Frozen Water

Taranaki Falls Loop, Whakapapa Village

Winter Solstice Weekend, 19-21 June 2009

Team: Myself, Mark, Geoff, Andy H, Steijn, Rob, Several Others

The weather at the lodge was marginal, tending revolting. My group had originally intended to walk to Whakapapaiti Hut, cook up a brew for lunch, then wander on down to the village for a beer and hot chips before returning to the lodge. After a talk with Geoff K (Chief Guide), we decided to can that idea because it involved what would be a very cold river crossing about 3 hours from the road end.

Mark was keen to do Tama Lakes, but with the wind gusting as strong as it was, past experience suggested that lower Tama Lake would be as far as you would get, and even that wouldn’t be overly comfortable. Instead, we decided to do the Taranaki Falls loop – or as much of it as we could do, considering we had heard conflicting reports about whether it was open or not.

Knowing we had a maximum four-hour walk ahead of us, we all took our time, and took our cameras. We had a lot of fun testing the frozen streams to see how much weight they could hold (most that Mark tried easily held him), and how many large rocks we could bounce off them before they cracked (they often won that one – we gave up before we got a break).

All of a sudden, we were in a sheltered, sunny spot (but it was still not very warm) at the top of Taranaki Falls – which appeared to be frozen too! Awesome. This put paid to any remaining idea that walking on to Tama Lakes would be good – everyone was too keen to get down and wander around the frozen waterfall.



After some fun playing with the waterfall, we had a brief debate. There was a sign clearly stating that the track beyond the lower bridge was closed, and we were wondering whether this was more to keep out underprepared daywalkers, or if there was something seriously wrong with the track. We decided that we would climb the fence and continue down the track anyway, being prepared to turn around at any point where it became obvious why the track was closed, and we felt unsafe continuing on.

Turns out, the track was closed for maintenance around an old slip, which we easily navigated. Our biggest difficulty actually lay in getting past some of the machinery that was on the track to do this work!
Before too long we were walking back out of the valley, taking the long, slow march from the forest edge to the van, parked in the carpark, soaking up the sunshine for us. We had all bought our swimming gear, and had always planned to head off to Tokaanu for a soak in the hotpools, but some people felt they really hadn’t done enough walking to earn it yet – so we stopped off on the way at Lake Rotoponamu.

The loop walk around the lake takes about an hour. Some of us didn’t really feel like walking all the way around, so we walked down to the lake and back up while the others ran around the lake. We had some exceedingly interesting conversations while we waited for the runners to get back to us… Poor Mark was the only bloke that didn’t run.

The hot pools were divine as always, and we stayed longer than we really should have. By the time we were coming back to the side of Mt Ruapehu, the sun was setting on the mountain, lighting it beautifully. The problem with this was that by the time we got back up to the carpark, it was dark and we had no headtorches! Oops! Thankfully Serac Lodge had its light on over the path, but the shadows were still huge.



After that it was party time – a yummy dinner, an 80’s themed dress-up party and a good quantity of alcohol meant pretty much everyone just chilled on Sunday morning. Once a good sized group were up and about, someone decided we should take the lodge toboggans down to the snow in Happy Valley and have a play on the snow. It was great – till I came off awkwardly and gave myself whiplash! Oops. Thank goodness Mark and I were travelling back in Robs car rather than the club van, as that was way more comfortable for the drive home. Needless to say, I wrote off the rest of the season for possible snowboarding lessons (on the advice of my Osteopath), which I wasn’t really complaining too much about!

Paua Hut

May 2-3 2009

Orongorongo Valley, Rimutaka Forest Park

Team: Sue (Leader), Ravi, Lillian, Amelia, Mark, Mike, Angela, Toby, Stacey, Bronwyn
Weekends like this are why I love tramping!

Friday night some of my workmates and I headed out for dinner at the Flying Buritto Brothers to celebrate surviving the dramas of the end of the financial year (and the seeing off of the auditors!). Even the CEO joined our small group for the evening, which was actually quite fun! Mark and I then headed home to pack for our tramp that was leaving on Saturday morning, and I have to say that my pack seemed MUCH smaller simply for not having to spend a night at the road end - not that I could think of much that I would normally take but didnt, although, I did forget hut shoes entirely, which is really kinda stupid when you consider that I KNEW we had to cross a river multiple times to get to the hut!


