Windy Tops

Tag: bagged:howletts hut

  • Trip: Rangiwahia, Te Hekenga, Howletts and Heritage

    We finally managed to get around this scenic loop in the Ruahines, which is almost entirely made up of tops travel. It was a weekend of very nice weather, even though a light easterly in the Ruahines meant walking through some clag. For me personally, it was the first time I’ve connected the dots between two different sides in the Ruahines, having reached the same place from two different sides, and this felt quite rewarding.

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    Alistair collects water from one of the
    tarns on the way up Te Hekenga.

    Dates: 5th – 7th December, 2008
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Rangiwahia road-end to Heritage road-end.
    People: Alistair, Dirk, Paul, Amanda, Harry, Steve, Roger, Bernie and me.
    Huts visited: Rangiwahia Hut (1 night), Howletts Hut (1 night), Heritage Hut (0 nights).
    Route: Up to Rangiwahia on Friday night. On Saturday, walk past Maungamahue, around the back of Te Hekenga, then to Taumataomekura and Tiraha, and down Daphne Ridge to Howletts Hut for Saturday night. On Sunday, continue to Taumatataua, Otumore, and Tunupo, then descend to Heritage Lodge and out at the Heritage road-end.
    [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.

    Levin is a good place to stop for dinner when driving north of Wellington up SH1 on Friday night. People often want to stop at Bulls because it has a kebab shop which some people like, but this time everyone agreed on Levin, and that suits me because I think there’s a wider variety of choices. There’s also a supermarket, which suited Alistair who was last back to the van, carting a 12-pack of toilet paper after he’d realised he never packed any.

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  • Trip: Howletts Hut via Longview and Taumatataua

    Last weekend we visited the Kashmir road-end on the eastern side of the Ruahine Range, which I hadn’t visited since I went up to Longview Hut on a WTMC club trip near the end of 2006. Our group planned to go some distance further than Longview this time, and on to Howletts Hut which is quite a lot further into the range.

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    Frosted alpine grasses just
    below Otumore.

    Dates: 29th – 31st August, 2008
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Kashmir Road-end.
    People: John, Alistair, Sarah, Paul, Pete and me.
    Huts visited: Longview Hut (1 night), Howletts Hut (1 night).
    Intended Route: Camping at Kashmir on Friday night, up to Longview then down to a short river walk up to Daphne Hut (brrrr, cold), then up to Howletts for Saturday night. Return the same way.
    Actual Route: We actually walked to Longview for Friday night, then went direct to Howletts over the tops via Taumatataua and along Daphne Ridge for Saturday night. Returned the same way over the tops.
    [Photos and movies]
    [More photos (from Pete)]

    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.

    The Kashmir road-end is more or less a dead-end and although DOC has been nice enough to provide a dunny at the end of the road, it isn’t surrounded by much in the way of good camping sites. There might be some possible camping just inside the start of the track, and it also looked possible to set up a tent fly or two under the pine trees a few hundred metres back along the road. Having driven up from Wellington on a Friday night, however, our plan had been to set up a camp at one of the private farms down the road, after gaining permission to do so. (Being in a club’s great when you have those kinds of contacts.) Turning up at 11pm, though, we were having second thoughts about camping at the road-end at all.
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