Lakes and Falls

Tama Lakes and Taranaki Falls
Whakapapa Village, Tongariro National Park

Saturday 23 October 2021

Who: WTMC Families - 6 adults, 5 kids

Finally, FINALLY, Mark got to go all the way to Tama Lakes. He's made a string of attempts over the years, but always ended up having the trip canned due to bad weather / lack of interest from others in the group.

We planned the entire weekend around the hope of making it, selling this to the Families Group as a tramping weekend at the lodge rather than a skiing one (which was a good call - the very upper mountain was open, but that was it), and I forced Mark to not bring his skis, especially since the forecast was for one good day.

We took the upper track to Taranaki Falls, where we waited a while for two members of our party to catch up after they had had to race back to the lodge to get a forgotten jacket (this is not an area where you can shrug that mistake off with a "she'll be right"). Not long after that, both LJ and I started having issues and lost our enthusiasm to continue on to the lakes.

We kept going until we found a decent downhill leg, where we stopped for lunch. One of the other parents pulled out her phone and advised us we were under 1.5km (about 25 minutes) from the lower lake, which was enough to keep both a tired LJ, and her exhausted 4.5 year old going. I wasn't surprised that LJ was tired, he'd woken at about 5:15am and so he and I had gone for a 3km walk to Meads Wall for sunrise.

Lower Tama lake was brutally cold. The wind was extreme and completely freezing. Everyone put on additional layers for our stop. Four of the adults continued on to Upper Tama, while the other two of us wrangled all the kids into starting the walk back after a bit of a break. The Upper Tama parents came into sight behind us just beyond our lunch spot, and caught the front of our group about 15 minutes shy of Taranaki Falls.

We clambered down the steps to the waterfall and had another extended break, where the kids clambered around the back of the falls and the edge of the pool at the bottom, before chilling out with more food.

From here, we took ourselves along the lower track back to the village, which was a brilliant idea as it was largely in shade and next to a river for a large portion of the walk. All of a sudden it had gotten exceptionally hot. The last chunk of the walk back to the village in the sunshine was sweltering.

Back to the car and up to the lodge for afternoon tea and a rest.

Sunrise at the top of the Bruce Rd

Up the side of a volcano

16-17 March 2019
Party: Mark, Spike, Me
Whakapapa Skifield, Tongariro National Park
 
As part of my volunteer role with the club ski lodge, I urgently needed to do a detailed stock take of the dry food stores in the pantry in time to sort out the bulk food delivery for mid-May. So, despite the barely-recovered jetlag from the previous weekends trip to Melbourne, we loaded up the car and drudged our way north on a Friday afternoon.
To help keep spirits up, we tried starting with a walk via the river to Taranaki Falls in the morning. This was a complete failure as Spike just did not want to walk anywhere. We headed back to the lodge and promised we'd try going out again after I'd finished the stock take instead.

Thankfully, the stocktake didn’t take long and the weather was pretty reasonable. So once I had the bulk of the stocktake completed, and after we had spent some time admiring the work of the helicopter that was dropping off roofing iron on the neighbouring lodge, we headed off to explore.

We started at the carpark at the Top of the Bruce, where we had the first opportunity to see the construction of the base station for the new gondola. The massive red crane that was in place was impressive to everyone. The carpark area was busy – it appeared we had stumbled upon a work party weekend for multiple other lodges – with cars, people, and loads of stuff hanging around in piles.

After watching a large tractor with a trailer head through the cordon and start making its way up the Rock Garden, we wandered off to the large map that told us how we could still access the upper sections of the mountain. Normally at this time of year, such a walk would literally go straight up the graded track from behind the café, and continue up to Knoll Ridge. This summer, the track instead was a series of poled plot points, winding its way up and over the rocks to the side of the ski field.

Astoundingly, Spike was excited about climbing over rocks and hunting out the next flagged pole for us to walk to. We meandered our way over the rocks and up the hill for a while, making it up and around the Tongariro Ski Club lodge, then up and across a waterfall that marks the exit of the Tennants Valley Run. In the end, we made it to well within sight of the Tararua Tramping Club lodge before we persuaded Spike that it was time to head back down to the our lodge for a drink and some afternoon tea.

We largely returned the same way, although instead of dropping back down to the carpark then climbing back up our track, we scrambled over and around another couple of lodges and dropped onto the old 4WD track that runs along our ridge (which comes out down by Carpark 5).

Since the weather was fine on Sunday morning, we repeated our escapade. This time we started by going up the 4WD track for a short distance, before rock hopping our way back up to the waterfall again. Now that we knew where we were going, this took a chunk less time than it did on Saturday.

Returning via a non-route through a gully that is popular for sledding in the winter, we picked up an ice cream container that had been dropped, and filled it with rubbish we found alongside the stream. We stopped in at the rubbish depot to drop this off before returning to the lodge to lock up and head home.

