This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Howletts-Daphne (Ruahine FP) Medium Tramp November 17-19
by Michael Lightbourne
When we met on Friday afternoon it was raining. Sharron and I were first to arrive at the Railway Station, and she said “well we might as well all stay at home”. Part of me agreed with her. Some others arrived and during conversation about the bad forecast I said “but the weather forecast can be wrong”. I saw Sharron trying her best to hold back a burst of laughter. She said in a serious voice “but I don’t think this one will be”.
For this weekend we had two hired vans, the Easys fitted into one, and my Medium group shared the second with the Fits. And so began the long drive up SH 2 to the Eastern side of the Ruahine Ranges. The drive became longer than it needed to be due to some over-enthusiastic driving and a navigational muck-up. However we eventually found the right turn-off leading to the end of Kashmir Road. We were very lucky here, the rain had stopped and there was no wind. Which was probably a good thing because the Fits struggled a bit with the procedure of putting up a large fly, and having seen how loosely the pegs were driven into the ground it was also a good thing that the wind didn’t get up in the night.
On Saturday morning we could see the surrounding hills, which is always a good start. No sign of the weather to come. We headed for Longview Hut, which we could see early on because of the exposed nature of the track. During our break at the Hut it began to drizzle. However we decided to take the good-weather track on the tops because visibility was still very good. So we crossed the Pohangina Saddle and up to Otumore. We got good views, but now it was raining quite hard and a very strong wind was blowing from the West. At least it wasn’t cold. I was comfortable with the situation, knowing there was an escape route down into the bush (and leading to Daphne Hut) ahead if we needed it. We stopped for lunch at this junction, and it suddenly cleared. The sun came out, the wind died down and we ate lunch in the tussock with fantastic views to the East. It was a unanimous decision to continue along the tops to Howletts Hut. Of course, as soon as we departed it began to rain hard again and we were again battered by the Westerly, hitting us side on as we traveled North. There was also a significant climb involved and it all became a bit miserable. The last stretch along Daphne Ridge was very draining, and it was a considerable relief to finally arrive at Howletts Hut. The Hut is well maintained, and Mike immediately got a fire going. It will be some time before there’s a shortage of coal at this hut, there were numerous sacks of it at the door. Later on, the trip leader prepared a superb dinner, and we then enjoyed each other’s company, and that of a Frenchman we shared the hut with that night. I picked up the Log Book to make our entry and was surprised that this book kept me occupied for ages. There’s an interesting section at the beginning detailing the Hut’s history and includes some entries from many years ago, and familiar names kept popping up later in the book.
On Sunday the weather was more of the same, and it was slightly upsetting when the Frenchman, who was staying put for the day, got a nice warm fire going at breakfast, just as we were putting on every layer we had ready to face the less than perfect conditions outside. Today the plan was less ambitious, we dropped down Daphne Spur to Daphne Hut. I was very thankful I was not going the other way, this would be a major hill climb. We arrived at Daphne Hut, another very well maintained hut in a nice setting next to the Tukituki River. From here you follow the river a short way before climbing up a ridge. It doesn’t look very challenging on the map, but after yesterdays nightmare section on the tops, I was struggling with it. We had lunch at the top and then began the descent to Kashmir Road, most of which was in the open. It took one hour to finish the descent and walk along Kashmir Road to the vans, and in that time I got quite sunburnt on my neck. Time to start packing the sunblock again! The Fits showed up right on time, as they always do, having gone south along the ridge from Otumore. I think Sharron and the other Fits had an okay weekend after all.
The trampers were: Michael Lightbourne, Lisa Tinkley and Mike Phethean.