Windy Tops

Category: trip report

  • Daywalk: Colonial Knob to Kaukau

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    Spicer Forest.

    I haven’t been up Colonial Knob for some time. It happens to be on the one Topo50 map in the Wellington Region that I never got around to buying, being just a corner around Porirua. At 468 metres, Colonial Knob is the highest point along Wellington’s western hills, it’s home to a radar outpost of the Airways Corporation, and on a nice day there are some good views over to the south island, including features like the Kaikoura Range. There’s a loop’ish track that leads up from Porirua, but recently thanks to negotiations with landowners towards the establishment of Te Araroa — the project to connect a continuous walking route along the entire length of New Zealand — it’s now possible to get through some private land and onto the side of Mt Kaukau. Actually this has apparently been possible for some years, but I hadn’t realised until now. I’ve walked out to Porirua and beyond several times, but always through suburbia, and I was really keen to see where Te Araroa would direct people. It turns out there’s a 6km road walk in the middle of the Wellington section, but at least it’s rural roads.

    Date: 29th August, 2010
    Location: Wellington Region.
    Route: Starting at Elsdon (Porirua), get up Colonial Knob, then follow the Te Araroa route through Spicer Forest to somewhere in the vicinity of Mt Kaukau.
    [Photos]
    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/20100829-colonial-knob-to-kaukau.gpx%5D

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    I like getting to places with public transport where possible, and this walk’s a good candidate. I walked to Wellington Railway Station through 30 minutes of torrential rain, but still had hopes of a nicer day. Having caught a late morning train to Porirua, it took maybe 15 minutes to walk across various streets and arrive at the Elsdon Youth Camp (by now about 11.45am and only very light rain), from which the walking track entrance has an entire car-park alongside the camp and is quite well signposted.
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  • A miscellaneous Belmont and Hutt River walk

    Yesterday was fairly sunny, as winter days in Wellington go, and I found myself on a fairly miscellaneous wander through parts of Belmont Regional Park and (eventually) Lower Hutt.

    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/20100821-dry-creek-hutt-river.gpx%5D

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    One of at least four Kereru that were
    very noisily flapping around near the
    road at the Kelson entrance.

    I thought I might catch a train out to the Dry Creek entrance to Belmont Regional Park (most easily accessible from Manor Park Railway Station), and see where I ended up. It wasn’t until after I’d bought my day-rover ticket that I remembered many commuter trains in Wellington are being replaced by buses right now, at least on weekends, while they’re continuing various line upgrades. So I hopped on the Rail Replacement bus to find that due to various road layout issues, it wasn’t going to stop at Manor Park railway station. Instead it’d drop me at Silverstream (the next station along) and I’d then have to look for a “dinky little purple bus” to get back to Manor Park. It turns out the dinky little purple bus wasn’t very well synchronised with the other buses, and the person driving it had never been to Manor Park Railway Station before. Myself and the other poor guy on that bus eventually ended up in the right place, well over an hour after the train-bus had left Wellington.
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  • Trip: Purity, Pourangaki, Kelly Knight (in Winter)

    Last weekend I went out with some trampey club friends, and repeated a Ruahines trip from October 2007, in which we’d gone past Purity Hut, around Iron Peg and down to Pourangaki Hut, then out via Kelly Knight. We’d intended to do something different that time and get down to Waterfall Hut, but strong wind above Purity Hut changed our plans to go somewhere easier to escape from afterwards. This time, we followed the route intentionally. Although there was less wind, the trip had more of a winter feeling with snow on the tops. I think I also saw more of the range this time around — last time I spent much of the time with my face near the ground and my hat stuck in my eyes.

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    South-east of Iron Peg, early Saturday afternoon.

    Dates: 6th – 8th August, 2010
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Mangakukeke Road.
    People: Amanda, Richard, Dirk, Megan, Éamonn and me.
    Huts visited: Purity Hut (0 nights), Pourangaki Hut (1 night), Kelly Knight Hut (0 nights).
    Route: Up past Purity Hut, around Wooden Peg and Iron Peg to spot-height 1632, then down to Pourangaki Hut for Saturday night. Up to spot-height 1614 and Pourangaki and down to Kelly Knight Hut. Then out to the road over Kohunui Station (permission is required for this final section).
    [Photos]
    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/20100807-purity-pourangaki-kellyknight.gpx%5D

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    We left Wellington Railway Station at about 5.30pm on Friday night as part of the traditional bustle that is various Wellington-based outdoor recreation clubs packing into transport to go to wherever they’re going, with ourselves making our way to the end of Mangakukeke Road. It’s roughly inland from Mangaweka. We stayed overnight near the start of the entrance to the range, and shortly after 8am on Saturday morning the six of us were ready to leave.
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  • Trip: Tararua Moonlight Southern Crossing

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    Near Marchant Ridge, 5.35am.