The track in to Paua Hut is a fairly simple amble. Well, it would normally be if I hadnt had too much marguerita the night before! It starts with a bit of a climb up the hil, then wambles up and down for what took us about 2.5 hours before reaching the river. We had Toby, a 6 year old, with us, which meant more frequent stops for all, and a slower pace than normal as well!
Before too long we reached the end of the track, where it drops rather steeply down to the river, and a really funky bridge...


From here it was time to start a half-hour or so amble along, across and through the river to the hut.

For the first couple of crossings, we practiced "good technique" even though the river was well down (given the heavy rain of the previous few days, this was a relief!), just so we could say we had. From then on though, it was every person for themselves, and we had quite a lot of fun in the river!
All of a sudden, we were at the hut and it was lunch time!! Mark, Stacey and I had arranged between us to carry some treat food for the afternoon, so we spent our time nibbling on crackers and cheese, and corn chips with salsa dip. This was a big plus, as the dinner was rather plain and dull to be honest - Mac n cheese with bacon, followed by choc instant pud with marshmallows... Edible, but given the easiness of the trip, I would have expected something a little more... extravagant... perhaps. The other groups Thai Green Curry Tuna actually looked rather appealing compared to ours!!
After an afternoon sitting in whatever sun we could find, reading books, still we all headed to bed for a reasonably early night - because we could!! I slept in as late as I could get away with in the morning, and when I got up, found that most of the hut were up and about and outside, reading or generally relaxing before breakfast!
The walk home was more of the same, only the other way around, and we ended up back at the road end at the same time as the medium group, who had taken a much more challenging route to get there!

In the Summertime

Abel Tasman Coastal Track, Abel Tasman National Park
24 - 28 January 2007
People: Amelia, Emma, Emily, Olivia, Marion, Tiffany, Kathryn, Lizzy, Dani, Sam, Chrystal

Now, its been well over two years since I did this track, but I had completed the same walk at least twice before the trip I write of here, so at least the track itself is easy to remember!

We started in Wellington, staying overnight at the guide hall to make sure everyone had everything and that all the food was sorted in such a way as to keep it safe until needed. Dropped at the ferry terminal at 7.30am, we had a nice, relaxing start to our week. Chrystal met us in Picton, having been in the South Island on holiday for the previous week, and we boarded our bus bound for Nelson, then onward to Kaiteriteri beach for the night.

We had a quick swim at Kaiteriteri in the afternoon, before having ice creams from the shop and cooking dinner on our little gas cookers at our tent site with our little tents... We felt a bit insignificant when we compared our little site with the massive behemoth tents that surrounded us... Emaa, Olivia and I shared a tent fly to save weight and it was lovely to have that light breeze coming through the tent at night.

In the morning we started lazily. Safe Crossing time at Awarua wasnt until 7pm, and it was only an hours water taxi and two hours walk to get there. We were booked on a Noon taxi, which meant sitting out at the beach in the heat with all our gear for a couple of hours after we cleared our campsite. the shuttle ran to time at least, and while out we got to see some seals.

Working on the theory that it shouldnt get full dark until about 9.30pm and it was only meant to be an hour and a bit from Awarua to Onetahuti, we had planned to walk through to that campsite in the late evening in order to make day two slightly shorter. This meant we needed to have had dinner, cleaned up and repacked by 7pm, ready to start crossing. Now, the thing with the Awaroa Inlet is that "safe crossing time" extends quite a way each side of low tide (about 2 hours), and if you go at the very start or very end, the water gets quite deep...

(This isnt the deepest it got of course. The girls all wound up having to hold their packs funny in order to avoid getting them wet too)
Deep water means slow movement, and looking back I think it would have been better to wait for actual low tide before crossing and then stay at the Awarua campsite, especially as it got well dark before we managed to get to the campsite and one of the groups nearly got lost! Crossing the small Onetahuti inlet (which never really gets more than waist deep anyway) would definitely be much easier in daylight than in the torch light we wound up crossing it under!

