I enjoyed the weekend about a year ago when we crossed Aorangi Forest Park from the Pinnacles to Cape Palliser… so much so that finding myself without much to do for the weekend, I ended up joining a group of nice happy people who were doing exactly the same thing all over again. Of these people, Sarah and Alistair had been part of the same trip a year before.
Dates: 7th – 9th March, 2008
Location: Aorangi Forest Park, Pinnacles Road End to Mangatoetoe Road End.
People: Sarah, Alistair, Sylvia, Jane, Kevin, Jackie and me.
Huts visited: Washpool Hut (0 nights), Pararaki Hut (1 night), Kawakawa Hut (0 nights), Mangatoetoe Hut (0 nights).
Intended route: Pinnacles up and over to Washpool, up and over to Pararaki to stay the night, up again and down again to Kawakawa Hut, then up the river, over the saddle and down to Mangatoetoe Hut and out via the Mangatoetoe River.
Actual route: Hooray.
[Photos]
The whole weekend is a DOC-endorsed orange triangle track, but it’s very steep in places. The first day involves two climbs and two descents, with one of the climbs particularly draining of energy. The second day also stretches out and involves quite a lot of climbing, as well as pushing through over-grown river beds. It’s a great trip for people who like hut-bagging. Over two days, the walk passes 4 separate huts. Each hut is placed on a separate river which leads out towards the coast to the west, and the popular way for hunters to access the huts is by walking (or driving) up the rivers. For our trip though, we were traversing the track from north to south between all four huts.