Tongariro Alpine Circuit - Stats & Maps

Nothing massively surprising came out of my maps for the Tongariro Circuit. I did a few less steps than I expected most days, but otherwise was quite happy with the walk.

 

Day ONE - Every km had some uphill, ranging from 17m in the 5th kilometer to 79m in the 2nd (which was also our slowest). Our fastest section was the last 600m to the hut, which is unsurprising, given this was the point where we came off the clay gully and onto the immaculately manicured Tongariro Alpine Crossing track. The going here was often slower than the terrain would suggest as the walking required careful consideration to avoid unkempt track.

Fitbit: 26,351 steps

MapMyWalk: 8.64km, 202m gain, 11,751 steps while walking, 10,895kJ 

DoC: 8.5km 

Day TWO - It honestly looks like we ran out of puff just before crossing into South Crater - it took us an HOUR to complete km 5. What it doesn't show is that we stopped to take some night photos, and didn't stop the tracker while we did. We were running out of puff a little by then though, having done over 2 hours all uphill with no breakfast and on about 3 hours sleep. Our next slowest km was the final climb to the top, where we did hit the wall. That was hard. The biggest climb was in the 4th km, at 213m. It is easy to pick where we got down off the lava flows and onto the better track, as our pace speeds up significantly.

Fitbit: 30,796 steps

MapMyWalk: 12.08km, 629m gain, 16,432 steps while walking, 20,707kJ

DoC: 12.8km (8km Mangatepopo to Emerald Lakes, 4.8km Emerald Lakes to Oturere)

Day THREE - Turns out, there's quite a climb between Waihohonu and Whakapapa. It actually didn't feel that bad, especially after the short, sharp, up and over we did to get to Waihohonu in the first place. It is completely unsurprising that that section was both our slowest, and our biggest single-km climb, with the climb being nearly perfectly 1km, and 143m. Distances are a little out on this day as I had to use my iPhone, which tends to add in unnecessary loops, creating extra distance, but also increasing speed.

Fitbit: 43,159 steps

MapMyWalk: 25.35km, 496m gain, steps not suggested, 21,569kJ

DoC: 21.8km (7.5km Oturere to Waihohonu huts, 14.3km Waihohonu to Whakapapa)

Exemplar iPhone loops at Waihohonu

Exhaustion level: Epic

 

Tongairo Northern Circuit, Great Walk. Whakapapa Village to Whakapapa Village.
Party: Marion, Me
03 – 05 February 2018

Halfway up the Devils Staircase, under the light of the ¾ moon, at about 4:30am on Sunday morning, Marion commented to me that I was probably the only friend she had crazy enough to not only do, but suggest, such a trip. I think she meant it as a compliment.

Track, Whakapapa - Mangatepopo

After dropping off our town clothes and after-tramping food at the club lodge at Iwikau, we nabbed a carpark in the village, threw on rain gear and headed off on the “least maintained track in the National Park” (DoC Visitor Centre Rangers own words). With reasonable weather, we made it across to Mangatepopo Hut in good time. The track was definitely average, with some bits that would be awful in bad weather.

It was cold on the deck of the hut, catching the wind, with little to no sunshine, but it was lovely and warm inside with the gas fire going. We nabbed bunks, had some dinner, and re-packed as much as we could in preparation for Sunday mornings scheduled 3am alarm. After a gorgeous sunset, most of the hut started heading for bed, although the DoC Ranger on duty sat up being rowdy and drinking with a small group of others who had turned up with a significant quantity of beer and vodka.

Needless to say, Marion and I felt no guilt at all when we woke Mickey, who was sleeping on the kitchen floor (having given his room to his mother for the night), as we were heading out at 3:15am.

Sunset, Mangatepopo

The weather was perfect for night walking – clear, cool but not bitingly cold, and with a reasonable moon. We had head torches in our pockets mostly for when we were in and out of our packs changing up layers, relying solely on the moonlight for walking. We could see head torches ahead of us on the staircase, but we never caught up with them.

Near the crest of South Crater we were overtaken for the first time by a daywalker (so, sometime around 5:45am), who soon went back down past us, looking for his girlfriend. We were shocked that he had left her behind in the dark.

The light was starting to rise on us, and with our night-adjusted eyes, South Crater looked bathed in sunlight well before the sun was up. We made it to the edge of the crater just in time for sunrise and settled in with all our warm layers for breakfast at last. It was bitterly cold at this point, probably the hardest time of our morning, and we still hadn’t made it to the top.

Emerald Lakes

More people were starting to come up and through to overtake us at this point, and a group was already on their way back as we paused just before the crest of Red Crater, while a drone illegally flew overhead, ruining the otherwise peaceful morning atmosphere.

We finally started warming up as we headed down Red Crater to Emerald Lakes, and by the time we had taken more stops here, and gotten around the bottom lake to the track to Oturere Hut, the top of Red Crater was covered like an ants nest with people – a sight we regularly looked back onto for the rest of the day. We were thrilled to have beaten the crowds.

