Thursday 15 December 2016

12 go for a long walk

Turere Lodge, Orongorongo Valley, Rimutaka Forest Park
Me, Mark, Spike, Emily, Ivan, T, M, Amelia S, A, C, Marion, E.
3-4 December 2016


Go that way!

Planning for this started months ago. Not long after the really challenging overnighter we took Spike on to Waihohonu Hut in February. Because you have to book a stupid amount of time in advance if you want to reserve the entirety of Turere Lodge for a weekend night! Originally we had thought about doing this around my birthday, but by the time we booked in about late April, the first weekend of December was the first weekend exclusive occupancy was available.

We sent out the invite to about 8 friends who had kids (and a couple who didn’t), hoping to get 4-6 families total into the 32-bed, 4-room lodge. Eventually, after a couple of late pull-outs, and the addition of a family grabbed from the Tramping Club Families group, we had 4 families – 6 adults, 3 3-year-olds and 3 5-year-olds. What a group. What an appetite for chaos we all had!

And we're off

Turns out, this was a fantastic sized group. We could all amble along at different paces, taking turns to keep an eye on each others kids. The kids kept each other motivated and moving, and even though it turns out there is a LOT of up hill going in to Turere Lodge, the kids all walked most, if not all, the way in.

Adventuring
Afternoon tea

After a late start at the carpark of nearly 2pm, it was after 5:30 by the time we got to the hut and got the rooms unlocked. Dinner was started immediately, to the sound of kids running around screaming. They all ate something at least, although some were too tired to eat much. After a shared pudding of chocolate cake, strawberries and custard, we started working on persuading them all to go to bed. Unsurprisingly, Spike was last to go to sleep, finally drifting off not long before we all headed to bed.

While Turere is a wonderful hut, and its awesome to not have to bring cooking or eating gear, the mattresses are in desperate need of replacement. I wound up getting up at about 2am and pulling down a second mattress. Mine was more air than filler inside its cover! But honestly, that’s my only complaint – the hut was warm without heating, there was loo roll in the toilets and hand sanitiser at the basin. It was clean and tidy.

Sunday morning rolled around FAR too early for anyones liking.  We stumbled through breakfast on the deck (having forgotten the brown sugar for our porridge), threw our gear in our packs, grabbed a team photo on the deck and headed off about 8:30am. Despite the bulk of the walk being downhill on the way home, it still took as long to get back – poor tired legs and all.

The kids all excitedly climbed up Jacobs Ladder instead of the newer benched track until the two crossed again, so that we could promise them a break at the seat 7/8ths of the way up the hill. From there, we stopped again at Macs Hut briefly, then continued on. Around Midway Bridge, the younger kids started to significantly flag, so elephant rides became a routine sight and bribery became an essential component in keeping moving.

Jacobs Ladder (up)
 Curvation

We also regularly leap frogged a family group who had stayed on a hut across the river, including a mum wearing an old Mountain Mule that looked painful, even with a jersey wrapped over her shoulders as extra padding under the straps.

Elephant Bumps

Arriving at the road end with very tired kids just as it started drizzling at about 12:15 was a relief. A quick toilet break, change of clothes / shoes and we were all off. McDonalds for lunch was a failure as Spike was so tired we should have let him sleep instead, as he didn’t eat.

A great time was had, and the parents are all discussing doing it again to somewhere else (maybe Atiwhakatu) when the kids are another year or so older. Spike loved carrying his little bag (this one was better sized for him than the one we tried in February), and we are looking forward to him using it again, perhaps with more than a bottle of sunscreen and a whistle next time!

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