Having read the weather report posted at the Totaranui campsite that we started out from, our smaller group decided to get up early the next morning to hopefully get in some good tramping before it got too hot. This plan failed epically when Emma started showing signs of heat exhaustion only about an hour and a half into the anticipated 7 hours to complete that day. We managed to get Emma very slowly to Bark Bay Hut, where water taxis come in for pick up / drop off and then sat and waited for the other group to turn up. We worked hard at relaxing, cooling and rehydrating Emma, and by the time the rest arrived, she was feeling much better, but still not up to tramping the next 4 hours to our overnight campsite (which was also about the next place we could expect to pick up a water taxi for her!).

So Emma and myself were accompanied by all the group tents and Dani's pack on to Anchorage by water taxi while the rest of the group walked through to Torrent Bay. When they got there it was starting to rain. They helped a guy pack up his tent, and in return got a ride across that estuary rather than having to walk the tidal track around it. In the mean time we had pitched all the tents bar one (someone had forgotten to give us part of it), had a swim and had a nap while a thunderstorm raged above us. Dinner was cooked in the small shelter provided and included fresh soup and bread.

Instead of walking out from Anchorage, we had arranged Sea Kayaks to take us out.

It was a great day, although we all had wicked motion sickness when we got back to Nelson for the night - I clearly remember standing in the shower at Tahunanui Beach Campsite, holding on to the walls so I didnt fall over when I closed my eyes (and can I just say, the showers at that campsite were fantasitc!!). Most of us got at least partly sunburnt that day, and after fish n chips from the camp store for dinner, we all went to bed fairly early, with most people deciding to sleep out of their tents since the weather was so mild.

After all that, the only thing left to do was to catch a taxi, bus and ferry home to Wellington. I think most of us slept most of the way!!
If I was to do this again, I think I would go to Marahau for the night before instead of Kaiteriteri, as then you would have the option of leaving travel stuff at the campground while on track and collecting it on the way out. I have only ever walked the track Totaranui - Marahau, and I think I prefer doing it that way, especially with the days kayaking to finish!

(Almost) Four Seasons in three days

Kepler Track, Fiordland National Park
29 - 31 December 2008
Amelia and Mark

Monday
Man I hate Monday mornings. Even more so when you are meant to be on holiday and still have to get up early. This morning was made even harder by the fact that two days previous I had managed to get VERY sunburnt at Mt Cook, and it had been VERY warm overnight in our room at the Holiday Park in Te Anau, where it had stayed light until well after we were in bed and asleep.
After a quick breakfast and re-pack of the car, we were off to Safer Parking (its home for the next three days) to wait for our shuttle to collect us. Sure, we could have walked the 45-odd minutes around the lakefront to the control gates to start the track, but we figured the cost to get a ride was small enough to spare and save us some time!

Pick up was at some ungodly hour (about 8.30am), so we had to be all set, with the car parked before then. We made it with a couple of minutes to spare, and were at the control gates, ready to start the track at about 9am. It was sunny, warm and a lovely day to be enjoying the shade of the bush when carrying three days worth of stuff, plus emergency gear! (our food was a substantial portion of this weight it turned out!). The weather was not meant to stay nice for all three days though, so we enjoyed it while it lasted!

The first hour or so was a gentle wander on a track nice and wide enough for us to walk alongside each other. We got to Brod Bay in good time, and paused here for a nibble and drink before racing off again to escape the resident sandfly population (Note: NEVER camp there!!), deciding to have lunch well up the hill. We targetted getting to the Limestone Bluffs that are mentioned in the guide book, and when we got to 1pm and still hadnt reached them, we gave up and had lunch where we were. Needless to say, we found them about 20 mins further up the track, and stopped for a second lunch stop at a nice seating area alongside them with an Australian Family.



Eventually we arrived at Luxmore Hut and found ourselves beds in the smaller bunkroom. I have to say that for a huge hut, it has a tiny, and poorly planned out, communual area. The kitchen is cramped, and to ensure they have seating for most people, there is a dining table in the middle of it! I guess they hoped that it would only be full in good weather when it was built, which would allow most people to sit outside. It does have quite a cool inside-outside feel to it though. "Cool" being the operative word - from the warm bunkrooms and kitchen, through the COLD hallway and toilet area... At least the loos are flush ones during the summer season!