Once back off the Alpine Crossing, the track condition deteriorated again, and was a huge climb down before meandering along towards Oturere. Our fatigue started showing here, as everything took longer than expected.

Oturere Hut

It was cold when we arrived at Oturere, not long after most of the previous nights occupants had left. The windows were all open to air it out after a night of a full hut of wet people, and while it was sunny, the cold breeze made it a generally unpleasant place to be.

The first of the people we had left behind at Mangatepopo at 3am started arriving within an hour of us, and soon the weather warmed and I got sunburnt feet from wearing jandals and long johns. The people at Oturere were absolutely lovely, and we had a great night, but the hut itself is WELL too small for the number of bunks it has, with one small laundry rack, a table that can seat 6 at a squeeze and only four cookers to deal with 27 beds and space for 15 more in tents. It also only had one working tap – that hut was ripe for a norovirus outbreak. Thankfully it had a generous deck with several picnic tables and we hit good weather, so most people hung about outside.

Monday morning I woke shortly before sunrise, then missed the best colour of sunrise by being in the bathroom. It was another beautiful one, this time with lots of cloud to colour unlike Sundays clear blue sky. We had a lot of ground to cover (about 24km), so we didn’t dither in bed, but instead started prepping to get up and away towards Waihohonu in good time.

The track between Emerald Lakes and Waihohonu was my least favourite of the entire circuit. I simply found it all hard going and uninspiring. We arrived at Waihohonu fatigued and damp after the days first rain shower came through, and met people who had left before us already departing again after their morning tea break. We stayed for lunch instead.

Stormy Conditions

Waihohonu to Whakapapa is actually pretty good condition track overall. A couple of bits are a bit boggy / old, as if they are still on the upgrade list, but much has been laid with gravel and stairs. In good weather (but not too hot), it would be a rollicking walk with incredible views of Ruapehu, Tama, and Ngauruhoe. Instead, we could barely see anything for the day, which did make it hard to gauge how we were going.

About 1/3 of the way across a sudden storm passed through. The forecast had been for “passing showers, becoming heavy in the late afternoon”, but with 0cm accumulation of rain every 6 hours. We did not expect hail, gale force winds, and torrential rain that had us soaked through on our legs within seconds. Heads down, we kept moving.

The rain didn’t hang around for too long thankfully, and the wind cooled us off. But every time we thought maybe we could put our jackets away, the rain came back. After the second to-the-skin soaking, when the wind turned bitterly cold, we stopped (in the rain) to take off our jackets and add an extra layer – this was hypothermia weather if ever we saw it.

We opted not to go to Tama Lakes, as we were cold and tired and just wanted to get to the end. We rested at the top of Taranaki Falls in some rare warming sunshine before putting our coats back on to keep warm for the last push home across the tops to the village. The moment when we could see the chateau was amazing.

Hot showers at the lodge, cheese and crackers before dinner, an early night and hot pools at Tokaanu the next morning rounded out our adventure.

Spikes first "tramp"

Waihohonu Hut, Desert Road, Tongariro National Park

Team: Mark, Spike, Me

Date: 06-07 Feb 2016

The last long weekend of summer seemed an ideal time to take Spike on his first overnight tramp. We reviewed all the places we had been before, and after deciding that we wanted somewhere bookable, to be sure that we would have a bed each, picked the only one that had beds available on the long weekend Saturday night that was under 2 hours at our pace from the road end – Waihohonu Hut.

Unfortunately, this meant long-weekend Friday night traffic to get out of town, and we made the mistake of trying going via Masterton instead of straight up the coast. Given Spike slept all the way to Masterton, sitting in traffic for a similar time to get to Levin would have been fine. We ran into the club van, headed for Tukino, at Taihape – they had left an hour after us.

Spike then stayed awake all the way to our nearly-midnight arrival at the lodge, and took a chunk of persuading to go to sleep, even once the lights were off and Mark and I were nearly asleep ourselves.
Bookending our night at the hut with nights at the lodge meant we could leave fresh food and non-tramping belongings behind while we tramped, rather than having to leave things in the car.

Having the lodge to ourselves also meant that we didn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone.
Saturday morning arrived with indecent haste. We only had an hours drive and about 2.5 hours walk ahead of us for the day, so there was no rush, but we also wanted to be at the hut at a reasonable time, in order to attempt to snag a set of bottom bunk mattresses together. Lunch was made, water bladders were filled, packs were packed (and seemed indecently full for a single night trip). It was cool and drizzly at the lodge, with an average forecast so we dressed accordingly, locked up and wandered down to the car.



The forecast was wrong. While it never actually rained, it stayed overcast. So instead of being cool and wet, and it was stuffy and muggy. Not the best weather for getting the best movement out of a not-quite 3 year old who doesn’t like to walk long distances anyway!