    Last weekend Sam, Craig and myself were able to get through a Tararua Moonlight Southern Crossing. I wrote about an aborted attempt to do this just over a year ago when Craig and I were ready to go, but pulled out because it looked certain that the Tararuas would still be shrouded in cloud. A big storm was also coming 24 hours later that could have caused problems if we’d been held up for too long, and it proved to be really bad for a couple of people on the night following the one we planned. That was my first boycotted Moonlight Southern Crossing, and Craig’s third. There’s a tricky set of circumstances that have to come together, and at that point it’s necessary to be able to pick up and go on short notice.

    This year, a departing southerly had dumped snow on the tops a day or so earlier, the stormy weather had since passed by, the sky was suspiciously clear (as opposed to clouds that so often dominate the Tararuas), and there was a Full Moon. All of these requirements for a Moonlight Southern Crossing came together at the same time, which is a rare event, and to top it off it was a weekend! And waiting on the road upstairs to be collected at 1pm on the Saturday, I had a phone call where Craig told me his car wouldn’t start. Flat battery.

    Dates: 24th – 25th July, 2010
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Otaki Forks to Kaitoke.
    People: Sam, Craig and me.
    Huts visited: Field Hut (0 nights), Kime Hut (0 nights), Alpha Hut (0 nights)
    Route: Otaki Forks up to Field Hut, past Table Top and Dennan to Kime Hut, over Field Peak, Hector, the Beehives, Atkinson, Aston, and Alpha to Alpha Hut, then through Hells Gate to Omega and allllllll the way along Marchant Ridge past Marchant and Dobson, then out at Kaitoke. (Actually out at Kiwi Ranch for our own convenience, which is next-door.)
    Also see: Craig’s account of the same trip.
    [Photos]

    [Download GPX file] [View GPX on NZTopoMap]
    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    I find this type of thing notoriously difficult to pack for, because it’s not something I do very often. The Tararaua Southern Crossing is typically a 3 day tramp, but with some effort and fitness it’s feasible to walk it in a long summer’s day, or (in this case) a long winter’s night, albeit using some basic alpine skills. It helps a lot to reduce weight but I don’t like leaving behind safety equipment in the Tararuas, ever, or generally in back-country places. In the end we all took sleeping bags and bivy bags in case of emergency (but didn’t bother with a tent or any other kind of shelter), and I left behind a few luxuries like extra hut clothes and a ground sheet, and the food was much more biased towards lunch-type stuff. I threw in a few Moro bars purely for caffeine content. I think maybe I saved a few kilograms, even if it was hard to tell after a while. Adding the ice axe after all of this didn’t help with the weight thing, though.
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  • Trip: Crow Hut, McKinnon Hut and general confusion

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    Above McKinnon Hut.

    Getting out of Crow Hut right now is one of the more awkward climbs from a valley I’ve personally had. We more or less slid down the hill-side yesterday morning, persistent rain apparently making the topsoil absolutely sodden. A year ago I bought the cheapest Scarpas I could find, part of an experiment with getting cheap boots, but the soles are the best I’ve had on any boots to date and I’ve learned to trust them. Yesterday they often failed. Placing them flat on the soil (usually safe) was enough to trigger random acts of slipping and sliding, or sometimes not. So, now on the way up, and faced with one of yesterday’s 80 centimetre skid-marks on a 40 degree slope and no clear way around the edges, I have some uncertainty about exactly where to put my foot.

    Still, in my case with hands poised in front ready to spread myself flat on the ground and slow the slide next time something slips out of place, we eventually get through the worst of it.

    There’s snow up here now, which must be from last night.

    Dates: 25th – 27th June, 2010
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Kawhatau Base Road-end.
    People: Amanda, Alistair, Richard and me.
    Huts visited: Crow Hut (1 night), McKinnon Hut (0 nights)
    Planned route: Up and around the Mokai Patea Ridge, down to Crow Hut for Saturday night. Then up and along the Hikurangi Range over Mangaweka, and out past Purity Hut.
    Actual route: Straight to Crow Hut for Saturday night, up along and down to McKinnon Hut, back to the Kawhatau River via the main track, then bashing up to a farm.
    [Photos]
    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/20100627-crow-hut-and-mckinnon-hut.gpx%5D

