Windy Tops

Category: trip report

Daywalk: Mt McKerrow Loop

Off the northern end
of Mt McKerrow.

Usually when I go out with the trampey club, it’s on overnight and weekend trips. The club runs many daywalks around the Wellington region too, however, and I thought I might join in for a particular walk that Darren was organising up Mt McKerrow in the Rimutaka Range. I did exactly the same thing back in 2007, with a different group of people.

Date: 29th August, 2009
Location: Rimutaka Forest Park, Catchpool Valley entrance.
Route: Along the Orongorongo Track, up to Mt McKerrow, then down Clay Ridge.
[Photos]
[map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/20090829-mt-mckerrow-loop.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 about 10am, following the Orongorongo Track for about an hour to the base of the McKerrow Track. The Orongorongo Track climbs by about 70 vertical metres over this time, but it’s not very noticeable and it’s an easy walk. There are several side-tracks off both sides, one of which is Browns’ Track, and is not officially maintained although it’s still used — it’s a handy (though potentially steep and slippery) way up to Cattle Ridge, and then down to the Orongorongo River on the other side. I made a note to look for this because I’ve tried to find it several times in the past without luck, and happily on this occasion it stood out really well. I marked it in my GPS and on the attached map so maybe I’ll find it more easily next time, but it’s also marked with a broad piece of ribbon.
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29 August, 2009
Trip: Ohau, Deception Spur and Mangahao

Deception Spur has an ominous name, but it’s really just another spur in the Tararuas. I’ve been up the spur before, and from what I remembered of it, I didn’t have any hesitation in agreeing to walk up it again. This is what we did last weekend.

Morning at Mangahao Flats.

Dates: 21st – 23rd August, 2009
Location: Tararua Forest Park, Ohau and Mangahao region.
People: Amanda, Dirk, Illona, Richard, Duncan and me.
Huts visited: Mangahao Flats Hut (1 night).
Route: From Poads Road to the Ohau River (camping a couple of minutes before it), up the Ohau River to Deception Spur (where the North and South Ohau split), up Deception Spur, down into the Mangahao River on the other side, and to Mangahao Flats Hut for Saturday night. Out at the Mangahao Dams on Sunday.
[Photos and Movie]

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 began having made some vehicle relocation arrangements that dropped us at the end of Poads Road, east of Levin, at around 9pm, and from there we walked about an hour in the darkness to what’s a very nice camp-site about 2 minutes before the track meets the actual Ohau river, almost exactly at the point that a dry weather track heads up the Gable End Ridge. There’s a walk through some often muddy farm-land at first, past the moo-cows and electric fences, but after that it’s all under trees. The campsite has an open clearing with a fire pit, but the best camping spots are under the nearby trees, and there are lots of them.

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25 August, 2009
Daywalk: Makara Peak and Skyline Walkway

Wacky Mountain Bikies have their
own sense of humour.

I’ve already written about the Skyline Walkway at least a couple of times [1, 2], so I’ll focus more on the parts around Makara Peak.

Date: 15th August, 2009
Location: Makara Peak and Skyline Walkway, Wellington.
Route: Walk up to Makara Peak from South Karori Road, down via Zac’s Track, then along the Skyline Walkway to Mt Kaukau, and Johnsonville via Old Coach Road. (Also see the map at the end of this post.)
[Photos]
[map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/20090815-makara-peak-and-skyline-walkway.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.

Makara Peak is a dedicated Mountain Bike park, choca-full of mountain bike tracks that are maintained by the community. This is the second time I’ve been there. The first time (before I was really writing things down), I wandered into a few areas that caused me to be really worried that a speedy bicycle pilot would come careening around a blind corner and run me over. It didn’t feel quite the same this time, though, possibly because I had a better idea of wanting to stay to the wider tracks, and perhaps because there seemed to be less people around.
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16 August, 2009
Daywalk: Belmont Trig via Bridleway and Stratton Street

Belmont Regional Park is an awesome place for getting out for a walk in Wellington. It’s central (literally), very accessible on most sides from public transport, and from Belmont Trig it’s possible to see how a large number of pockets of the Wellington Region all fit together. Wellington’s roads are laid out to divide the Porirua side of the region from the Hutt side in a way that causes many people to assume that they’re a long way apart. For myself, it really wasn’t until I walked through Belmont Regional Park that I really appreciated just how close the Hutt Valley is to Porirua. Being able to see them both from a central point and then be down on either side in the time of an hour or so is a really cool thing.

From Cannons’ Head down to Stratton Street.