Liberal applications of food, water, and lollies, along with several sessions where Mark and I carried Spike on our shoulders on top of our packs as well, still didn’t get us to the hut before Mark and I started hitting spent, and Spike started melting down. So I raced ahead to dump my pack and then come back to carry Spike the last chunk in the Tula we had bought for this purpose. Incredibly, Spike perked up and started moving at a reasonable clip once he was down to only being with Mark, and so my carry wasn’t that far.

Spike perked up once we were at the hut, charming everyone, eating anything he could get his hands on, and running around everywhere constantly. Dinner was roundly ignored, as was dessert, but while we could tell he was tired, he refused to go to sleep until it was dark – the same time the last of the adults went to bed.



Sunday morning dawned deathly early. We really should have bought the blackout blind to the hut. Thankfully, Spike was tired enough to go back to sleep for another half hour / 45 minutes to a time when more of our hut mates were also waking up.

The weather had cleared overnight and we were greeted by clear skies and cooler temperatures. Spikes enthusiasm for walking died after a very short time, and we had used the bulk of our lolly stash getting to the hut. Two nights of poor sleep were also telling on our tempers. Tantrums were had (both toddler and adult ones), carries were given, threats were made to leave Spike behind (I couldn’t do it. If he wandered off track we would never find him).



When we got to the last segment before the car, we reversed the day before and sent Mark off to dump his pack and come back to collect. Again Spike picked up the pace markedly when there was only one adult around, and Mark barely managed to turn around before we were there.

More food was divvied out and we headed to Turangi for an early lunch and a swim in their indoor pools (which were both cheap and wonderfully refreshing), before heading back to the lodge for an early dinner and early night.

Thankfully, Mondays drive home was drama-free. We stopped in Ohakune and Levin for food, playgrounds and icecreams.

I wont lie – this trip was HARD work. We definitely over-estimated how interesting the track and surrounds were for a pre-schooler. And I think the distance was a little far. But we’ll try again, for sure.

Gourmet Lodge Weekend

9 - 11 August 2013

Whakapapa Village, Tongariro National Park

Team: Mark, Spike, Me, and 29 others

This was a highly unusual trip to the lodgefor us. For starters, Mark and I had a 4 month old with us, second, we were going on a weekend full of other children.

Also, there was the awesome fact of it being a gourmet weekend.

We left Wellington as Spike was due his nap, just on lunchtime. After stopping at Z Mana, and debating McDonalds for lunch there, we decided to keep heading up the road instead since Spike had just fallen asleep.


Eventually we had lunch in Levin, followed by afternoon tea in Taihape, and a very brief stop just south of Waiouru with the sun setting over the mountain looking glorious. The drive west from Waiouru was challenging - straight in to the setting sun at times. We arrived at the lodge about 6pm, just after sunset.



Feed and bed for Spike, then dinner for us before the rest of the families arrived by van at about 9pm.

Saturday morning dawned clear. Dammit. I was in charge of the cooking for dinner during the day, and that was going to take most of the day and I was hoping to have plenty of help - especially with Spike having a cold that was bad enough we considered not going away.

By the time we had finished breakfrast, cloud was coming over the top of Pinnacle Ridge. The snow cover was already awful, and the weather report was average, so Mark agreed to stay in the lodge rather than waste a whole days pass on what looked to be a half days skiing.

Cooking started. By lunchtime we had much of the preparation done. The casserole (Beef, Onion & Guiness) was in the oven already, the pumpkin soup in a pot on the stove, cheesecakes were setting in the fridge and one set of bread was also in the breadmaker for turning into pull-apart garlic breads.

People started to arrive back in the lodge, having given up on skiing because of the weather. Spike was the centre of attention for some of the other kids, with his portacot setup in the lounge for his naps. More people started also helping with the last bits of dinner prep, as I abandoned plans to do potato dumplings and scones, instead simplifying the 5-course dinner ever so slightly.

We started dinner with standard lodge nibbles at about 4pm, followed by pull-apart garlic breads (BAM, and the bread was gone), before serving mains at just on 6pm, and dessert just after 7pm. The food went down a treat, and it was lovely to get so many positive comments.



Mark and I joined a few others for a few rounds of 5-handed 500 (no scoring) once Spike was in bed, before heading off for an early night ourselves. Breakfast in the morning was awesome, mini mushroom and egg pastries, apple danishes, loads of bacon. Even better, it was all cooked before we got up!

The weather was awful, however. So we packed up, and as Spike was due to go down for his nap, we loaded him down to the car and headed home, via After Hours for Spikes wheezy cold.

Menu:
Finger food: As usual for lodge. Carrot and celery sticks, dip, crackers, cheese and pickles.
Entree: Pull apart mini garlic breads
Starter: Curried Pumpkin & Kumara soup with Sourdough bread
Main: Beef, Onion & Guiness casserole with mashed potato and veges
Dessert: White chocolate & berry cheesecake with ice-cream

Covert Ops Black Tie Lunch at the Waihohonu Hilton

Waihohonu Hut Daywalk, Desert Road.
Lodge weekend, 01 October 2011

Team: Myself, Mark, Colin, Nathaniel


Friday night, 5.30pm, Wellington Railway Station. Perfect. We have infiltrated a party of climbers heading for “The Lodge”. This lodge will be a perfect base for our weekend operation. We hope this lodge will prove as comfortable as it sounds, even if it traffic reports indicate we might be in for a long drive.

