Intro & Intell

Logistics (Credit to Laressa)

Shuttle from Waikanae Railway Station to Poads Road:

Kapiti Coast Shuttles: Tel: 04 2983335 www.kapiticoastshuttles.co.nz

Collection from the Pines to Railway Station:

Masterston Shuttles: Tel: 06 377 1923  www.mastertonshuttles.com

Email: mastertonshuttles@gmail.com

Our Driver Sky was super pleasant to deal with and even took us on a detour to get an ice cream 🙂

The Plan

4 days to do the Northern Crossing as listed on Meetup by Byrus, aka “The Shit Weasel”

Dates: 5th – 8th February 2021

In attendance: Kat, Laressa, Marty and Julian.

In the hope of not having another dull blog post 🥱 😴 we have decided to mix things up and write one day each.

Still, there is a fair bit of content so I recommend grabbing a cup of tea, coffee, beer or wine or some other poison before you continue…

Day 1 by Kat

Poads Road to Te Matawai

My trip started with the 7:58 train from Wellington to Waikanae along with Marty. Laressa and Julian hopped on at other stations along the way and by 9:20 we were in the shuttle chatting to our driver Colin. We arrived at the Poads Road entrance to the Tararua forest park and started walking across the farmland about 10:15.

The first part of the walk is nicely undulating through the trees alongside the river. After about an hour we got to the turn off to Waiopehu hut and a little bit further down the track we crossed the swing bridge. The options from here to Te Matawai hut are Gable End ridge, which at the worst of times has mud up to your knees, and going up the river to South Ohau hut.

Since some of us had never been up the river and the river levels were very low we opted to go via South Ohau. It’s a very pleasant walk up in good weather.

We crossed the river a number of times with no trouble and only one of us (cough me) took an unintentional swim. Everyone else opted for the intentional swim slightly further up the river in a nice swimming hole where we also had some lunch.

South Ohau hut is on a great spot sitting above the river. It’s impossible to miss. We stopped for a quick break so I could get the rocks out of my shoes and continued up Yeates track just at the back of the hut. The first section is a classic, steep tararuas slog up a few hundred meters but the track is in good condition and easy to follow so we were up on the ridge in no time. From where it meets the track to Te Matawai it’s about half an hour to the hut.

We got to Te Matawai just after 5pm and tossed up the idea of squeezing four people into Arere biv but decided to stay. The hut is not in the best condition and I hope that it’s on DOCs maintenance list.

Between them, Julian and Marty thought the optimum time for boiling water was twenty minutes before the pasta went in but other than that the pasta and anchovies dinner was a great success. The day ended with a brief mouse chase after one was found in the bunk room but it slipped past the waiting Julian and out through the back of the fire place.

Day 2 by Marty

Te Matawai Hut to Carkeek Hut

After the night chasing the mice in Te Matawai hut we rose to gorgeous sunshine and to find our food bags fortunately not ravaged by the resident rodents.

With cooking gas supply and hut faulty tap control concerns between the group, we negotiated cooker interference by others and how to stop the broken tap from continuously running without too much conflict and the ladies were given numbers by Julian.

We departed the hut at 8.30am after a thorough clean that clearly had not been undertaken by many of the previous recent residents.

After a gentle stroll in the peaks morning shade, from the hut to Pukematawai peak, we took a left turn off the Te Araroa Trail to summit Arete peak @ 1505m (10.55am), I think this is my first ever 1500 peak summit in the Tararuas, yay!

We wandered down to Arete 2-person hut/biv, mindful to not veer the seemingly easy way right (best to keep left and follow the marker poles) just 

saying…….

After an extended morning tea, we began our decent to get on to Carkeek ridge. Julian stopped us at the 1^st next peak and reiterated the due diligence navigation expectations that we all must be aware of in the environment we were in. It woke me up, as my first time here, I realised I was reliant/lazy and not fully aware of my responsibilities for myself, thank you Julian.

So, we did some navigation skills, which made me think, more independent and respect for where we were.

So just another 1 hour up the road we stopped for lunch at the intersection to either go South-East to Tarn ridge, or right onto Carkeek Ridge Hut via Lancaster, Thompson & Carkeek peaks to Carkeek hut for the night (Laressas Northern Crossing little extra). There was a little rock climbing in sections over these peaks, I had the joy of Julian behind and above me scrambling over the loose rocks as I sidled around…..

At 1.30pm we set off up and down over the afore mentioned peaks in knee/waist high tussock/Speargrass/Leatherwood down Carkeek ridge started to take its toll on me towards day end.

Come 4.30pm we met 2 English trail runners at Carkeek hut who had many a running tale to tell with which we all keenly listened with interest, in particular their lightweightedness!

Although to my great delight, they still managed to carry fairylights to light up the hut, it’s a thing! Now we all know it’s not just me!

After a wonderful shared experimental homemade dehydrated curry meal created by Kat we enjoyed a gorgeous goblin forest sunset and many a photo with mist over Mt Crawford to the South-West, Kapiti Island and South Island ranges in the distance to dream of, scrambled eggs for breakfast, and the rest day ahead.

Day 3 by Laressa

Our group of 4 started the morning with our only shared brekky of the trip, scrambled eggs (Backcountry so not as exciting as it sounds!) and had a leisurely morning before setting off at 830am.

