuas. The plan was to drive in from Wellington, cross them in one day, then return home…
Wellington Tramping Group 