Dinner was sweet and sour pork with pasta (since we were having pasta again the next night it saved also buying rice). Full of fresh veges and with fresh meat. Had a funny moment when I came out of the bunkroom with our dinner stuff laden in my arms, to see someone coming out of the other bunkroom with theirs - one pot and a packet of Rice Risotto. Would rather our dinner over theirs any day. In fact, I think we had the best dinner in the hut that night, and I have to say that the extra weight to carry it (and the bottle of wine to share over two nights) was SO worth it when we saw what others were eating... Lots of unhappy faces over the dehy there!

The smaller bunkroom has massive picture windows, which would be nice if it werent for the fact that daylight hours extend out to nearly midnight at that time of year down there! The photo below is of the view from the deck outside the bunkroom as we went to bed about 9.30pm... I wound up using a bandanner as a blindfold to get to sleep, while Mark hid himself deep into his sleeping bag (I would have been FAR too hot if I had too!)


Tuesday
We decided not to rush out the door for day two, as the weather was meant to stay reasonably fair all day, and only rain later in the afternoon. It was straight up hill to start with, and the wind was quite gusty at times (even though it was less windy than both the day before and the day after). We had both started the morning with walking poles, which soon got put back on the sides of our packs because they were getting blown around something wicked! Most depressing on this day were the bits of track where you could see what looked to be about the next two hours of track ahead of you - and there were lots of these bits!

We got to the turn-off to Mt Luxmore summit and decided that since we were here we should really go up to the top proper. The wind at the turn-off was freezing, so we rugged up in layers of warm clothes. Mark headed off like a mountain goat while I struggled up with sore Achilles tendons from the day before. I made it eventually, and was glad that I had when I saw the view from the top. We got one of the guys there to take a photo of the two of us and then headed back down to the main track.

From there it was a quick slog to the Forest Burn Shelter for lunch. The last bit down to the shelter is a steep and nasty zig zag, but the shelter has a toilet and on a nice day has a good deck to sit on and a picnic table. From there to Hanging Valley Shelter should take about 2 hours, but we were there in less than one.


We were going to take a longer break at Hanging Valley before attacking the downhill section of the track, but the spits of rain we started to feel put us off that idea, so off we went! The downhill from Hidden Valley Shelter to Iris Burn Hut has to be one of my most miserable memories from the entire trip, as after about 1.5 hours of straight downhill I was in considerable pain in both knees and could barely walk by the time we got to the hut. What was meant to take about 2 hours wound up taking us nearly 4 at my final pace. I do have to admit to being intensely grateful for my walking poles in this section though, as my knees would have gone sooner if it wasnt for them!

Iris Burn Hut has three bunkrooms. One massive one, with lots of dark hidey holes (great if you want to sleep in I guess), one tiny one with just four beds, which I suspect used to be the rangers room, and a large airy one with about 20 bunks upstairs. Yes. Upstairs. Guess which bunkroom we ended up in?? Can I just say how glad I was that I didnt need to get up and go the toilet in the middle of the night?? The only problem with the upstairs bunkroom is that the only windows directly above the platform bunks, which also have a low, sloping roof above them. At least the bunks werent full, so I could spread out a little and not have to kick a rafter all night!
Dinner was pasta and veges with pesto sauce and got some very envous glances from the dehy-dinner brigade, especially when we pulled out fudge for dessert!

Wednesday
Tramping out was wet. The aim for most of the day was simply to keep moving, and this was about all I managed to do. There are some very cool parts to the track through here, and it is mostly flat for the entire day. We saw a kea alongside the river at one point, but my camera wouldnt zoom in close enough to get a good photo, plus the light was dim, so it wanted to take a longer exposure, making for a blurry picture. Damn having no dSLR!!

We stopped for lunch at Moturau Hut, where the warden had a nice fire going. For lunch we had planned to have sandwiches of some description, but being so wet, we decided to cook up some of our emergency food (chicken soup), and some of our leftover food (pasta) for lunch. It wound up being remarkably good, and we decided that adding some salami would make it a great super lightweight dinner on a future tramp.

