Intro & Intell
Loop Walk From Poads Road
Date: 12th – 14th March
With a great weather forecast the weekend it was too good not to be out in the hills.
The trip was posted on Meetup and there were no sign ups! To be fair I did not expect any given the description. But it was really sad that no one signed up for the Dorest Ridge or Waiopehu trips.
WTG has over 3150 members but most seem to be virtual trampers who only sign up for urban day walks 🙄
Visited: Waiopehu Hut, Oriwa Water Tank, Mid Otaki Hut, Dracophyllum Hut, Te Matawai Hut, South Ohau Hut, Rabbits Flat Biv.
Day One
I headed up to Poads Road near Levin after work on Friday night, filled in the intentions book at the track start and started walking at 16:44.
It’s a fairly uneventful walk and I arrive at Waiopehu Hut at 19:29
Day 2
Most of the route in new territory for me and I’m worried about the leatherwood. I depart the hut at 8:10 and leave the trail at Waiopehu summit to be confronted by a wall of the bloody stuff. After some back tracking and faffing about I find that I can get past the worst of it by skirting about to the left.
It soon clears into a nice forest ridge line which is easy to follow and marked with pink ribbons
10:03 and I’m at the Oriwa ridge water tank. I knew about this in advance, it’s a great spot to hydrate and if you’re into hut bagging I’d say it has more kudos then some of the unofficial hunter bivs. Many of which are little more then bush litter (more about that later).
Oriwa Watertank
After the watertank there’s a boggy section and more leatherwood to get past. I found that heading around to the left was the easiest passage.
From Oriwa I leave the beaten track and head off down the ridge for the 680 meter drop down to the Otaki river. Whilst there is a bit of a trail to start with it is not marked and soon becomes hard to keep to the ridge line. I find myself off course and sidling over tree fall, so go back to basics and get the compass out which serves me well.
About 200 vertical meters above the river there are blue markers left from project Kaka. It becomes much easier to follow from this point.
I’m soon in the river and spot a couple of hinds ahead of me.
Deer
Mid Otaki Hut
It’s a super sweet spot and I really wanted to stay longer. It’d make a great spot to camp as group overnight trip.
Mid Otaki Hut Veiw
As it was I spent 35 minutes for lunch and got up to the usual shenanigans with Byrus.
After lunch it was time to head back up the river. It was stinking hot and I was not really in a rush so found a nice swimming hole to cool down in.
It’s easy travel up the river and from what I understand it’s a good (easier) option to follow it all the way up and come out at Te Matawai Hut. But my mission was to get to Dracophyllum Hut (Biv) whilst the TA trail remains reasonably quiet thanks to Covid 19 🙂
There are blue ribbons for the first 100 meters up the ridge which is encouraging as It shows its been travelled. To be fair they, are not needed to navigate as the ridge is a razor blade with big drops down on both sides. It soon calms down and its a nice climb (OK a slog) all the way up to Dracophyllum.
I arrive at 16:16 and have a quick break. It’s too early to call it a day and I don’t want any TA walkers turning up to make me yawn. I have a quick flick through the hut book and it’s full of ‘TA SOBO’
I add my entry and write ‘Not TA’.
It’s great to be back on the tops.
Mount Crawford Looking Majestic
I can’t get enough of it I can see Mount Crawford and Maungahuka to the south, Carkeek, Thompson and Lancaster to my east and even get Ruaphehu and Taranaki to the North.
The Park river below begs to be explored, but that’ll have to wait for a future trip. I’m toying with heading up to Arete Biv for the night, but its in the clouds again and that’s a deal breaker.
I arrive at the Pukematawai Junction and 18:34. There is still heaps of daylight left to get down to Te Matawai so I simply sit there and marvel at at the views.
I finally head down to the hut for the night an arrive just as the sun sets.
I’ve not see a sole all day so it’s good to have some company. There are a group of guys who are heading up to Thompson the next day. One of which is the great grandson of Mr Thompson himself. We have a good yarn about the history of the Tararua Ranges before calling it a night.
Six weeks after my last visit it’s good to see that the dripping tap has finally been fixed.
Day 3:
I depart at 7:40 and am at South Ohau Hut 50 minutes later. I get chatting to guy called Rob who is hunting there for the weekend, he has his family along for the trip.
He’s a good chap who volunteers for LandSAR. It turns out that he built the Mid Otaki Hut. It was originally a garden shed which is why it’s so different from the usual offerings. I also get some good intel about other routes up from the Otaki river.
He checks that I’ve filled my intentions into the hut book which is always good to see.
After 30 mins of nattering it’s time to get my feet wet again. It’s good progress until I decide to stop for another swim.
Byrus gets get up to his old tricks again whilst I take a dip!
I then decide to tick Rabbits Flat biv off the list.
It’s little more then rubbish left by hunters. It really needs to be cleaned up and removed!
I’m back at the car for 12:15 and head to the Ice Breaker outlet in Otaki to replace the undies that Byrus has chewed up. 60% off today so I’m happy. It’s an easy day and I’m home for lunch.
Route and Splits
Day 1
Poads Road 16:44
Waiopehu Hut 19:29
Total Time: 2 hours 45 mins
Day 2
Waiopehu Hut 08:10
Oriwa Water Tank 10:03
Oriwa 10:25 (Took time to get past the leatherwood!)
Mid Otaki Hut 12:39 to 13:16 for Lunch
Dracophyllum Hut 16:16
Pukematawai Junction 18:34 (Sit and enjoy views for 20 mins)
Te Matawai Hut 19:40
Total Time: 11 hours 30 mins
Day 3
Te Matawai Hut 07:40
South Ohau Hut 08:30 (Chat to hunter for 30 mins)
Poads Road 12:15
Total Time: 4 hours 35 mins
Wellington Tramping Group 