Our group split in two, Julian and Kat went off track adventuring, while Marty and I returned to the Northern Crossing route, to cross the Waiohine Pinnacles and Tarn Ridge, to reunite with the others at Tarn Ridge Hut.

As this was our “rest day” (only 6hrs of tramping) Marty and I kept a leisurely pace stopping to identify peaks, admire the view, snap photos, and take several much needed water breaks. It was possibly the hottest day I’ve experienced in the Tararuas, a bit of wind would have been nice!

After 3.5 hours up Carkeek Ridge (returning the way we came the day before) we stopped for lunch before tackling the pinnacles. Anyone who has tramped with me before knows heights and I don’t mix, so to say I was scared was an understatement. Feeling less pressure with only one (patient!) companion and a calm day (i.e. no needing to keep moving to stay warm!!) I challenged myself not to commence a crawl…. and am delighted to say I stayed upright(ish) and didn’t resort to all 4s!

The feeling was phenomenal, I felt i could tackle anything! I may have celebrated slightly too early – just like a false summit there is a false ‘end’, however the hardest part was done and the rest was easy in comparison. Yes that is the track, and yes you really do need to cross it! Unfortunately the loose rocks move under your feet at every step, eeek! Don’t look down!

I think I nearly skipped to the hut, possibly to Martys disgust, as it turned out this day was the toughest for him. We arrived at Tarn Ridge Hut at 330pm, just after running out of water (3L each!). We claimed mattresses for our companions and went to the ridge armed with snacks to await their arrival.

Tarn Ridge Hut (take a bedroll, all but 5 mattresses are mouldy!) We had agreed if Kat and Julian didn’t arrive by 7pm we’d go looking, however at about 545pm we caught sight of them along Dorset Ridge, and they joined us with 30min to spare.

After refuelling on snacks and dinner of miso soup (with extras) we returned to the ridge to watch the sunset – almost as beautiful as the night before.

Day 3 by Julian

Carkeek Hut To Tarn Ridge Hut

Kat was keen to visit Dorset Ridge Hut after missing out last year. I wanted to escape Marty’s “Dad jokes” for a day so had the diplomacy to say I was curious about about the gorge south of Park Forks and finding where the trail to McGregor Biv begins.

Marty and Laressa would go via the tops and meet back up with us at Tarn Ridge Hut at the end of the day.

Given the nature of our route it was nice to have some solid company for an unknown off track mission.

We left Carkeek hut at 8:30 and headed down to Park Forks via a gorgeous goblin forest.

The track is reasonably easy to follow down the ridge and we took it in turns to lead the way. One stuff up each was pretty good going as it’s super easy to wander down a deer trail and lose the true ridge.

Kat spent much of the day educating me about deer shit. I now know how to tell how fresh it is, along with the difference between stag and hind stool samples. Of course, Byrus already knows about that.

We arrived at Park Forks at 10:05

From Park forks there is the option to head directly up to Dorset Ridge, or up to Nichols Hut which I have done in the past. The “lost” track to Nichols is not a route I’d recommend unless you like getting roughed up!

We headed down the Gorge to Dorset Creek and Byrus took his annual bath.

The Gorge took a good hour to travel and even with the water being low the undies were soaked by the time we’d got to Dorset Creek. We had a break and I went for a swim in some very cold but refreshing water.

The start of the Track to McGregor was easy to spot and I dare say I’ll come down that way sometime in the future.

It was slow going up the river. By the time we had got through the Dorset Creek gorge we looking at the clock knowing we were not going as fast as expected. We’d promised the others that we’d be at Tarn Ridge by 7pm. Not wanting them to worry we knew we had to get a move on!

We considered leaving the river and smashing our way up the ridge to intercept the old track from Park Forks, but this too was unknown territory and could prove problematic! We decided to stay in the creek and tough it out.

After 4.5 hours in the water climbing and jumping over boulders, rocks, slips and trees we finally left the river and found the track up to Dorset Ridge Hut.

It’s a pretty savage climb up, but the path is still in use and there are ribbons to help you keep on the ridge. It could be a very interesting one to go down.

I nearly dragged a group down that way on a previous trip and was feeling grateful that we went out on the tops on that occasion! I suggest avoiding it if you don’t trust your navigation skills.

16:30 and we finally pop out of the scub to find Dorset Ridge hut.

It was sweet having enough time to take a break and enjoy Dorset Ridge Hut. It’s not one that many people visit and has one of the freshest toilets I know of in the Tararua Ranges.

The track on the tops along Dorset Ridge is not well groomed. I was getting over the cutty grass which was constantly reminding my my knees were exposed.

About 1 hour from Tarn ridge we spotted Laressa and Marty waving from the distance. It was a stunning day with little wind so we made the usual animal noises which were heard and returned.

We arrived at 18:35 and were greeted with high fives and chocolate 🙂

Day 4

Tarn Ridge to The Pines (By Byrus)

It was all a hazy dream… I don’t remember much as I slept in Julian’s backpack. Why not? I’ve been over that section 3 times now and have already written a blog post about it which you can find here…

Still, I’m sure this is more entertaining than a badly worded yawn fest…

Here are a couple of photos:

You can read more about the adventures of The Shit Weasel here…