We then missioned out to Rainbow Reach for an earlier shuttle to get us back to civilisation and hot showers. We had booked for 5pm, and if the weather had been nice, even with the pain in my knees, we probably would have taken more time and used that shuttle. Instead we made it out for a 3pm ride out with the same company. In fact, we arrived at the road end in good enough time to wait for 15 minutes for the shuttle... I contemplated changing into dry clothes, but my raincoat was soaked through and the rain was still pretty torrential, so I thought I would leave that for our accommodation.

We were returned to our car at Safer Parking, and Mark drove us around town looking for a place to stay. We abandoned our booked tent site in favour of a motel with a bed and private bathroom, (it was one of the only places we could see that had a vacancy sign!) meaning we could both get out of wet stuff straight away, rather than having to find and pitch a tent in the rain (it was also useful that the motel had towels, as ours were now wet from having been sat on for the journey from Safer Parking to the motel!). Having hot showers in our room and sleeping on a bed rather than an air mattress was great too, as was having ample room to put wet stuff and dry stuff without having to worry about whether they were going to get more wet from the rain!

Getting in and out of chairs and off the bed was a substantial problem for me all night (and to a lesser extent for the next couple of days), and I was so exhausted that I napped for about an hour before dinner (we took the car a whole 1km to the Moose for it. That place is still as good as I remember!), and then again from about 9pm, to be woken by and tap on the shoulder and "Happy New Years" from Mark at midnight (so much for the "we'll sit in the motel and have a couple of beers while we wait for the new year" plan from dinner time, and the "Te Anau goes off for New Years, so lets party till the small hours" plan from before we left home!).

The rain stopped briefly at midnight, so there were fireworks, which were nice. We watched them in our PJ's from the door of our motel unit. Would have been great to have had the energy to be out on the waterfront - bet there would have been some cool shots to get. They would have had a neat view from the ridge just east of Luxmore Hut too. Might have to remember that for another year...

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!)

EIGHT GET WET

(AKA: TOTARA FLATS THAT WASN’T)

Powell Hut, Tararua Forest ParkDate: 27 February – 1 March 2009
People: Amelia (Leader), Joel, Lilian, Anna, Victoria, Mark, Barbara, Deborah.

Friday night at the railway station there were some concerned faces (in the other group at least) during discussion of the weather report for the weekend – wet, windy and generally not very nice. Being hardy souls, we all decided that the weather report had changed so many times in the last 8 hours that it was pretty much irrelevant, so we piled into the GUTLESS WONDER (aka the diesel, automatic, rental van) and headed off to the Wairarapa.

Arriving in Carterton at a respectable 7pm (having left Wellington ON TIME for once), an announcement was made that good kebabs were here, fish n chips down the road, each to their own, see you in about half an hour… Half an hour later we had barely managed to all order at Istanbul, and by the time we had all eaten and were looking at heading off, it was nearly 8. Sent Victoria and Mark off to find Joel who was watching the cricket at the pub and got back on the road.

But it was OK, since it was only a short drive on to the road end, and after running in to the caretaker who informed us that it actually costs money to sleep at the Holdsworth road end, some people headed off to Donnelly flat and others camped out in the shelter at the road end anyway, deciding that staying dry in the morning was more important. It wasn’t a bad choice, as it started raining at about 6.15am and it was lovely to continue lying in bed, listening to the rain, knowing that there were flush toilets just there, and we didn’t have to get wet getting organized to go.

Pulling out the map as we worked through breakfast, a discussion was held on likely issues on our intended route – including unbridged streams and the fact that if the weather cleared (which was looking more unlikely) there wasn’t anything to go look at from Totara Flats. So we decided to head up the hill to Powell for the night instead, hoping for the weather to clear to allow us a short stroll up to the trig. Talking to another group at the lodge, we found that it was probably the right decision, as one of their group had gone in to Totara Flats in bad weather and been stuck at the hut because of uncrossable streams in the past.

