This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
2nd October 1999
alarm went off, trying to remember which mountain I was supposed to be climbing today. Then I remembered that I was back in the North Island now, and for lack of mountains I had to look for other challenges. Actually doing a 24 hour PK (traverse of the Tararuas) via the valleys was Hariette’s idea, and it was even down as a club trip the previous weekend. Due to a bad knee she hadn’t made it so I’d decided to go anyway. Simon & I set off together by torchlight at 4am from the Putara roadend. The sun soon came up revealing a glorious day and I didn’t feel too guilty about waking some sleepy trampers at Roaring Stag Lodge. Heading downstream from the hut I was glad of Simon’s directions, as the route up to Cow Saddle was an unmarked sidestream with no distinguishing
I: was 3am and I woke up with a jump when the features. However I still managed to lose the track “descending to Cow Creek Hut. Arriving there eventually, I saw the last of Simon for the day as he took off at a furious pace down the Waingawa river. Simon & I had agreed beforehand to travel solo unless we were well matched in pace. Muttering about people who claim to be unfit, I contin ued at my rather more sedate pace along the side track above the river. I couldn’t face more river travel & was feeling fit enough to handle a few ups & downs as long as I didn’t have to think too much. Mitre Flats Hut was a welcome sight and the kids there cheerfully informed me that Simon was already an hour ahead of me. But I was well on track for time still feeling great as I set off on the next leg. Atiwhakatu Hut was the next rest stop, which gave me the energy to run the next section down the well-formed track t Trip Reports :
beside the river. The track up to Mountain House was most enjoyable, with the early afternoon sun glinting through the trees and the birds singing. Then downhill all the way to Totara Flats, getting tired now as I raced for Cone Saddle before dark. I was too tired to stop at the hut on the way past, but surprised some campers further down the valley as I ran past. The track up to Cone was easy to find despite the deepening gloom. The torch was needed soon after, and itwas pitch black as I topped out on Cone Saddle. In my befuddled state I headed off up a track that promised to lead to the roadend only to find that it aimed for the wrong roadend & I had added an extra half hour to my trip. I did eventually reach Cone Hut, now 3 hours behind Simon, who was tracking his times in the hut books for me. I was surprised at how much easier the track down the Tauherenikau was than I had remembered, although my uncanny ability to get lost on the easiest track gave me a few worrying moments. For the 2nd time that day I woke trampers up as I stopped to write in the book at the Tutuwai hut. It was a slow but fairly uneventful trip down to Smith Creek Shelter where I treated a slight case of wobbly knees with a sandwich. My knee had been bothering me a bit since Cone Saddle and the recent washouts on the track didn’t help. Eventually I was staggering up over Puffer Saddle and into a brisk breeze blowing up the valley. Despite a left knee which didn’t work going uphill and a right ankle which wasn’t working on. the downhill, I was feeling a lot more cheery than the end of the last PK where we raced the clock all the way to the finish line. Even after losing an hour to daylight savings that night, I was still going to make it out on time. Eventually I did, arriving at Kiwi Ranch shortly before 4am new time. So that was it, Putara to Kaitoke (PK) in <23 hours. Simon was out in just under 20 hours (sod!). So why do it? Because it’s there I guess... Lisa Lee-Johnson (& Simon Hassall)
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Rie by ER ame