This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
(Whanganui NP) - June 30 by Darren Hammond This trip, and 2 others the same weekend had intended to go to the Ruahines, but because of the cold winter we've had, the high prospect of snow from low levels of the track up to Rangiwahia hut, would have turned the Medium and Fit trips into Alpine adventures, which was never meant to be the case. The Easy trip would probably have made it to Rangiwahia hut, but not much more would have been possible. So the Wednesday before departure, the trip leaders and assorted wise tramping heads met to discuss alternatives. The Tararuas was dismissed early, as we go there so often, and it seemed people had wanted to try the Ruahines
as a change. It was John Hoffeins, who was leading the medium trip, who came up with this alternative, which had not been done by the club for a number of years. We drove past Wanganui, through to Waitotara, then headed about 60 km inland up the Waitotara Valley Road to the Taumatatahi Road End, where we camped for the night. A chilly night, but no frost and no rain, of these things we are always thankful. Amanda and Dirk, the Fit group, set off before most of us had finished our breakfast. The remaining 8 of us set off at a more leisurely hour, after a short delay trying to get the bus out of some soft ground, where it had got stuck. The farmer at the nearby house promised to pull us out the next day, so we set off. We found out later that he also runs Taumatatahi Remote Adventures, which runs a jetboat service up the Waitotara River, and also runs flights to the Heaphy track. The first couple of hours was on a 4WD track (which is a paper road in fact), on the true right of the somnolent (look it up!) Waitotara River, mostly a deep olive green colour, full of fallen tree trucks, with papa clay banks. The sun had not yet cleared the hills, but it looked like it would be a beautiful day. 6 km along the 4WD track was the Kapara homestead, which had been gutted inside, but which looked fairly solid still. Soon after the homestead, the track seemed to rise sharply up a hill, there was a side-track following the river, but this appeared to be a dead end. After 20 minutes or so of slogging up this increasingly steep track, a consensus was reached that we had gone the wrong way, as the marked track on the map followed the river, and this track (which was not marked on the topo map!) was continuing to head up and away from the river. So back down the hill we went, and found the error of our ways, the apparent dead end was quite clearly the right track, and had some obvious markings that all 3 groups managed to miss! Back on track, we had some spectacular views of the river, on this now glorious winters day. We 4 Easy trampers had a leisurely lunch in a sheltered and sunny spot, then onwards we went. After another couple of hours, we reached our first clearly identifiable landmark, the Terereohaupo Falls, the map we had told us we were only 15 minutes from Trains Huts, which was about right. Near this point, Amanda and Dirk had crossed the river and headed up the hill to Tahupo Hut for the night, where they had views of Ruapehu and Taranaki. It was about 5 hours from the road end to the hut. We had seen and heard some of the promised wild goats too. The Medium group had already arrived at the hut, dropped their packs, and set off exploring. Trains Hut is listed as sleeping 6, but we had 8 in there quite comfortably. It is fairly modern and only at about 100m above sea level, so is not too cold either. We recovered from our exertions, and enjoyed a brew in the last of the sunlight. While dinner was being cooked, Bronwyn showed her exemplary fire starting skills, soon getting the pot belly stove roaring. This was my first trip leading on my own, and I was a bit nervous about producing an edible meal for my punters, but it turned out very well if I might say so myself. Need to work on dessert though... The next day, not too many complaints about the snorers, and everyone seemed well rested. Re-tracing our steps, we stopped for lunch at the homestead, where a flock (?) of friendly and curious fantails surrounded us, one even landing on my boot. They then followed us a kilometre down the road. The medium group, who spent some time explored the steep wrong turning we had taken the previous day, reported encountered the same group of fantails, and also seeing a morepork in the old house too. Soon after lunch, the surrounding bush clad hills were joined in the distance by grassed hills with stock on them, so we knew we were close to civilisation. By the time we reached the road end, the bus had been pulled out of its muddy trap, and we had a brew while waiting for the others. In summary, a great trip in fabulous weather. The next week, a southerly front had raised the Waitotara River 10m above normal! (putting a good deal of the track under water, I would think), and the Valley Road was impassable with many slips!