Janet and Graham's 3rd trip

Hutbagging Trip 3 – 1.11am to 11.22pm 22 February 07
Janet Wilson and Graham Peters


We were off again, only 1 week after the last trip. The weather seemed good and settled and the conditions underfoot in the Tararuas ideal and anyway, I was going to be pretty busy over the next few weeks with the rogaine champs and the TMR.

Back to the eastern side, where we left a car at the Kiriwhakapapa Rd end and started, after takeaways in Eketahuna, at the Putara Rd end at 1.11am. Another lovely but dark night.

Fortunately there was no one at Herepai Hut when we arrived at 2.55am but back down the hill at Roaring Stag (4.40am) the place was crowded with sleeping bodies all over the veranda. We crept around and found the hut book, but judging by the amount of wine bottles on the table, the group there should have been soundly asleep.

Over the river, we spent a few minutes hunting around for the Cattle Ridge track, but we'd done this before and it wasn't too difficult. We reached Cattle Ridge Hut just on dawn (6.31 am) and stopped for photographs. Then it was on towards Dundas – we hadn't done this part of the trip before but it wasn't hard to find the route down to the Ruamahunga – just remember to go down the gut, not long after you start to sidle – look for the marker some way down. Down down down to the river, then up up up to Dundas Hut. We were out in the sun part way up and it felt like it was going to be a hot day. However, as we approached the hut (10am), cloud started blowing over from the west through the saddles and by the time we were on the tops of the ridge it was starting to obscure our route.



Cattle Ridge Hut at dawn



Dundas Hut - left of centre


Cloud on the Dundas Range

Getting to Logan and Dundas isn' t a problem, although the ground trail on this part of the tops isn't quite as well worn as in some other areas. The cloud was coming and going as we dropped off Dundas, following the line of cairns that leads to towards Arete. However, at a critical point where the ridge split, we lost visibility altogether, and chose a slightly wrong spur to the west. We realised our mistake and came back up to retrace our steps, found a line of cairns again and set off. After dropping for a while in the cloud,we checked the altimeter and realised something was wrong – about 100m lower than we needed to go. Checked the compass and realised that we were going 90 degrees wrong towards the west – indeed, this turned out to be the marked route towards Triangle Spur which leads to the Mangahao. Bad,bad, bad navigation. We headed back up and before the top of Dundas, the mist cleared enough to pick the correct route.

The weather was deteriorating with more cloud and the wind picking up. We reached Arete Biv at 1.40pm. This wasn't hard to find as we had been there via the Bannister crossing last summer. On that trip, after 3 awful windy nights stuck in the biv in a storm, we baled out to Arete forks via Arete Stream – not a trip I really want to repeat. So we went along to Pinnacle spur which wasn't very pleasant in the wind, and the spur with all its little up and downs made us rather grumpy. It was good to reach the bush again and Arete Forks Hut at 4.14pm.

After a short rest, on good advice from Tony Gates we went down the river to Cow Creek. This was the best part of the day and was really pleasant – it's abit sporty with plenty of bouldery bits but no deep pools. Saw quite a few trout. We didn't rush and it must have taken about 2 hours. We got into Cow Creek Hut just after 6pm. Tony had also given us good route directions for the next bit to pick up the track to Blue Range. This went well, and we were nearly on the ridge before it got completely dark. Into Blue Range Hut at 9.38pm – the little drop into the hut felt just abit too far at this stage - as did the trip out which is all down hill and not at all hard to follow. Back to the car at 11.22pm -our shortest trip. Good to bag another 8 huts.

Janet and Graham's 2nd Trip

Hutbagging Trip 2 - 2.17am 14 Feb to 1.59am 15 Feb 07
Janet Wilson and Graham Peters

Following the formula from trip one, we left 1 car at the Poads Rd end and drove on to Otaki Forks for a short sleep in the car, before heading of at 2.17am, for Parawai Lodge (first easy points) and WTYY Hut. It was a lovely clear early morning but very dark with no moon.

We may still have been half asleep as the walk to the hut seemed to take ages, especially the section in the stream. The route over the active slip on the track was also interesting at night. What seems like a overly well marked track in the daylight becomes much harder to follow at night and the small number of flourescent maker were appreciated. We went the long way around the sidle track rather than drop into the Otaki as it was still dark and reached the hut at 6.40am. We enjoyed the climb up to Junction Knob, and the easy tramp along to Andersons, arriving at 10.25am. Cloud was blowing through the low saddles, from the east and that side was covered in low cloud.