Friday night, 6.30pm, Upper Hutt. A detour to pick up another member of the climbing party. The interlopers still haven’t been roused out of the van, it appears there may be space enough that they continue not to notice us.

Friday Night, 8pm, Levin. The climbers have all disappeared into a den of iniquity calling itself “Noodle Canteen”. To continue avoiding notice we split in half and head for alternative eating establishments, ensuring we are back ahead of the climbers so we don’t get left behind.

Saturday, 7am. After a short nights sleep due to a late arrival, some generous soul is cooking breakfast already. We quickly demolish some food, do a spot of cleaning up and inch our way down the crusty ice to the van, where the climbers are waiting for us to drop them off. It appears we have been noticed.

Saturday, 10am. After a successful mutiny against the climbers in Whakapapa Village, we gained control of the van in a bloodless coup and have arrived at a carpark in the middle of nowhere, somewhere alongside the “Desert Road”. We have been reliably informed that our mission will see us walking in to a “Waihohonu Hut”, and that it should not be a long time before our destination is in sight.



Saturday, 11.30am. We appear to be lost. Colin has visited several “huts” in the past, and is adamant that this is not a “hut” and that the spacious lodge with running hot water we have instead found is the mysterious Waihohonu Hilton. With this in mind, we change clothes to something more suited to the location and settle in to demolish our lunch as if we are just here minding our own business.



Saturday, 1.30pm. We are starting to doubt our directions. We have consumed two courses of food and seen only a pair of Australian trampers. Perhaps our quarry is at the historic hut? We know we are running out of time, as we should be leaving the hut already if we are to make rendezvous with C at M, but we decide that since we are here, we should continue and make a thorough investigation, to ensure we have not stopped a hut too early.



Saturday, 1.45pm. There is no one at the historic hut either. We are perplexed. So we capture our smallest member and string him up instead, just to prove that we have achieved something with our day. To ease his feelings and our confusion, we return to the new hut for a spot of dessert, deciding we can now run late for our rendezvous as we were given spurious information in the first place.





Saturday, 2.30pm. After taking our time to ensure that the change to daylight savings the other weekend was not the cause of our mission failure, we change back out of our dress clothes and leave the Hilton as swiftly as we arrived. The trip back makes us aware of the fact that there is actually a height above MSL difference between the carpark and the Hilton – are we sure we are going the right way? We don’t remember feeling like we were climbing to get there, but we are definitely dropping now.

Saturday, 4pm. The van is in sight again. Luckily the climbers didn’t manage to trace us here and claim it back. We roar (gently) off onto the Desert Road again, back around the mountain to the Mangatepopo Carpark, where our next rendezvous point is.

Saturday, 5pm. There are more people at the rendezvous than there should have been. This makes us a little worried, but we collect them all anyway as they all appear to fit, before dumping one out at the next junction as we return to the lodge too late for a beer at the pub, and after Happy Hour has finished. Thankfully dinner appears to be not far away – not that us interlopers need any after a relaxing three hours having lunch on a mission that was only successful in that it caused no further injury to Colin and included tasty food.

Sunday, 10am. The climbers have invited us to join them at the Tokaanu Hot Pools. We gratefully accept, as it’s a perfect excuse to escape the boarders vs skiers debate that appears to be ongoing at the “lodge”.

Sunday, 12.30pm, Waiouru. The debate has found us again. Save us all. We escape as quickly as is politely possible and continue the drive back to Wellington.

A case of perfect timing

Easter 2011: April 21-25.

Ruapehu Round-the-Mountain Track, Desert Road to Ohakune Mountain Road\

Team: Myself (leader), Mark, Mike, Annie, Lieselot, Jonathan, Tim, Vincent, Jo (part time at least)

THURSDAY

This Easter, the clubs trips were all either north island based, or flying to Christchurch and starting from there. So Helen, Amanda and I were all corralling punters into vans at a very busy platform 9 on a warm and overcast Thursday. We were headed for the club lodge for the night – the other van was headed for somewhere north of Taupo.

Unusually, we encountered no traffic issues – we were all the way to Waikanae without delays. This seemed simply too good to be true – we assumed that many people must have taken an extra day off and left early since it was school holidays.

We still stopped for dinner in Levin, where people could choose from more options and get fed faster than Bulls, which everyone was happy with. It also enabled us to stop in at a supermarket and pick up the chicken for Sunday nights roast, and some wine to enjoy with it at the lodge.