So up the hill we trudged, into ever worsening weather. The wind was blowing DIRECTLY in the door of Mountain House, meaning it really provided no shelter at all. So, we had a really quick stop for food and water and got moving again. Up towards Powell it got challenging at times with the wind trying to blow us all off the hill, and the clouds making sure we couldn’t see where we would fall if we did. Eventually the hut appeared in front of us, lashed by rain and the verandah offering no shelter for taking off wet gear, so all the wet gear went inside instead, where it dripped into huge puddles in the doorway.

Thankfully the old gas heater that had been broken on my last overnight visit to Powell had been replaced by a coal fire and plenty of coal to burn, so once we were all in dry clothes, it was time to get the fire lit and a billy of water on for hot drinks to go with lunch. We were all still vaguely hopeful that the weather would improve – mainly so we didn’t have to go down to the toilets in wet gear and nasty weather – but it steadfastly refused to get any better, so we were confined to the hut all afternoon. Naps and reading ensued before dinner at a reasonable time and dessert as the light faded. At some stage a report came in that the door had half come off one toilet, meaning there was only ONE toilet available - which caused a couple of short queues during the evening of people waiting inside for the person ahead to come back. Everyone wandered off to bed, only to be woken at about 2am by a member of another party loudly complaining about the members of a third playing with the fire and quietly talking. None of us had heard any of the noise though, so we don’t know what she was going on about!

Sunday morning was a lazy affair for everyone in the hut. The larger other group had originally planned to head over to Jumbo, but the weather had changed that plan on Saturday, when the plan had been changed to East Holdsworth if the weather cleared, which it didn’t. The couple who had still (apparently) been up at 2am had consumed rather a large amount of wine, and were still only just stirring from their bunks at about 8.30. We had a relaxed breakfast, pack up and clean up and headed out of the hut about 9.30am. With only about three hours walking ahead, followed by lunch in Carterton, we were in no hurry. Most of us had put back on at least some wet gear from Saturday before leaving, so the cold wind and slow pace down hill was a tad miserable. Once we got to Mountain House (out of the wind and into improving weather) we all went at our own pace, stopping a couple of times along the way to make sure everyone was still there. The further down the hill we got the warmer it was, and the less clothes people coming in the opposite direction were wearing. We started to feel a bit silly and overdressed!

Back to the van, changed into dry clothes and off to Carterton for yummy lunch and a beer at the White Swan, collecting an extra from the other group along the way, follwed by a stop at Schoc chocolates before leaving town and we were back in what was actually quite a sunny, warm Wellington (well, comparably) early enough to get the van back to the rental company before it closed!

Helicopter-tastic, Episode Two

Saturday 21 June 2008


Tongariro Crossing, Mangatepopo Road End, Tongariro National Park.

Team: Rene, Paul, Myself

As Mark was away in Europe, I was often away tramping for weekends to keep myself occupied. WT&MC does a Winter Solstice trip every year to the club lodge, where you daywalk on Saturday, party Saturday night and then mooch around a bit on Sunday before heading home. Plans are always fluid depending on who is around, what the people who are capable to lead feel like doing and what the weather is up to. This year we had fantastic clear, crisp skies. The schedule indicated Tama Lakes as the daywalk, with a mountain bike trip to a local loop.

Paul, Rene and I all agreed we didn’t really feel like doing the Tama Lakes walk again. I had done it in November 2007 and found it a bit tedious. Instead, with clear weather in winter we were keen to head over to the Tongariro Crossing to do a there-and-back to South Crater, picking up the mountain bikers on our way home in the afternoon.

The sun was bright and there was not a cloud in the sky as we parked the van at the Mangatepopo Road End. It was absolutely freezing, especially in the shade. As we meandered up the valley towards Soda Springs, every pool of water we found was frozen up to two cm thick, and further up the valley even the streams were frozen over in places. Large segments of the track also obviously never saw sunshine at that time of year!



We passed very few people, except one really oddly dressed tourist in jeans and chucks, carrying a stereo in her shoulder bag… She must have had a really early start, because she was at Soda Springs the same time we were, about 10am, heading down the valley towards Mangatepopo Hut.