Looking Sth from near Shoulder Knob

We backtracked to Junction Knob and headed over Crawford which was in cloud as we reached the top. This is a good spot to have a check of your map and compass as the obvious ground trail straight ahead isn't the way to go! Nichols Hut took a long time to appear – infact, at one stage I was starting to believe we could have walked passed it – must have been getting hungry. Got there at 1.15pm and had a rest for a short time – we were becoming abit concerned as up until now, we'd taken longer than planned and I was doubting whether we could complete this trip in time. Neither of us had been beyond Nichols and so wern't familiar with the track. We contemplated other possibilities, such as dropping off Dracophyllum Ridge at Kelleher and going to Oriwa Biv. However, the track was really good and easy and very nearly dry and we made good time along to Dracophyllum Biv (3.43pm) and then over Pukematawai to Te Matawai hut (6.53pm). The weather, which had been threatening to clag in, luckily backed off to the east. Stunning views in this area and it was great to be there.


Looking towards Drac Ridge and Crawford from near Pukematawai

We pushed on , trying to get as far as possible before dark. At Richards Knob I was back in familiar country, and we got nearly to Waiopehu Hut (9.35pm) before it was really dark. I'd been here the previous weekend and took 2 1/2 hours to get out so thought we had plenty of time. However, things always go slower when you're tired and it's dark.
Surprised a deer in the dark – she was very close to us and didn't know where to go. Lots of possums too. Nearly 4 hours out from Waiopehu – reached the road end at 1.59am, going very quietly here to try not to wake the noisy dogs that live right there. Had a few hours sleep in the car at the reserve just down the road, then drove back around to get the other car – a big trip.

Janet Wilsons Trip 1

Trip 1 - 2.15am 17 January to 2.36am,18 January.
Janet Wilson and Graham Peters

After hours of pleasurable pondering and planning, we we're finally off.

To overcome the problem of finishing at different roads ends, we took both our cars,leaving one at the end of Mangatarere Rd and taking the other to the Holdsworth Rd end. We got here just and dark and settled into the back of the station wagon for a few hours sleep. It was a beautiful clear starry evening. The alarm woke us around 1.30am and we emerged from the car to find the mist was right down. Hmm, we gave a few moments consideration to aborting the trip, which is a very hard thing to do, and decided quickly to carry on as planned. Had a quick feed – found that tinned peaches go down well at this time of the day - and headed off at the gentle pace, aware that we had a long day ahead of us. In five minutes we had our first points – Holdsworth Lodge! We arrived at Mountain House shelter at 3.54am, had a snack and found a previous hutbagger's sticker stuck to the wall here as there is no hut book. Not far above here, the mist turned to rain and we gave in to it and put our parkas on. Powell Hut emerged out to the cloud at 5am – we tiptoed into here (as well as you can in your boots), made a cup of tea using the gas and had a half hour break while we waited for the sky to lighten. Then it was on and up to Holdsworth Trig, where it was quite cold and there were no views,. Then is was down and up to Isabelle and then the long descent to Mid Wiohine Hut. From Holdsworth on, this was new territory for both of us.
We arrived at Mid Wiohine Hut at 8am, surprising a father and son who'd spent the night there. The cloud was almost down to the hut but the rain had stopped. We were travelling with a copy of “Tararua Footprints” which suggested using the river from here to the swing bridge but we think the sidle track is a better option. The nearly 1000m climb to Aokaparangi from here is quite efficient on a good track. We were glad to have filled up
with water at the stream near the bottom of a climb as there isn't any easy water above here for a long way. We wern't all that confident about finding Aokap Biv in the mist and did waste time here going too low before finding it where is should have been. “Any port in a storm” they say, but it would have to be pretty bad for me to choose to stay here – it's a shame some hunters leave such a mess, and it's location on the top of a bog isn't the best. No hut book here and we appeared to be first hutbagggers into here so we stuck the sticker to the sign on the door.
Its not a big climb back onto the well trodden and familiar track towards Maungahuka. There seemed to be more ups and downs than I remembered though. The hut appeared at 2.20pm, We had 20 -30m viz and still had had no views. The new hut looked OK, abit of builders mess still outside and the toilet seems very close to the hut – and tarn. We had around 40 minutes here and were still feeling quite good, although abit tired, at around the ½ way point.Then it was another long descent into unfamiliar country to Neil Forks Hut, via Concertina Knob. We reached here at 5.15pm and then, fairly slowly, climbed up to Cone Ridge and then followed a long easy track down to Totara Flats,arriving 8.30pm. The cloud had finally lifted some time late in the day and it was a nice evening and we had about an hour of daylight left. We got some advice from people at the hut on the location of Sayers Hut but somehow got our wires crossed abit and had trouble finding what isn't a difficult hut and wasted time here. However, we still had plenty of time to get out to our 2nd car and stopped here for a feed, at around 9.30pm. It was really dark by the time we left here and things started to go wrong. The track appeared to start at the back of the hut but certainly wasn't well marked and not that far along it, we realised that this was going to be difficult to follow at night – infact, we wern't sure we were really on the right track. This is the same track that, further up it, caused us grief on the Tararua 24 Rogaine and we are going to have to go back in the daylight sometime to sort out where it goes.
Anyway, there wasn't much time to make decisions, and we quickly decided, that although we would be late, the safest decision was to go back the long way via Totara Flats, Totara Creek and Mountain House to our start point. We had done this track in the dark during the Tararua 24 which is just as well as it's tricky at night at a couple of points. I must say that poor Graham, who is reluctant to go fast at any time, let alone after 20 hours on his feet, really extended himself on this section and I was really pleased, at the end of it all, to be only 21 minutes late! It was a big day out – if you add in all the ups and downs, there's over 4000m of up! It was good to travel new routes but some views would have been nice. My only advice would be to travel familiar routes at