Arrival at the lodge was at a good time – about 11pm – and in good conditions. There was a bit of snow hanging around on the path up to the lodge, but there was no depth to any of it, which was good. After our usual briefing, everyone was off to bed, with alarms set for fairly early the next morning.

FRIDAY

It was an absurdly early start for an easy-medium tramp. We knew we had at least 7 hours walking ahead of us, and daylight would run out at some time around 5.30pm (or slightly later depending on the weather), and an hours drive before we could even start walking. So we were aiming to be out of the lodge by about 8.30 – which we duly managed. The drive around to the far side of the mountain was uneventful, and we duly arrived at the Waihohonu Carpark, unloaded ourselves in the cold breeze and said goodbye to Jo, who was taking the van and staying at the Lodge for the weekend.



The walk in to the New New Waihohonu Hut (as opposed to the now Old-New hut, across the river, which is being, or has been demolished) was a doddle. A slight climb over just on an hour and a half, on easy ground. The joy of walking in to a great walks hut! We stopped briefly to explore the hut and have a light morning tea while chatting to the hut warden – who happened to be the clubs ex chief guide! He strongly encouraged us to visit the Historic Waihohonu Hut on our way through, which we did – for some reason taking our packs with us rather than leaving them at the track junction…



The historic hut was cute and interesting, and well worth visiting. It would also make a good day walk in conjunction with the springs about 10 minutes further along the valley towards Rangipo Hut.  A discussion was had on the merits of continuing to the springs, or stopping at this point for an early lunch. Both ideas were vetoed in favour of lunch in about an hours time.

So off we trudged. And a trudge it was! The track through here was like walking uphill on a beach – soft, sandy soil that didn’t allow you any push, and had no solid sections you could walk on instead to make it easier.  By the time we stopped for lunch we were all really glad that we had covered what appeared to be most of the sand before lunch rather than having to do it after!

We were visited at lunch by a very funky coloured bug, which necessitated the appearance of my zoon lens in order to get a decent photo. By this stage I was already feeling a bit tired, and wishing I could just go home again. Why do I keep doing this to myself?? I had also buried the sauce for our sandwiches in my billy, which was buried right at the bottom of my back, next to my sleeping bag – and I was NOT unpacking my whole pack for some sandwich fillings!



Onwards we marched, eventually getting to a ridge where we could see a building that we suspected was on the Tukino Skifield access road. By this stage it had taken us about 2 hours to walk the 4km from Waihohonu Hut, and we still had 2.5km to go to the road, then another “hour or so” from there to the hut. It was in the hour and a bit over to the road that I discovered that walking directly behind Mark in marching formation, and watching where he put his feet then following it exactly vastly improved my speed across the terrain, as it saved me having to think beyond “that’s where his foot was this time”.

When we got to the road it was about 3.30pm and we were all feeling cold, tired and physically challenged. But we held on to hope that Paul was right and it would only be about another hour on from here. Because of this, we determined that the next stopping point would be the hut. Unfortunately it (again) took us longer than anticipated to get to the hut. The hardest part of the day was ahead of us – every stream we crossed from here on out involved a good drop before then scrambling out the other side, and we also had to cross the lahar path at the Whangaehu River.

The signs are ominous – “Do not stop” “Do not enter if you hear a roar upstream”. We entered the valley as we couldn’t hear anything (and there wasn’t a high lahar risk), and discovered that this was actually some of the most tricky terrain we had yet encountered – clambering over large rocks, a double dip valley before getting to safety, a single person bridge halfway across. I commented to Mark when we got out the other side that if we had heard noises upstream, I would have had to dump my pack to get any momentum, and even then I would have been lucky to get out of the valley in any hurry!

The last of us arrived at a swelteringly hot Rangipo Hut just on darkness, to discover it was about half full and very dark inside. For a popular hut, it wasn’t laid out particularly well. There is space for at least 22 bodies on the bunks, but there is one small bench and one small table that can squeeze about 6 people around it, then the fireplace is in the middle of the room. We wound up doing our dinner prep outside as it was the only place we could find space. By the time we had eaten our very (very) hot Thai Green Curry and rice, many of the other hut users had started to go to bed. Most of us were so exhausted that we skipped the Chocolate Fondue planned for dessert and just ate the chocolate instead!

SATURDAY

It was a fairly early start for all on Saturday morning after such an early night. A couple who had come all the way around from Whakapapa village the day before and were off to Mangaturuturu that night left the hut at 7am – a wakeup call for all.