I had some free time during rather nice weather on Sunday, and decided to drive out to Petone and spend it doing exactly this. With the opportunity, I also decided to do some red lining and take a look around a few areas of Belmont Regional Park where I haven’t yet been.

Date: 19th July, 2009
Location: Belmont Regional Park, from Cornish Street.
Route: A clockwise loop up to Belmont Trig via Bridleway, over to Cannons’ Head, down to Stratton Street and back to Cornish Street via Korokoro Dam.
[Photos]

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.

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23 July, 2009
Daywalk: Makara Beach Loop

With a need to find a reasonably easy place to walk in my new shoes, I thought I might go for a wander around the Makara Beach loop. The last time I tried to do this I discovered I was a week too late, and the farm-land section of the loop had been closed for lambing (which happens between 1st August and 31st October). So thanks to transport difficulties I’ve had in the past, this was the first time I’d actually walked the ridge part of the loop.

The Makara turbines of Project West Wind.

It’s hard to talk about the Makara Beach Loop these days without talking about Project West Wind — the initiative of Meridian Energy to build a giant wind farm on Wellington’s south coast. It took years to get through the consent process, and my most vivid memory of this was one of the few meetings I attended of the Tararua Tramping Club back in 2007. The meeting involved a representative of Meridian who described the wind farm proposal with a slide-show decorated by a large photo of a cute and happy dog basking in the wind, many noisy people whom I was later informed were not regular attendees of TTC meetings, and a lot of angry heckling.

Date: 14th June, 2009
Location: Makara Loop Walk, from Makara Beach.
Route: Just doing the loop clockwise starting from the beach.
[Photos and Videos]

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.

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14 June, 2009
Trip: Snowy walk from Holdsworth to Mitre Flats

Queen’s Birthday Weekend in the Tararuas didn’t quite work out. There was snow back home in central Wellington, nearly to sea-level for the first time since about 1995, and there was easily snow down to 200 metres in the Tararuas. None of this began until Sunday morning, however. As we set out late on Friday afternoon, we were still planning for the possibility of our original intent.

Dave getting snowed on.

Dates: 29th – 31st May, 2009
Location: Tararua Forest Park, Holdsworth Road-end.
People: Dave, Marie S, Marie H and me.
Huts visited: Holdsworth Lodge (0 nights), Atiwhakatu Hut (0 nights), Mitre Flats Hut (1 night).
Route: From Holdsworth road-end to somewhere past Atiwhakatu to camp on Friday night, Mitre Flats and up then down Mitre on Saturday, back to Holdsworth road-end on Sunday.
[Photos and movies]

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.

After starting out at Holdsworth Lodge, plan A would be to climb up Baldy, then get over Three Kings and Girdlestone to spend a night at Tarn Ridge Hut, drop down over Mitre to Mitre Flats on the following day (possibly with a very early start if we had to fit into a weather window), and walk back to Holdsworth on the Monday.
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4 June, 2009
Trip: Kiriwhakapapa to Cow Creek, Mitre Flats and Holdsworth Lodge

There’s a certain feeling one can sometimes get when looking at a weather forecast the day before going tramping, to realise the entire country is be converged on by unavoidable freezing heavy rainfall from all directions. It’s a feeling that corresponds with thoughts of wanting to avoid river travel, and thus I was very surprised last Saturday to be happily wading down the Waingawa River in the Tararuas. But then, you can’t really beat the Tararuas on a rainy weekend. As is generally known, the Tararuas and rain are like two magnets with poles reversed. Yep, the Tararuas are awesome.

Crossing the Waingawa under Cow Creek.

It seems weird going back to somewhere where I’ve been as recently as a week earlier, but that’s what I did last weekend. This time it was with the trampey club, and it wasn’t quite the same place. Instead of just walking from Holdsworth to Mitre Flats and back, we began further north at Kiriwhakapapa, then walked back to Mitre Flats before coming out at Holdsworth.

Dates: 8th – 10th May, 2009
Location: Tararua Forest Park, Kiriwhakapapa to Holdsworth Road-ends.
People: Steve, Daniel, Andrew, Justin and me.
Huts visited: Blue Range Hut (1 night), Cow Creek Hut (0 nights), Mitre Flats Hut (1 night), Atiwhakatu Hut (0 nights), Holdsworth Lodge (0 nights).
Route: Kiriwhakapapa to Blue Range Hut (Friday night), down to Cow Creek Hut via an old track to Cow Saddle, then to Mitre Flats Hut for Saturday night. Out to Holdsworth road-end on Sunday.
[Photos]

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.

