This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Elder Hut - 13 to 15 June
by Darren Hammond I hadn’t been out for a couple of months, so was itching to get up into the high Tararua peaks, new territory for me (I'd never set foot between Field and Alpha huts before, because of bad weather). We had an early start at the Railway (5 pm) as the 4 fits were heading to Kime that night (crikey!). The traffic gods were kind to us, and we were on Fields track by 6.50. It was a calm dry night, and a good wander up the hill, and we were at Field Hut by 9.30. We had the place to ourselves, which gave us all plenty of room to spread out.
It was claggy on Saturday morning as we plugged our way up to Kime. Well, I was battling, the others seemed to be doing OK. We reached Kime about 10, and had a brew. “Look there are some people” was the cry, and we were very surprised to see the fits coming back. They had been driven back by the wind, soon after the Beehives, and were calling it a weekend, and going back today. We decided that we’d give it a go, in case conditions had eased, they agreed to wait for us for a couple of hours.
So, off we set up Mt Hector, and some of the strong gusts foretold of what awaited us. As we got near the top, it was gale or near gale, and we didn’t stop at the cross for more than a few seconds. There was nothing to see anyway, sadly. On we went, and the narrow ridge through the Beehives was a real challenge, with the wind coming almost directly from the west. At times though, we’d walk behind a small rise, and the wind would drop completely. Soon after the Beehives, the cloud lifted, and within 10 minutes, we had spectacular views all around. The way ahead was clear too, and barring catastrophes, it looked like we would make it through. The wind was bad climbing to Aston, but nothing worse that what we had already endured. We set off down Renata Ridge, which is not the well worn trail that the Southern Crossing is. So it was hard going, very slippery in place, with the wind still smashing at us. Happily we soon reached the bush line, which meant shelter from the wind, and our first clear views down to Wellington Harbour. The walk to Elder was a slow one, and we wondered on several occasions whether we might have missed the hut. Eventually, we reached the open top of Elder, and saw a small modern (2 years old) hut just below, with spectacular views south, west, and north. After a unique but tasty Salmon/Tuna teriyaki, we listened to the rugby on my transistor radio. We managed to fit 6 in fairly easily, with 2 on the floor. Any more would be a tight squeeze. Sunday dawned misty, but soon revealed Mt Taranaki away to the north, backlit by the first rays of the sun. I think this is why we battle up these hills, to wake up in places with amazing views like that! The walk down Renata Ridge to the hut of the same name was a good one, apart from ; a few good Tararua bogs. Great views all the way down the ridge, south to Wellington Harbour, I and north to Ruapehu.
After lunch in mouldy old Renata Hut, we had to press on as we had a taxi waiting for us at Akatarawa Saddle at 3 PM. Most of the walk out is on a 4WD track, which is not the nicest walking, but we had a glorious afternoon, and perfect views of Kapakapanui and Kapiti Island. In the end we were only 30 minutes late, but the taxi arrived at Upper Hutt just in time for the 4.30 train to Wellington.
There was some damn hard walking at times, but it was well worth it to be on top of those ridges looking at this beautiful country from above. As the title indicates, it was a battle with that wind, but I’m glad we pushed though. The group was Gareth (who gets a silver star for his first trip lead, would have been gold, but he made me carry the large fly AND poles!), Dmitry, Hans, Mika, and Paul.