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    Yesterday was a short day. Camping at Kawhatau Base overnight, we’d hoped to get up over Mokai Patea — an alpine ridge which you know you’re on because it’s a kilometre wide (as Alistair put it) — drop down to Crow Hut and stay a night, then up to the tops and along the Hikurangi Range. Another trampey club group sharing our transport, with a shorter plan in mind (walking into McKinnon Hut and back), was set to drive the van further south later today to collect us. We abandoned our whole plan before it began, looking at the weather and everything. Just rain and rain and rain, not entirely claggy tops but enough to limit visibility to about 5o metres or so. We decided to ditch the idea of the Hikurangis, go straight to Crow Hut, and maybe get up early and around the Mokai Patea Range on the next day, ending up back where we began.
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  • Learning and Instruction

    Today I attended an outdoor first aid refresher course, which is the regular course required every two years to retain an existing outdoor first aid certificate. This instance of the course was run by the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council, an organisation dedicated to encouraging safe practices outdoors. Members of the MSC help to design and to teach courses on a variety of topics, of which First Aid is only one.

    Anyone can sign up to an MSC course, as long as the course pre-requisites are met. For those generally interested in outdoor safety, however, the MSC encourages people to join as instructors. Presently throughout New Zealand the MSC has and handful of paid staff, but its main strength is in over 1000 volunteer instructors. Researching best practices, designing and running the courses and comprehensive training material helps to spread the knowledge further among the outdoor community, but encouraging people to train to be instructors also helps to reinforce and embed what skills are learned. It’s a really cool philosophy and culture in which people continue to use the skills by learning to teach the skills.
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  • Trip: Walls Whare to Totara Flats, and Cone Peak

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    Near Cone Peak.

    A few times now, I’ve wondered just how many degrees of separation there are between people who visit New Zealand’s back-country. Maybe a few people know nearly everyone, and the whole network is very closely connected. Maybe there are geographically localised networks.

    Dates: 12th – 13th June, 2010
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Walls Whare Road-end.
    People: Steve, Megan B, Hans, Christine, Kevin and me.
    Huts visited: Totara Flats Hut (1 night)
    Planned route: Up past Cone Saddle, over Cone and down to Neill Forks for Saturday night. Then back up and around Totara Flats, back towards the road.
    Actual route: Straight to Totara Flats for Saturday night, up over Cone and back to start.
    [Photos]

    [Download GPX file] [View GPX on NZTopoMap]
    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    We chased rainbows through the roads of the Wairarapa, and rain finally began to come down on us as we arrived in the parking area at the road-end of Walls Whare. There’s a nice camping area here, but it’d be somehow silly to use it this time given we were arriving at around 9.30am on a Saturday morning. Being a trip organised on behalf of our trampey club, our group consisted of Steve, myself, Megan, Hans, Christine and Kevin — a chap who mostly goes out with the Alpine Club whom Christine had managed to rope in on short notice. Apart from Christine, none of us had met Kevin before, but going tramping with people is a great way to meet people.

    Our intent was to get in to Neill Forks Hut for the evening, which I was looking forward to because I haven’t been there before. We shared our van with another trampey club group of people coordinated by Megan S, and their idea was just to walk to Totara Flats alongside the river, stay for the night and walk back. As we drove up a couple of TTC members were about to leave, taking a retired Search and Rescue dog for a walk in to Tutuwai and back to Cone. This was good weather for tramping, despite the rain setting in.
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  • Daywalk: Holdsworth Jumbo Circuit

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    Megan B on Mt Holdsworth.

    I think the Holdsworth Jumbo Circuit (AKA the Powell Jumbo Loop, the Jumbo Powell Loop, the Jumbo Holdsworth Loop, and so on), is by far the most popular tramp in the Tararuas. The circuit is typically walked over a couple of days, and the three back-country huts spaced around it are supposedly responsible for some insanely high proportion of hut ticket revenue for all of Tararua Forest Park. (Higher than 50% at least.) The Holdsworth road-end is one of the Tararuas’ most accessible, and the loop attracts people from all sorts of backgrounds. For many people it’s their first experience outdoors.

    Date: 15th May, 2010
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Holdsworth Road-end.
    People: Megan S, Megan B, Richard, Christine, Katja and me.
    Huts visited: Holdsworth Lodge (0 nights, camping nearby), Mountain House Shelter (0 nights), Powell Hut (0 nights), Jumbo Hut (0 nights), Atiwhakatu Hut (0 nights).
    Route: From Holdsworth road-end up to Powell Hut, over Holdsworth to Jumbo, down to Jumbo Hut, down the alternative track north of Raingauge Spur, then past Atiwhakatu Hut back to the Holdsworth road-end.
    [Photos]

    [Download GPX file] [View GPX on NZTopoMap]
    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    We walked the Holdsworth Jumbo Circuit as a daywalk, which is very feasible if you’re reasonably quick, and easier if you’re taking daypacks rather than tramping packs. We’d heard of others walking the loop in about 8 hours, but without much context to go on. With nobody being certain exactly how long it’d take, we drove to the Holdsworth road-end on Friday night to camp in preparation for an early getaway — staying at Holdsworth lodge would have been preferable, except that it’s closed for maintenance at present.

