The Ruahines Do It Better

Sunrise Hut,
20-22 March 2009
Punters: Amelia (Leader), Mark, Chris, Jodi, Jordan, Brad, Jo, Karl, Megan, Lisa, Chad, Ian
Friday arrived with a promise of good weather for most of the weekend – only a vague possibility of rain on Sunday afternoon darkening the horizon. Friday lied as it turned out, but we can forgive that as this was only a small blip on the radar of an otherwise fantastic trip.

Missioning our way north, with the group split between two vans to make maximum use of available space, we arrived in Levin for dinner at 7pm. Traffic had been astoundingly good to us! Most of us headed for fish’n’chips from the Chinese place across from KFC, and then proceeded to sit on the picnic tables on KFC’s front lawn to eat. Not bad food at a darn good price with substantial portions seemed to be the general consensus. Through the back roads to avoid Palmerston North, we whizzed past the club van in Woodville, only to be overtaken again when we had stopped for ice-creams in Dannevirke.

Eventually arriving at the road end, we somehow had managed to arrive last, which was ok apart from the fact it meant that the hut was full with everyone else before we got there, and somewhere just out of Dannevirke it had started RAINING (remember I told you that Friday lied? Well, that was its biggest one). Of course, this did lead to a vague concern as to what the weather would do for the rest of the weekend, as well as how some easy trampers would cope with sleeping under a tent fly for the first time given the conditions. In the end there was no real need to worry. We spread out everywhere – some on the floor in the kitchen, some on the floor in the bunkrooms (one enterprising group member managed to be in the right place at the right time to get an offer of an ACTUAL bunk!!), two in the woodshed and the rest happily cocooned under the very middle of the two flys we had put up.

We needn’t have worried about the weather either, as the rain stopped quite early in the night (early being the operative word, given we didn’t arrive and get to bed till nearly 1am!). Saturday morning dawned with massive clear blue skies and the promise of quite a bit of warmth to come. We hung about the hut for a while, letting the tents dry as much as possible before packing them, and eventually headed off up the hill about 9.30am.



The pace was slow to the point of being snail-like at times, but this also provided some great opportunities for conversation, and the rare chance to see a Morepork perched in a tree, sleepily watching us watch it.



Morning tea was had at the track junction, where a large seat makes for a fantastic rest spot. Chocolate duly came out of packs and was shared around, with Chris reminding Jodi that the chocolate she was sharing was half his (her reply was that that was the half she was sharing out!). Continuing up the hill with anticipations of lunch in the sunshine, we came across a whole series of cool signs that Norsewear had erected with information about the flora and fauna of the area, as well as some of its history. Very neat, and rather useful “pause” stops!

Before too long we had arrived at the top of the hill and the hut. Its fantastic how the hut really hides from you until you are basically right on top of it – no teasing sightings from a distance making you think it might be closer than it is! With a generous deck area and multiple entranceways, this hut would be a welcome haven in bad weather from any direction.

Packs and boots came off, bunks were chosen, a brew went on and lunches came out. The tent flies were ingeniously attached to the deck of the hut to continue drying.



Some members of the group headed off towards where Craigs group were spending the night and got about an hour along the track before deciding to come back. The rest of us made do with exploring the area immediately around the hut, including the short scramble behind the hut to an awesome vista of the inner ranges. Eventually someone decided it was afternoon tea, and Chris and Jodi pulled out crackers with nice cheese and dip to eat them with. Needless to say, they are welcome on any easy trip any of us take again in the future.

It was, however, starting to cloud over a little, and get somewhat cold. Having said goodbye to John, who had driven in to join us for a daywalk, we moved inside and pulled out a couple of decks of cards to play last card. Fresh camp cooked bread was produced (and devoured) as a precursor to dinner, which was prepared and demolished in pretty quick succession (for the record, it was Sweet & Sour Pork on Rice). Having cooked, I managed to avoid doing dishes (Bonus!), and so instead got a half hour reprieve before starting to prepare dessert. People were still quite full from dinner, so the chocolate “self-caking sauce” (cheers Chris) that we didn’t manage to consume was wrapped back up in anticipation of possibly being someones breakfast in the morning (it duly was).

Stargazers went for a wander outside before bed, and were rewarded with one of THE most stunning views of the Southern Cross and Milky Way I have ever seen. There were no clouds anywhere to ruin the view (at least to begin with) and it was simply awe-inspiring.

Bed ensued not long after, and I think a lot of people fell asleep very quickly and very deeply after what had probably been an average to poor Friday nights sleep. It rained overnight (quite heavily some have reported), but cleared beautifully for everyone to get up at 6.15 to watch the developing sunrise. Most people went back to bed as the sun came fully up for another couple of hours sleep. It was great and a very nice treat.







Once we all finally started getting up and organized, there wasn’t a lot of time wasted. Making our way down the hill at our own pace, with nice long stops for the back markers to catch up, we were still back at Triplex Hut for lunch at noon. After a break in the sunshine eating as much as possible of what was left of our food, it was back to the van so we didn’t miss other groups to steal spare spaces in their vans, and after a bit of a wait, we all headed home. Our van seemed to be on a sugar high, as we made a decent attempt at eating all of Karl’s lollies (which he had cunningly hidden until after dessert on Saturday night), and played multiple rounds of twenty questions (“Am I bigger than the van?” “Did we see one this weekend?”) before arriving back in Wellington and going our own ways again. All in all, not a bad trip, and much better weather than the last one I went on (into the Tararuas!)