Up the new devils staircase in the sun and cold, we got to the top and sat down to take a morning tea break, enjoying the views across to Mt Taranaki and the sunshine. A decision was made that I would wander into South Crater and try some photography, while the guys were going to try and circumnavigate the bowl of South Crater and pick me up on their way back.

All of a sudden there was a scream from slightly further along the track. We all looked at each other and looked across to the large asian woman who we had all noted walking towards us. We waited 10 seconds or so to see if she was going to get herself up, and when she continued screaming instead we all packed up our gear and headed over to find her moaning in pain, lying in a puddle with her ankle at a very odd angle.

In these conditions, with the cold and a strong breeze, the first concern we had was moving her out of that puddle because none of us had suitable dry clothing to change her into. So we grabbed her under the arms and around the knees and shunted her ever so slightly backwards. She spoke almost no English, so our examination was exceedingly cursory – “where does it hurt” was understood well enough as she pointed at her ankle (which was obviously damaged). “Are you warm enough” generated a response of her grabbing more clothes out of her bag (she was remarkably well prepared compared to many other tourists we had heard stories about).

There were no two ways about it. There was no way we could get her out ourselves. We were at the top of the Devils Staircase with a larger (about 95kg+) woman who spoke very little English and with only a very basic first aid kit. We couldn’t support her ankle enough for her to use it, and we didn’t have enough strength to carry her out, nor could we explain sufficiently assisting her out. So out came the cellphone and a desperate attempt at finding enough signal to make an emergency call.

Our lunch spot had coverage sufficient only to send texts and make emergency calls. Perfect. We pulled out the map and the GPS and got readings off both of them for where we were. Rene thought it a bit odd that I asked for the police when I rang 111, but then had a dawning realisation when I then asked for the northern region search & rescue coordinator. Wonderfully, the woman we got on the phone was an avid tramper and had been in our exact location less than three weeks earlier.

Once we had given them an update on what was happening, there was nothing to do but sit and wait. Unfortunately, none of us had brought a cooker or similar with us, so a hot brew was out of the question. It also wouldn’t have been fair on our injured party as we had been instructed that they were only to be given water. No painkillers, no food in case she needed urgent surgery or similar once in hospital.

After what seemed like an eternity (but was only really a couple of hours) and a couple of false alarms where the aircraft flying towards us was obviously on a tour, the chopper we wanted hovered into view right down at the road end, following the track up to find us, as we had expected they would. The closest landing spot was our morning tea seating area, slightly above us.




During this time we had encountered several other tramping parties, some of whom had decided we obviously had things under control, some who completely ignored the situation, but we were so thankful for the small party of kiwis who gave up their attempt to get over the crossing in order to take a note back to the road end for our patients friend explaining the situation, and making a phone call to confirm our situation to SaR once they were back in cellphone range.

Finally someone else was taking over the situation, and we were all exceedingly glad. By this stage Rene, Paul and I were all wearing every single item of clothing we had brought along for the day and we were still feeling the cold. The cloud was also closing in on us, which had caused us substantial concern about visibility for getting the helicopter in if it had come in any further before it arrived.

After loading our patient into a stretcher and taking a quick photo of the “team”, we carried her over and up to the chopper and they were off to try and find her tramping companion – the one we had seen earlier in the day carrying a stereo and wearing jeans. As for us, we were off back down the track towards our van and its warmth. By the time we had made it down into the valley, the ledge we had been standing on when the helicopter arrived was no longer visible. By the time we were 20 minutes down the valley, even the head of the valley had disappeared into the cloud.





Once back in the van, it was time to wait for the mountain biking boys and then we were back to the lodge in near-darkness to have hot showers, retell our story and rest up before dinner and the all-evening party that is solstice weekend.

Helicopter-tastic, Episode One

8-10 February 2008

Waitewaewae Track, Otaki Forks Road End, Tararua Forest Park

Party: Ray (leader), Sue, Sam, Kerryn, Mark, Antony, Sarah, Carol, Daniel, Me

Friday began much like any other normal weekend tramp. Well, maybe not, given it was sevens weekend and almost everyone else headed towards the railway station was in costume...
On arrival, I greeted Ray and was introduced to the group at large. I started chatting to Mark, on account of his awesome t-shirt (Reads: "Dirty, Filthy, Stinky, Tramp" in big letters down the back), and discovered that he was new to the club and fairly new to Wellington as well. I thought he was kinda cute.