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15 May, 2009
Trip: Holdsworth Lodge to Mitre Flats and back

I had a free weekend and I realised that I hadn’t been to the Tararuas for about six months! Don’t ask me how this happened because it’s my favourite mountain range. Since I had the time, I made up my mind to get back and visit them again. The weather forecast was changing every hour leading up to my leaving home on Saturday morning, which was probably because the Met service forecasters weren’t very certain about exactly where a particular system was going to hit. It looked as if it might get very rainy, but I guess you can’t really beat the Tararuas when it’s raining. They’re fantastic.

Between Atiwhakatu Hut
and Mitre Flats.

Dates: 2nd – 3rd May, 2009
Location: Tararua Forest Park, Holdsworth road-end.
People: Just me.
Huts visited: Holdsworth Lodge (0 nights), Atiwhakatu Hut (0 nights), Mitre Flats Hut (1 night).
Route: Start at Holdsworth Lodge, walk straight to Mitre Flats (via the track), then walk back.
[Photos]

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.

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6 May, 2009
Trip: Four days of D’Urville, Moss Pass, Sabine, and an ice axe

Having an ice axe attached to your pack makes you look cool. Therefore, what better way to spend Easter than four days in Nelson Lakes National Park with an ice axe, and also with people who are friends? Well, there are possibly other things that could be at least as good, but the ice axe and other people in Nelson Lakes thing is what I did… despite having begun the trip without an ice axe.

Bernie in front of Lake Constance.

Dates: 9th – 13th April, 2009
Location: Nelson Lakes National Park, Lake Rotoroa.
People: Hans, Mika, Marie, Jen, Matthew, Bernie, Paul, and me.
Huts visited: D’Urville Hut (0 nights), Morgan Hut (0 nights), George Lyon Hut [formerly Ella Hut] (1 night), Blue Lake Hut (1 night), West Sabine Hut (1 night), Sabine Hut (0 nights).
Route: Water taxi to D’Urville Hut, south past Morgan Hut to George Lyon Hut for Friday night. Climb over Moss Pass and down the other side on Saturday, to Blue Lake Hut. Roam around and explore on Sunday morning, then continue north up Sabine to West Sabine Hut in afternoon. Continue to Sabine Hut (and return water taxi) on Monday.
[Photos and movies]

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.

Our trip had been carefully planned by Steve, who sadly had to withdraw at the last minute over a foot he injured during the Oxfam 100 km Trailwalker the previous weekend. Having hired a cheap rental van and taken it onto the Interislander from Wellington on Thursday night, we arrived at the end of Lake Rotoroa some time well after midnight. I don’t know exactly what time it was, but I do know that after setting up some tents and flies, we were drifting off to sleep some time after 1.30am. We discovered at late notice that we’d almost mis-calculated how much shelter to bring and were short by a small fly or so. Thankfully, however, enough people had brought their own anti-social tents beyond the need of the organised plan. Marie crunched into Hans and Mika’s tent, Jen and Paul set up their small one-person tents, while Bernie, Matthew and I slid under my Huntech two-person fly, which can easily and comfortably accommodate three people despite the name.

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16 April, 2009
Trip: Waterfall Hut via Tussock Creek, and Te Atuaoparapara

Bernie in front of the sunrise
behind Rangi Saddle.

Last weekend we visited the Ruahines, and I was finally able to see Sunrise Hut, which I’ve heard so much about. It was only a brief part of a much larger weekend, though.

Dates: 20th – 22nd March, 2009
Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Triplex road-end.
People: Glynne, Paul, Tim, Mike P, Bernie, Harry and me.
Huts visited: Triplex Hut (1 night), Waterfall Hut (1 night), Waikamaka Hut (0 nights), Sunrise Hut (0 nights).
Route: From Triplex Hut to Waipawa Forks, up to Waipawa Saddle then climb the south-eastern side up to Three Johns (1569). South-west to Rangioteatua (1704), south to 1715 then south-west to Paemutu (1682). Down scree to Tussock Creek, and to Waterfall Hut for the night. Then up Rangi Creek, over Rangi Saddle to Waikamaka Hut, back to Waipawa Saddle, up the northern side to 1625, north to Te Atuaoparapara (1687), north-east to Armstrong Saddle, then back to Triplex road-end via Sunrise Hut.
[Photos and movies]

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 begin at the TripleX road-end, in the rain and standing in the muddy road preparing to leave. Sometimes I have concerns that I won’t look as if I’ve actually been somewhere by the end of a weekend, but these concerns are now unwarranted as I realise that half of my pack is already covered in mud. Better yet, it’s splashy mud which has a fantastic transitive quality, and it quickly asserts itself on my trampey clothes. Now I look as if I’ve been somewhere!
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29 March, 2009