 

To start with, we made good time – arriving at the top of the “Grand Canyon” (aka the drop down into the Wahianoa River) within just over an hour. We watched a German tramper we had met the day before ambling his way back up the far side of the valley as we pondered the task ahead of us. After fighting off a complaint from one member of the group that it seemed ridiculous to group together again at the bridge at the bottom of the gully, we headed off at our own pace. Amazingly, even with a short stop at the bottom to ensure no-one had fallen off the track, we were up the other side less than an hour after we had left the Rangipo side – a drop of nearly 200m (in just over 300m) and a climb again of about 100m before dropping back over the other side of the ridge. Talk about extreme landscapes! That said, it was nowhere near as bad as it had looked from the top, especially the sidling climb out of the valley – although you would have had issues if you had a fear of heights, as it was steep and high (and would have been a nasty run-off if you had fallen)

Most of the party was making good pace (except, of course, me), and so when the next stop was determined to be in about an hour and a half for an early lunch, they had covered quite a distance, and left poor Mark and I quite a way behind! Thankfully Tim (an angel) took pity on me and came the 15 minutes (at his pace) back to us and took my pack off me for the last of the walk to the rest of the groups lunch stop. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived and sat down, some of the faster (and more regularly complaining) members of the party had been stopped for over 20 minutes and were keen to press on. We managed to get 10 minutes rest before they started off, and I then asked them to stop an hour further along the track (having figured out that we only had about 4km to go, and I had been covering ground at an average of 2km/hr the whole tramp so far) – although I also gave them the option that if they arrived at a bridge before that hour was up, they could continue on to the hut and we would meet them there.

The terrain after we left the lunch stop changed again. It got very hot at some point along here and I had to dig all the way to the bottom of my pack to find something I could change into from my long sleeved thermal I had been wearing (I had packed it at the bottom, expecting a continuation of Fridays cold weather).  We were now also walking in and out of patches of forest, which was pleasant, and patches of bog, which was not.

Parts of the track had obviously received some work in the past, but some of these changes actually made the walking more difficult – steeply angled boardwalks made of 2x2 with a 2x2 worth of space between each plank, that you then needed to step off down to another steeply angled boardwalk that was more than knee-high below you. Needless to say, I slowed down even further through much of this, and walking poles didn’t help the situation. On the plus side, walking through the forested sections at least provided a little shade! After scratching my already problematic right knee (badly injured on a CUTC snowcraft course in 2005 and never the same since) on a boulder early in the scramble through this half of the day, I eventually gave in and stopped to take my boot off and put a support on. Not that it overly helped – especially since on one of those rare patches where we could pace out, I then pinged something in the back of my other knee. Yep, you guess it. This slowed me down further again.

About 15 minutes after the next scheduled stop and regroup time, we came across the group, relaxing in the sunshine at the bridge that I knew with certainty was about 500m from the hut. We looked across the river in awe to the perfectly formed boardwalk on the other side and dreamed about it being that way all the way to the hut.

Alas, it was but a short section of nice track, before returning to the norm of ladder-like boardwalks and slippery bogs. The others were so excited about getting to the hut in the early afternoon that they powered off ahead, and by the time Tim came back and took my pack off me again, we were still 10 minutes from the hut! Arrival at the hut was heralded the same way by all (we were told we had the same reactions as the others) – you walk on to the deck on Mangaehuehu Hut from the north and look over a very awesome landscape down to Ohakune, Waiouru and the Ruahine and Kaimanawa Ranges. Everyone thought “wow, that’s gorgeous”. Then you turn around. And the view to the mountain? It is far and away the best view we had had of the mountain in the previous two days.



I couldn’t tell you what the mountain looked like from the track north of Rangipo Hut – we didn’t have any visibility of it! And then between Rangipo and Mangaehuehu Hut all you get are tantalising glimpses, where Girdlestone’s triangular peak dominates the view. From the hut, you get a gorgeous view up the Mangaehuehu Glacier, and both Glacier and Skyline ridges are easily visible (both of which mark the edge of Turoa skifield). Even more awesome was the cloud formation to the east of the mountain – a massive cloud bank rising high above the top of the mountain.



The sun was shining, so most of us took advantage of an early afternoon arrival at the hut to enjoy some time on the deck with another party who arrived not long after us. About 4.30pm we decided we should light the fire to ensure the hut stayed warm – and it was so efficient we had to leave all the windows open all night so it was cool enough to sleep!



Eventually we decided we should have dinner – Rice Risotto (cooked partly on the very hot fire) with veges, followed by packet-mix cheesecake, with chocolate sauce (all the chocolate we hadn’t made fondue with the night before), fruit and gummy bears. Talk about delicious! This, and the presence of another party who also believed that 9pm was a much more respectable bedtime (also coupled with a much shorter days walking in better weather, and good weather for trying to take long exposure star shots) meant bed was had closer to 9pm than 7pm. It was still very hot – I started the night on top of my sleeping bag rather than in it, and after getting up for the bathroom at 3am, I pulled on a long-sleeved top so I didn’t stick to the cold mattress, and wrapped the sleeping bag over the top of me instead.



SUNDAY

About 6.30am I woke again to a beautiful pink sunrise. So I struggled back out of bed again (feeling stiff, but quite awake after a good nights sleep), grabbed the camera and a warm top and headed outside.  The mountain was beautiful and it was lovely to have some time to myself to start appreciating my favourite mountain again (instead of resenting it like I had for large parts of the previous two days).



