Jan’s Hut, Orongorongos 2 November 2019 Level 1 Tramp

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.

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”.

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.

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!

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!

Thanks everyone for a great weekend.