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Bannister Crossing Wellington Anniversary 18-20 January
An enthusiastic band of Parawais take on the challenging Bannister Crossing. Saturday - Up to Herepai Hut and up to Ruapae, East and West Peaks, Pukemoremore and Dundas Hut for the night. Sunday - Up over Logan and Dundas peaks and over to the Twins and onto Bannister. Due to high winds we we dropped down into Bannister Basin and back out again to climb Waingawa. Then along Cattle Ridge to Cattle Ridge Hut for the night. Monday - Down to Roaring Stag Lodge and out to the road end.
We decided to do the trip in reverse, going to Dundas hut via Herepai hut (below) Saturday
Hakura Ridge, Cattle Ridge, Waingawa and Bannister
Climbing to Herepai
East (L) Peak and West (R) Peak (or East Side and West Side in gangsta speak)
Even the Spaniard looked beautiful
On Ruapai, East Peak behind...Hmmm why is GUO looking at me like I am an idiot?
That small, harmless looking saddle on Cattle Ridge would seriously test us the next day
East Peak
West Peak
GUO acknowledging his West Side routes
Dome, Pukemoremore, Walker
Tararua camel
Heading for Pukemoremore
Pukemoremore (GUO bottom left)
On Pukemoremore
It started to cloud in a bit as we got towards Dundas hut
Chris
The day was fading as we reached the turn off...exit stage left
and there she is, Dundas hut and a firm favourite of mine (not to mention a stunning location)
Sunday started off quite uneventful
The cloud started to slowly burn away, the sun was shining...another perfect day perhaps....OR NOT?
The Spaniard was still happy
Logan
Climbing Dundas
Hmm what's that odd shaped cloud, a sign of some wind perhaps? The latest forecast said gusting to 75km but we could cope with that
Mt Bannister - isn't she a beauty!
Arete, Pukematewai and Crawford in the far distance
Bannister and the Twins (umm David and Neil lol)
The Ruahines looked good too
The trip had a heap of climbing (see GPS map)
Those clouds are starting to look a bit more threatening...okay so a lot more threatening
Me thinks it could be a lot more windy than predicted
Would we make Bannister?
Te Matewai hut (middle of photo)
Mitre (middle back)
The deep saddle middle photo is the left turn off towards the twins
Arete hut
Clouds, Clouds
Lots of Clouds
The final push up to Bannister
and we were triumphant!!!
We'd made Bannister - Ye-Har Grandma!!
But...the wind had strengthened and not a day to go over the 'nurgly' bits (we tried and got blown over)
So we dropped down into Bannister Basin
Some of the mean looking bluffs off Bannister
It was a great climb down...for a while
Then we had to navigate these bluffs and lower our packs
We thought we'd travel in the stream
But that proved too hard, so into the leatherwood for us...how hard could it be?
After what seemed like hours, we were ready to climb out towards Waingawa
Showing the drop down off Bannister we'd done and the stinky old leatherwood we'd come through
The second largest continuous expanse of leatherwood* in the world (*refer Diggers hut trip)
We thought the leatherwood would be better heading up hill...
...we were wrong!
Where's Wally?
There he is...fighting with some bushes (note the leg wounds)
Our destination was the top of the saddle
We finally made the top after 4.5 hours agreeing never to visit Bannister Basin again
The nasty side of Bannister that we'd manage to avoid
Okay, on towards Waingawa
Nothing could phase young Chris
The wind was mega strong on Cattle Ridge as the tussock shows
We predicted the wind in the last saddle (noted in photo #10) was 150km/h+ and we had to crawl on hands and knees (impossible to stand it was!)
Looking back at Bannister
It was a very long, slow trip and we were blown over many times ('...I get knocked down, but I get up again...')
We were losing the light and were keen to get to the hut
and we did...we made Cattle Ridge hut after a long 14.5 hour day, had a quick cuppa and went straight to bed
Cattle Ridge hut is really showing it's age, but to three tired old men, it was the Tararua Hilton Sunday night
Monday we were ready to get back to the car (Roaring Stag Lodge below)
Chris with plastered knees where he'd be blown over the previous day
Roaring Stag Lodge
I'm getting me one of these (including the saddle bags)
The money (spider) shot lol
We just got back to the car when the earthquake struck...we could hear rocks falling into the river below
Warning: the following photos show horrific wounds. Caution is advised
This is what leatherwood does to you
This one was my best one!
The arms weren't much better
Chris patched up from being blown over (love the knobbly knees haha!)
Even GUO didn't escape unharmed