Driving on to the road end, dinner was in Waikanae, which has really only average dinner venues. But it was hot and greasy, so thats all that really matters. Before too long we were at the Otaki Forks road-end setting up camp outside Parawai Lodge.

Mark, Kerryn and I shared one end of a club fly and my ground sheet. Problem was that where I wound up within the tent had a lump in the middle of it, so neither end of the bed was a comfortable way around to sleep - I just cant sleep with my head below my hips. Eventually I gave up and went up onto the hut deck to sleep - far more comfortable, and shaded from the moon!

Saturday morning dawned HOT. And sunny. Real February weather!
We wandered off down the track at a pace that both Kerryn and I struggled with in the heat. At the big swingbridge I was already having dreams of stopping on the way back for a swim. The river was so beautiful, it was an amazing spot.



Once all across the bridge one at a time, we continued on, around the massive slip that keeps moving, and eventually onto the old tramway.


At the old pulley we stopped to have lunch and dry the tent fly, which had got a bit of condensation on it and not enough sunshine. Once we had packed up we were off again towards Waitewaiwai Hut, our destination for the night. We dropped into the river and followed the track in and out of it and up and down around it for a while.


All of a sudden there was a screaming yell from behind me. Sarah had had the track collapse underneath her feet and had slipped partway down the bank, badly twisting her ankle. First aid was administered in the form of cold cloths, elevation and painkillers, and once Sarah was feeling better we made an attempt to start walking her out. After about 15 minutes of difficult scramble due to her being unable to bear any weight on her ankle and the ground (and lack of strong people) making a carry impractical, we stopped on another bank where the river narrowed and discussed options.
The route around the slip was in no way going to be at all negotiable with Sarah unable to walk. It wasnt a "track" so much as "goat-track" - narrow, steep and slippery. There was no way we could get even one support person alongside Sarah through there. The river had good wide flats, but could also possibly require a series of swims to get back to Otaki Forks, and it was a river that got much larger as you got closer to the forks, and with two young boys on the tramp it wasnt really a suitable option.

In the end, Ray set off his PLB, which was an old 121.5 with 3-years "expired" batteries, left his food with us for the evening and took Sam for a rapid walk back to the road end to call for assistance from the ranger station. The rest of us got out cookers and billies and made a brew while we waited to see what would happen. We set up two tent flies alongside the track (in an area so narrow that the party that came through the next day looked around them and wondered WHERE the tents had been!), threw on warm clothes and generally made ourselves comfortable, telling stories and sharing jokes.


Suddenly, I could hear a helicopter. Surely not. The beacon had only been on for two hours, and there was no way Ray and Sam could be back at the road end yet! But yes, it was a chopper and it was looking for us - turns out an aircraft had picked up our signal within about 20 minutes of the beacon being set off!

Next thing we knew, a man had been dropped from the sky and was turning to talk to us about what was going on.

Within 45 minutes of that, Sarah had been airlifted out and we were all of a sudden on our own again, waiting out the night alongside the track. The idea of walking back to the road end, or at least back to the old steam-engine pulley, was very briefly voiced, but there would have been a risk that we would have wound up walking in the dark. Funnily enough, walking on to the hut held even less appeal by this stage!

Bed was early since there was nothing else to do, and was not a bad nights sleep, all told. Yes, my bed was on a slope, and yes, I spent most of my night with one leg hooked around a punga stump to stop me sliding down the hill, but I actually woke feeling refreshed, which was lovely.

In the morning, we were up fairly early. After leaving a note for the other party, we divvied up Sarahs pack and wandered off, stopping for a good while at the point where the track leaves the river, in case Ray and Sam had walked back in to meet us. After a while we decided they obviously hadn't and continued on. The day was muggy and threatening to rain, which it finally did once we were past the big swing bridge.

The swim at the road-end carpark was divinely cold and welcoming! Mark, Ray and I were in the van, which was waiting for Stuart and his party to come out from a harder tramp. Joyously, they had junkfood to share on the way home!