    It’s amazing how much extra junk it’s necessary to take just for camping overnight, or perhaps it simply spread out because we didn’t have nice structured packs to stuff it all into. At least we were able to leave it behind in the morning. Christine and I both still forgot to bring inflatable mattresses in any case, so had to get used to sleeping on the harder ground, although it fortunately wasn’t too cold.
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  • Trip: Blue Range Nav to Mid King Biv

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    The hut book at Mid King Biv.

    Things began with an idea of a weekend expedition over the Tararua tops to Tarn Ridge Hut. Somehow, even with the weather cooperating for such an idea, things didn’t quite work out that way. It was the opposite, and we spent the majority of our time navigating off-track below the bush line.

    Dates: 7th – 9th May, 2010
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Kiriwhakapapa Road-end.
    People: Illona, Richard and me.
    Huts visited: Blue Range Hut (1 night), Mitre Flats Hut (0 nights), Mid King Biv (1 night)
    Planned route: Up to Blue Range Hut for Friday night, over to Cow Creek, navigate up to Table Ridge, along around Mitre and Girdlestone, and to Tarn Ridge Hut for Saturday night. Down over Mitre, then up Donald Spur and past Blue Range Hut back down to the road.
    Actual route: Up to Blue Range Hut for Friday night, over Te Mara and down Donald Spur to Mitre Flats, then up to Mid King Biv for Saturday night. Back to Mitre Flats, up onto Blue Range near Stoney Creek, along to Bruce Hill and down a spur to the south-east to the old bush tram track that leads back to the road.
    [Photos]

    [Download GPX file] [View GPX on NZTopoMap]
    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    Originally there were going to be four of us, but Paul unfortunately had to drop out with a foot problem, which left Richard, Illona and Myself. We stopped for a Friday night dinner at Carterton, which has a fabulous kebab shop, then continued to the Kiriwhakapapa road-end. Along the way we discussed the original plan, which would have been to walk from Kiriwhakapapa to Cow Creek, up to Table Ridge, along to Girdlestone, and then on to Tarn Ridge Hut… then come down over Mitre and up Donald Spur (a more direct way back to Blue Range Hut) on Sunday. The more we thought about it, the more that this idea seemed to be skimming the edges of available daylight at this time of year. Consequently, we thought we might try doing it in reverse instead, which would make Saturday the longer day.
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  • Trip: Rangiwahia Ruahine Womble over the Tops

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    Sunday morning.

    Sitting in the claustrophobic corner of our van, also known as the back seat, I’m struggling to keep my dinner down. We stopped some time earlier at Levin, where I visited one of my favourite feeds for Friday nights, Thai Taste Express. Very unusually, I couldn’t even get through all my dinner. I have a theory that a lack of sleep over the past few days has played badly with my system, and it would also explain my headache. Most vans aren’t made for a nice back-seat experience, especially not on windy unsealed country roads. We’re aiming for possums every couple of minutes though, so hopefully something good is coming out of it for New Zealand. Eventually we’re at the end of Renfrew Road below Rangiwahia. Stepping outside, into the rain, I suddenly feel much more able. The fresh air certainly helps.

    Dates: 30th April – 2nd May, 2010
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Rangiwahia Road-end.
    People: Alistair, Hans, Mika, Pete, Bernie and me.
    Huts visited: Rangiwahia Hut (2 nights)
    Route: Walk up to Rangiwahia, go for a wander around the tops, then down Dead Man’s Track.
    [Photos]
    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/20100502-rangiwahia-ruahine-womble.gpx%5D

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    It’s about a quarter past ten in the evening when we begin our walk up by torchlight, and will be a further hour and forty minutes before we reach Rangiwahia Hut, situated just over the bush-line at 1300 metres above sea level. Along the way, I notice that what was by far one of the Department of Conservation’s best ever signs (the “Worst Is Over” sign that used to decorate the top of the detour around the major slip) has disappeared, either removed or taken by someone who wanted a souvenir. Near our destination, I begin to feel queasy again which may not be a good sign. We arrive, however, and the only occupant on this Friday evening is the one person we were expecting to find, who’d driven down from Tauranga to join a trip that Sam was organising, and this helpfully means we don’t need to be as discrete when settling in.
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