This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
By Don Goodhue
A picture of Maungahuka Hut in the March Wilderness magazine gave me anidea for somewhere to go the next time I had a spare weekend. With the navigation weekend at Otaki on 14 & 15 May not running, Eric and I thoughtit seemedlike a good time to get a group together and head on up there. A call for willing participants the Wednesday night before brought a
muted response, with only one brave soul (Matthew Grainger) keen to give it a go.
The weather leading up to the weekend wasn’t exactly tropical, with cold southerlies and more than a gentle zephyr on the Friday. However, according to Jim the weatherman, the weekend wasn’t going to be too bad, possibly the chance of a frost when the wind dropped. So it was with hopes of improving weather, and the thought of perhaps a bit of snow on the tops, that we headed out of town on the Friday night.
We got to Otaki at about 8:20 pm, and after a bit of fussing with torches and batteries, were soon on the way to Field Hut. We arrived at 10:00 pm to find the hut inhabited by two characters from Palmerston North who had walked in that afternoon with their Woolworths pits, Big Jim torches, and an impressive array of groceries and other goodies from the supermarket.
After a quick breakfast, we were on the road again at 8:20 am. Five minutes up the hill from Field we reached the snow and settledin for what was tobe along day. The weather at this stage was good, with the tops clagged in, but the odd patch of sunshine at lower levels. The wind seemed to have abated as promised - how naive of us to believe Jim! We poked our heads onto Bridge Peak an hour and a halflater, straight into a howling southerly laced with blowing snow and ice. The chance of making it even as far as Vosseler was slightly impossible. But, as Hillary said to Tensing, “there is no such word”. So onwards it was. As we dropped off Bridge Peak we had a brief respite from the wind, snow, andice, only to climb back into it on Boyd-Wilson.
By the time we dropped off Yeates, there seemed to have been a definite improvement. So good in fact that we dropped down to the leeward side of the tops between Yeates and Mcintosh and sat in the snow forlunch. The novelty soon wore off, and before long we were on our way heading for McIntosh and the Tararua Peaks beyond. Eric and! had never been this way before, but from what we had heard and the horror stories from Matthew, we were sure that they would be a bit of a challenge, but nevertheless, not impossible.
By the time we got to the first gnarly bit on the south of Tunui, we were starting to feel that we had this one in the bag, and that we would soon be getting the fire going at Maungahuka and putting our feet up for the afternoon. The sense of fulfilment soon withered to despair as we dropped down the northern side to be confronted with about 10 metres of solid ice between us ~ and the top of the ladder. After about 10 minutes of looking for alternatives, it became apparent that there was no option but to retrace our steps and head for Penn Creek Hut. We figured there was just enough daylight left to make it down to the hut before dark. At 2:30 pm we turned and headed for Penn Creek.
The trudge down Pakihore Ridge gotlonger and longer as the day dragged on. After a bit of beating around in the bushes, we found the route down through the bush from the bushline. By now the sun had decided to make its first appearance for the day, and as if the mountains were to have the last laugh, the skies cleared as we made our way down, giving us some spectacular views of the peaks we had turned back from, as well as the rest of the main range. With the snow well below the bushline, it was worth the walk to see. As the sun warmed things up, the snow at the lower levels started to quickly melt, turning the ridge into a landscape of dripping trees and water-laden moss.
The further down the ridge we went, the more apparent it became that we would be racing the setting sun to get to the hut before dark. in parts, the track was poorly defined in daylight let alone in the dark. Asit began to set, the bush soon fell into a twilight haze which was quickly becoming a darker shade of black. About 20 minutes before we got to the river, the lights went out. We finally got to Penn Creek hut just before 6:00 pm. Matthew turned up about 20 minutes later, having taken the “scenic route” in the twilight zone. It had been along day.
Penn Creek Hut was inhabited by a party of three and a dog that had struggled in from the Forks. We had aninteresting evening sitting in front of the fire, drying out, recounting the day's events, and to the amazement of the other inhabitants, devouring what most Tongue & Meats would consider to be average fare - macaroni cheese and cheese cake. We felt we had earned it. And all that they had for dinner was tomato soup and bread. There was some pretty serious sleeping done that night at Penn Creek Hut.
The next moming, itchy feet got the better of us and we were away early for a leisurely stroll out to the Forks. It had been a great weekend, with some interesting challenges, and we are still wondering what Tensing really did say to Hillary in the Weetbix ad.