Windy Tops

Tag: wellington tramping and mountaineering club

  • Trip: Penn Creek Hut on a rainy day

    Last weekend we went to Penn Creek Hut in the western Tararuas.

    Dates: 1st – 3rd August, 2008
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Otaki Forks region.
    People: Craig, Fraser, Peter and me.
    Huts visited: Field Hut (1 night), Penn Creek Hut (1 night), Parawai Lodge (0 nights).
    Intended Route: Otaki Forks to Field for Friday night, then up to Vosseler and navigate down spur to Penn Creek Hut for Saturday night. Out to Otaki Forks via Table Top on Sunday.
    Actual Route: Straight to Penn Creek Hut via Table Top on Saturday (due to heavy rain), then back up to Table Top on Sunday via spur starting at S26 025307, due to a flooded side-creek blocking the usual track.
    Related bits: Craig also wrote about this weekend.
    [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.

    Saturday night, prior to which we didn’t do much at all: There’s a little mould on the Penn Creek Hut mattress that I’m sitting on as I write these notes. We’ve been here for 5 hours now, since a bit after mid-day. Water drips from the skylight into a bucket. There’s also water dripping into the fireplace, thwarting efforts to get a fire going. We even tried to burn some of Peter’s marshmallows, but that didn’t work either. Did I mention that the trees are dripping? And so is the sky. The bucket was nearly full when we arrived and we’ll need to empty it before we leave.

    There were supposed to be six people in our group, but two bailed on Thursday, citing correlations between the reputation of the Tararua Range and the weekend’s forecast. This meant that before we arrived, we only had Craig’s small billy in which to cook. Fortunately there’s some quite good cooking and cleaning gear at the hut. Craig organised the trip. He looked impressive earlier today, sporting his Oringi Jacket — “the jacket that keeps you and your shorts dry” — just like that guy inside the back cover of every FMC bulletin. Peter’s on his first ever club trip, having arrived a few weeks ago from Scotland. Fraser’s also on his first club trip although he’s been tramping in New Zealand before, particularly in the Orongorongo Valley, and has some interesting stories. Last night I asked Fraser about his pack, which looks about as old as he is and far more worn down. He told me he found it in a dumpster and had to argue with his friend about who’d get to keep it.

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  • Learning to slide down a mountain

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    Looking over Whakapapa Skifield,
    Mt Ruapehu.

    For two of the last three weekends I’ve been taking a snowcraft course with tongue and meats up at Mt Ruapehu. The course is basically a toned down alpine course, which includes things like ice-axe and crampon use, but doesn’t go as far as covering ropes. (I’ll leave that for later.) It’s been a lot of fun, even though the weather hasn’t been too co-operative.
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  • Trip: Hackett, Rocks, Dun Mountain

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    Sunrise over Hackett Hut.

    Mount Richmond Forest Park is just south-east of Nelson, to the extent that it’s feasible to walk out almost directly into Nelson if you arrange your trip that way. This is where we headed for the long Queens’ Birthday weekend.

    Dates: 30th May – 2nd June, 2008 (Queens’ Birthday Weekend)
    Location: Mount Richmond Forest Park, Hackett Road End to Brook Street Exit.
    People: Éamonn, Paul, Sharon, Fiona, Steven and me.
    Huts visited: Hackett Hut (1 night), Browning Hut (0 nights), Roebuck Hut (1 night), Middy Hut (0 nights), Rocks Hut (1 night), Dun Hut (0 nights), Third House Shelter (0 nights).
    Route: Hackett Road End to Hackett Hut for Friday night (actually for Saturday morning to be more accurate), then on to Roebuck Hut for Saturday night via Browning Hut and Totara Saddle. Carry on along the Pelorus River to Rocks Hut for Sunday night, with a short side-trip down to Middy Hut on the way. Then out to Brook Street, including a side-trip up Dun Mountain from Dun Saddle.
    [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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  • Daywalk: Korokoro to Dry Creek, Belmont Regional Park

    This is going to be a quick trip report because it was a fairly quick trip. The fact that the park was getting completely thrashed by a southerly helped to ensure this, I think. We didn’t really want to stop.

    Date: 19th April, 2008
    Location: Belmont Regional Park, Cornish Street to Dry Creek (Haywards Turnoff).
    People: Sarah, Mari, Edwin, Nicole and me.
    Intended route: Start at Cornish Street, walk up to Belmont Trig via Baked Beans Bend, continue around Cannons Head and Boulder Hill via the Puke Ariki Track, then exit via Dry Creek at the Haywards turnoff from State Highway 2.
    [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.

    I’d originally had 9 people interested in doing this walk, but as the weekend approached we eventually filtered down to 5, through a combination of flu, weekend work issues, and one person simply not showing up. It was a good trip, albeit a little windy.

