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EasyMedium Tramp - March 9-11 by Darren Hammond
Mount Taranaki is always a popular destination, as the club only gets up there 2 or 3 times a year. The prospect of an enjoyable walk on the mountain while summer was still clinging on, enticed 9 punters to join me last weekend. Joining us on the bus was a medium fit group which had the challenging (to me anyway) goal of walking to the summit and camping there overnight. Our goal was less ambitious, walking from the Dawson Falls visitor centre to the Lake Dive Hut via the Upper Lake Dive Track, and returning via the Lower Lake Dive track.
After being somewhat delayed by the absurdly timed road re-surfacing between Paraparaumu and Waikanae, we arrived at Dawson Falls after midnight. Clear skies and only a light breeze made putting up the flies relatively easy. There is a great spot for a large fly just to the right of the driveway heading down to Konini Lodge. I seem to remember from another trip here that camping was frowned upon, but the DOC ranger did not reprimand us when he saw us in the morning, so I guess it is OK now. Or maybe it always was... While not the best road end for camping, the toilet facilities here are excellent, and itis a good road right up the visitor centre. Before setting off, we told the DOC Ranger of our plans, and he advised us to return via the Upper track, as the Lower track was washed out in places, and “would put us off tramping for life”. From other accounts, this proved to be a gross exaggeration, I suspect he felt we were not very experienced trampers, as he pointed out to me that we were “overloaded”.
Off we went up the hill, and were soon above the bush line, where we were rewarded with some spectacular views right across to the Central Plateau, on this gloriously warm late summer day. Further on, while traversing south across the mountain, we could see both the North and South Taranaki coasts at the same time, this is quite a treat for us easy/medium trampers, who don’t usually get such fantastic views. The Upper track would be a real challenge if there was snow around, so non-alpine trampers should take the chance to do this track if there is no snow, it is well worth it. We made good time to the hut, finding it empty, and spotlessly clean. The hut has 16 mattresses, but could accommodate almost twice this number in a squeeze. Murray was the only one keen enough to go for a swim, most of the rest of us just relaxed until dinner time.
After dinner, the photographers in the group got some award winning shots across the lake to Fantham’s Peak and the main peak. The night sky later on was simply stunning. We had been joined in the hut by 3 scouts and 2 leaders, who rather bizarrely, fed the kids sweets as they were trying to get them to go to bed. It takes all sorts...
Sunday dawned brilliantly fine and sunny, and after an hours slog straight up about a million steps (a comment in the hut log book described the walk there as a ‘3 hour step class’), we then traversed northward, then descended to the Visitors Centre.
Here we were greeted and entertained by the friendliest DOC Ranger I have ever encountered (not the same guy as the day before), a large, jolly man named Neville, who offered us hot water for tea and coffee, and gave us a short history of Egmont National Park. If only more DOC rangers could be like this. We had a couple of hours to wait before the medium fit group arrived, but it was a glorious day, so no-one minded too much. All in all, an enjoyable and relaxing walk in a fantastic part,of NZ.
Punters were — Mait, Murray, Allen, Jackie, Rita, Rhiannon, Marie, Amelie and Edwina Big thanks to Allen for driving the bus, and normal size thanks to Lee Marvin for providing inspiration for some of us.