Christian Thiemann on south ridge of Girdlestone Peak.

42 hours in paradise

42 hours in paradise- the high central Tararuas. 16- 17 Feb, Tony Gates and Christian Thiemann.

This hutbagging Rogaine may be seem like madness to some, but it sure is a great way to see the Tararuas- lots of them- in a short period of time. Christian, with only three months in New Zealand, saw 10 huts in the high central Tararuas with me in 2 days, ie 42 hours in paradise. And this was his second rogaine to the area in a month. For me, a bit of an ageing Tararua hunter, I enjoyed revisiting old haunts and poking around some new ones. There is always something new and interesting in the Tararuas.

We had schemed, planned, and prepared, but maintained a flexible and safe route. After a 3 AM departure from Kiriwhakapa, and bagging Blue Range hut, we both fell asleep at Cow Creek Hut for a bit. A brew was needed too, to put us in the mood for the river route up to Arete Forks Hut. An easy 1 ½ hours later, we reached the hut in rain, after only a few knee deep river crossings and no real difficulties. A beautiful river. We followed the footsteps of Mike Sheridan and Andrew McLellan (in reverse) up Pinnacle Spur, and later discovered that we were just in front of them along Dracophyllym Biv area, then Dorset Ridge. We felt good with the uphill exercise, and just got better during the day. Mist came and went, some sunshine north to Arete Biv, and more over to Dracophyllum Biv. Several orchids were flowering along the track, as well as Edelweiss, Senecios, and Celmisias. By then, we were following the day old footprints of fellow rogainers Janet Wilson and Graham Peters. They told us it was a lovely place, and we agreed. Nicholls hut, our 6th for the day, looked very attractive as a bitterly cold southerly pounded us towards the end. Quite a few hutbagging stickers in the log book there. Brew time, dry out, and sleep.


Forecast perfect weather didn’t arrive till mid morning, by which time we had floundered in the mist on Nicholls, and navigated east down to Park Forks. This was the second time here for Christian, kind of special to see the area again, but from different angles- and different weather. Dry feet over both the Park and Waiohine rivers. Dorset Ridge, otherwise known as deer highway, offered good travel, made so much more pleasant in sunshine. We were the first hutbaggers to check into Dorset Ridge Hut, a lonely ex NZFS outpost, then first to Tarn Ridge Hut (the one which features on the stickers and programme). The tussock tops there were lovely, with fairly easy terrain, great views, and that lovely tarn. We paused for a brew on Girdlestone, and had to cover up well from the sun. We scurried along the ridge south to the Kings, chasing a few deer off the ridge and admiring views of places we knew so well. We noted the wreck site of Airspeed Oxford NZ1237, and graves of J Corrin and R Abrahams (from January 1942)- there are several other aircraft wrecks throughout the Tararuas. The steep descent track to Mid King Bivvy was overgrown. Plentiful water and shade there. We were glad to continue in the bush, plodding on down to Mitre Flats- our last hut for the trip- then the Waingawa road end. We made it just on dark.