Unfortunately, my quiet digging into my pack for my camera was loud enough to wake the other party who were sharing the main room of the hut with half of us. So they decided it was time to wake up and share out their chocolate.  Not too long after, most of us decided it was time to get up and about, and before long the hut was a hive of relaxed activity.




We knew that we only had about 4 hours walking to do, so were in no huge rush to head off – we departed the hut just before 9am, with a plan to head back to the lodge for lunch before heading off to Tokaanu for the hot pools in the afternoon. Mark and I were again in the back, as my knees were both still causing issues – I couldn’t stride out without pain, so was forced into taking much smaller steps than I wanted.



That said, we still made excellent time. The terrain was (generally)  less difficult, the sun was shining, there was a light breeze to stop it getting hot. We made it to the first bridge in remarkably quick time considering how slow I felt like I was going. After just on one and a half hours we had made it to our third of five bridges we knew demarcated our day and discovered Jo waiting with the front runners – with fresh donuts. What a fantastic treat! Jo had walked in from the road end to meet up with us and visit Blyth Hut.

 

The walking from here to the Blyth Hut turnoff was on very well constructed boardwalk, so I was able to maintain a better (albeit still slower than everyone else!) pace for the 20 minutes. Annie, Mark and I left the others to visit the extra hut while we continued on to the van, anticipating that we would all then end up in the same place at about the same time.

The last of the walk from here included more wonderous boardwalk, along with some bits that were still in the process of being developed with new boardwalk (stacks of bits alongside the track attested to this).  We had issues finding our way across a fairly substantial and unbridged stream just shy of the Waitonga falls – the big marker for people heading in our direction was less than obvious, and we had to back track to make sure we were in the right place.

Waitonga Falls were a bit of a non-event really, as you couldn’t clearly see the best parts of the falls from the lookout. But we stopped for a look anyway, and took a few photos before attacking the substantial climb up lots of stairs to the top of the hill. From here we were excited to get to Lake Rotokewa, but this was another disappointment – a large bog with boardwalk through it. The cool breeze picked up through here and became a markedly cold wind – so we didn’t stop.
By this stage we were seeing lots of daywalkers out and about, which was interesting. It was a lot like being an overnight tramper on the Tongariro Crossing – we seemed to be carrying such an excessive amount of gear!



The final bridge was reached, and crossed with a feeling of profound relief – there was the van and our way home! The rest of the group arrived about 30 minutes later after their hour-return foray to Blyth Hut, and apart from a brief stop in Ohakune for toilets, it was straight back to the lodge where showers and food were the order of the day.

3pm saw us congregating in the bunkroom, ready to head off in the light drizzle to the hot pools. Tokaanu was exceedingly busy, and we had a short wait for our private hot pool (well worth the extravagance - $10 per person for 20 minutes in a private pool, followed by as much time as you want in the main pool). Some people went for a walk around the local thermal springs area to keep moving, and everyone loved the soak in the very hot mineral pool – certainly excellent for what ails you.

All of a sudden the lights were turning on and we realised it was time to get back to the lodge, where we arrived just on dark, in heavier rain. Jo had done all the preparation for dinner, and the chicken was in the oven, with nibble platters out on the tables, so it was time for the wine to come out and some cards to be played.
A huge roast dinner, followed by apple crumble and custard followed, and we demolished nearly all of it. A mega Jenga game was played by several people – it fell over very quickly! A later night than usual was had by all – about 10pm (early by lodge standards I guess).


MONDAY

After a bit of a sleep in and some breakfast, we followed it up by cooking up a whole pile of the leftovers for second breakfast (didn’t want to hang around at the lodge long enough to have lunch), having left Jonathan to sleep until 9am. We were packed up, cleaned up and out of the lodge just after 11am, hoping this would mean we were early enough to beat much of the traffic.

No such luck. It was pouring with rain on and off the whole trip. Our first patch of heavy traffic was in Waiouru, followed by delays getting in to Taihape. We still arrived in Bulls in fairly good time – about 2pm, and stopped here for a late lunch to tide us over. I still wish I had had a pie rather than a slice of chocolate mud cake.

We decided to try our hand at State Highway 1 from here on in. We really should have gone over the Manawatu Gorge to State Highway 2 through Masterton. It took us 2.5 hours to get to Otaki from Bulls. That’s a trip of 80km. Ouch. An accident north of Levin and traffic lights / roundabouts seemed to be the main culprits. Thankfully everyone was well rested and in a good mood – we played alphabet games with shop fronts, and registration plate cricket. Tim jumped out of the van to say hello to the people in the car in front of us at one stage while we were stopped. We also stopped and bought feijoas from a poor guy standing in the rain on the side of the barely moving highway.

Eventually we made it to a very welcome toilet stop in Waikanae. From there, traffic was busy and heavy, but moving well (thank goodness) and we made it home to the railway station about 6pm.