This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Medium Tramp - 8 to 10 August by Paul Andrews Two vans of trampers left Wellington on Friday evening for the journey up to Dawson Falls. The medium group was lead by Steve, with Charles, Richard and Paul. We stopped at Bulls for dinner including some great kebabs. We arrived at Dawson Falls in Egmont National Park where the group leaders had booked Konini Lodge, a DOC lodge with six bunk rooms, hot showers, heating and cooking facilities all for only $20 per person. We awoke to a still dawn with a blanket of snow surrounding the lodge. We left first as we had a longer day than the easy group who were stirring as we left, our walk being about 17km. We started at about 920 metres on the round the mountain track and climbed on a gentle well benched track up to 1,040 metres. The snow was a few centimetres deep in places covering the plants and the track. We were lucky to see what DOC on Sunday said were 99% sure were Kiwi tracks for several hundred metres on the track. They were followed by a predator, probably several stoats though the DOC staff member said that if the Kiwi was larger than a kilo it could fend the stoats off. The Kiwi tracks crossed bridges and were the first reported sighting in that area of Egmont National Park in recent times, there being a stoat protected sector on the Eastern side of the mountain where DOC are maintaining a series of stoat traps and it appears this Kiwi may have wandered from there. Richard wrote some greetings to the other group on one of the bridges. An early lunch was at Dive Hut, next to the Beehives (bubbles of sticky lava that cooled over escaping vents to form two roughly 80 metre high hemispherical domes).
From Lake Dive hut we followed a stream down over 300 metres. This stream and several of the others we saw had spectacular gorges 10s of metres deep with evidence of huge water flow at times washing away trees, boulders and dirt when they are in flood. We sidled around the mountain crossing including a stop to enjoy the momentary sun on the Mangahume Stream. Our walking for Saturday ended with climb down into another steep sided gorge and up a ladder to reach the Waiaua Gorge Hut perched on the edge of the gorge. The ingenious people who made the ladder appear to have joined together several step ladders as with a laugh I saw a small sign about a third of the way up which proclaimed do not step on this step as it will be unstable.
The hut was spacious with a large communal area, two bunk room with two platforms and we enjoyed a warm night with Steve’s Moroccan Couscous for dinner. Steve and Richard showed us how to play Rummy which Charles picked up very quickly promptly winning the second round easily.
Sunday morning Steve rose early to check if a view of Mt Taranaki was to be had as we were yet to see the mountain. Happily it was and we enjoyed a nearly cloudless view of the mountain with its great winter mantle of snow.
Steve’s local knowledge helped not only on the tramp itself, he also texted a friend asking if he would pick us up at then end of the Ihaia Track shortening our Sunday walk and meaning we did not need to recover ground we had walked the day before. Michael walked up from his car and joined us at the hut and returned via the track. The bridge next to the hut had been washed away as the river had changed course, removing dirt, trees and the swing bridge in it path. As a result DOC has diverted the track into the river bed a short distance up stream. We then passed the remains of the Old Oaonui Hut being a base and attractive stone fire place. Then an easy and flat walk of about 5km to the road end. We returned to Dawson Falls and had morning tea and cake at the café as the snow gently fell.
A great tramp and enjoyed by all well lead by Steve. Thank you to everyone for a great tramp and an introduction to this great mountain.