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  • Trip: Fenceline, Kapakapanui and Renata Hut

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    Marie and Allen walking down
    from Kapakapanui.

    This weekend was going to be a great navigation trip, which I’d been looking forward to because I’m really keen to get some good navigation experience. A couple of people had to pull out on late notice so there were only the three of us in the end. We hadn’t decided exactly where to go until Friday night at the railway station, but the basic idea ended up being an approximate anticlockwise loop starting and ending at Otaki Forks. I’d looked at the forecast on Thursday afternoon and it hadn’t actually appeared too bad, maybe with a bit of rain around Saturday night or so. It didn’t quite turn out that way, though.

    Dates: 28th – 30th March, 2008
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Otaki Forks Road End.
    People: Allen, Marie and me.
    Huts visited: Kapakapanui Hut (0 nights), Renata Hut (1 night).
    Intended route: Up the Fenceline Track to point 476 above Otaki Forks, then south-west around the ridges to Pukeatua, past Kapakapanui and down to the saddle near point 822. Cross the road and head on to Renata Hut for the night. On Sunday, walk along the Renata Ridge Track to point 925, and head north up the ridge for about 1km before hopping west onto another ridge and going north to Waiotauru Forks. Jump over the footbridge, and back out to Otaki Forks.
    Actual route: Well the first day went okay, but we ended up walking down the 4WD track towards Waiotauru Hut until we could see that the river was well up after a lot of recent (and continuing) rain. At that point we turned around, and hitched a ride out to the Akatarawa Road in a grunty Toyota LandCruiser.
    [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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  • Trip: Aorangi Crossing, Pinnacles to Cape Palliser

    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]

    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 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.

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  • Trip: Rangiwahia, Maungamahue, Te Hekenga, Triangle

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    12 people in a 6 bunk hut.

    The weather report for the weekend indicated what looked to be quite a violent deluge of a front smothering the entire country all at once, from north to south. The met service was issuing weather warning’s galore. Forecast chart visualisations available through Jim McGregor’s metvuw.com website might have implied that all of New Zealand would be bathed under a combination of beautiful sky blues and majestic sunset reds during the weekend, but unfortunately the colouring on those charts was artificial, and in fact indicated quite the opposite. Our party was affected too, with two members pulling out late on Friday afternoon, having decided they were too frightened at the prospect of spending a whole weekend playing cards against the rest of us at Rangiwahia Hut.

    Dates: 29th February-2nd March, 2008
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Rangiwahia Road End.
    People: Alistair, Sarah, Marie, Jeremy, Dirk and me.
    Huts visited: Rangiwahia Hut (1 night), Triangle Hut (1 night).
    Huts seen: Pourangaki Hut.
    Intended route: Up to Rangiwahia Hut on Friday night, then past point 1635 to Maungamahue. West to Te Hekenga, around to Taumataomekura, along Sawtooth Ridge to Ohuinga, then down to Pourangaki Hut for Saturday night. Up to Pourangaki on Sunday morning, then back along to Maungamahue, and out again via Rangiwahia Hut.
    Actual route: Shortened a lot due to weather and injuries, we reached Te Hekenga then followed the spur down to Triangle Hut for the night. Back up to Rangiwahia Hut via the main DOC track, and out.
    [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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  • Trip: Waikawa and Waitewaewae

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    West Waitewaewae
    meets Prout Stream.

    The last time I visited Waitewaewae Hut (aka YTYY), I was on my first ever trip with the Wellington Tongue and Meats. This had been the easy-rated trip up Saddle Creek from Otaki Forks, and considering Andrew was in charge, I think as many people had gone for the cooking as for the walking. With a large group of 12 people, the track that was signposted as 4 hours ended up taking us more than 7, and several people on their first ever tramp were feeling almost dead at the end of it.

    This weekend there was another group from the club doing a similar trip to what I’d done earlier, but personally I was in a separate trip coming into Waitewaewae from the other end. Our basic plan was to start from the Waikawa Stream, meet the other group at the hut on Saturday night, and then we’d all walk back to Otaki Forks on the Sunday.

    Dates: 8th-10th February, 2008
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, North Manakau Road to Otaki Forks.
    People: Steve, Lesley, Kerry, Marie, Andy, Sylvia, Dave, Sue, Allen and me.
    Huts visited: Waitewaewae Hut (1 night).
    Intended route: Begin at the end of North Manakau Road, follow the Waikawa Stream and pick a spur towards the saddle north of point 673. Continue down the other side into the West Waitewaewae River. Follow it to Island Forks and along the main Waitewaewae River to the Otaki River. Carry on to Waitewaewae Hut. Then out via the main track over the plateau and along Saddle Creek back to Otaki Forks on Sunday.
    Actual route: Bingo.
    Related bits: Dave also wrote a trip report about this weekend.
    [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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