Taking the Lead

 February 29 - March 02, 2008

Rangiwahia Hut, Ruhaine Forest Park


Team: Me (leader), Paul, Karl, David

Rangiwahia is a hut I am going to have to go back to for the simple reason that I forgot to take a camera with me on this trip! Somehow I left both my SLR and pocket cameras at home, and only had my cellphone with me. Needless to say, I was already disgruntled by this as soon as we got up in the morning and saw the views across the plateau to Ruapehu!

We had all slept badly – the carpark was the only flat area around, and was gravel. We had set up the tent fly on the edge of the carpark where there was a small amount of grass and hunted down some larger rocks to use as pegs (as our pegs wouldn’t go in at all). We shouldn’t have bothered! It was a warm and breezy night and most of us were woken multiple times by the wind blowing through the tent making a LOT of noise!
Saturday mornings weather was sunny and fine. We packed ourselves up and headed off.  Part way along the track was a massive slip that the track had to go up and around. At the top of the climb was a sign proudly proclaiming that “the worst is over, track undulates from here” (which is bollocks by the way. The track levels out for a few minutes then drops precipitously down the other side of the slip). This slowed us down a bit as one member of the party had a bung leg and found the clambering difficult.

Soon enough we were on the gorgeous old bridge over the very steep gully. Very cool! Further up the track and we crossed a waterfall, then suddenly we had arrived! The weather had started to pack up a little on our way up the hill and on arrival at the hut it was misty and windy. We had lunch and then most people went for a wander up on to the ridge, into the teeth of the wind. I went part way and then left the rest of the team in Pauls capable hands (he was my co-leader since this was my first trip leading with the club), while I returned to the hut for a nap.

Dinner was sweet & sour pork, followed by chocolate self-saucing pudding and was divine. Many hands of 500 were played (my first introduction to the game), and a hunter arrived after dusk for the night. The weather cleared briefly, allowing us to look out to the lights of the nearby towns for all of 10 minutes. Still not sure which towns they are!

Overnight the rain set in. Our visiting hunter snuck out early to see what he could see up on the ridge and came back wet and empty handed, but still in a good mood while we were getting organised. We knew that we needed to wait for people to make it out to another road end, and that this was likely to happen about lunchtime, so we decided to delay our departure from the hut by about 30 minutes.

This ended up being fortuitous timing! It stopped raining (was misty wet instead) by the time we left the hut, and the sun was out when we arrived at the road end. We changed into warm, dry clothes and spread out our damp jackets to dry for a while. Just as we were starting to wonder when we would hear from the other party, a vehicle stopped just down the road, and they climbed out! Turned out they had tried to text me to tell me they were out, but my phone hadn’t received it which was frustrating!

As we climbed into the van, it started to rain again, so we headed off and stopped for coffee / beer etc in Kimbolton – as far into the back of beyond as you get! Then it was simply a case of keeping on trucking home. It felt like a long drive both ways – which is the main reason I haven’t yet gone back to the hut, its too far to drive for such a short walk, and its MUCH further on to the next hut from there…

To see photos of the area, check out my friend Mikes photos from his trip in 2006