Waiohine Pinnacles Easter Weekend 3-6 April
One of the two pinnacles in the mighty Tararuas
On the way to Cow Creek...plenty of downs
...and ups
Some nice camping spots
GUO and Kane took the river from the camping flats
Cow Creek
We had a 300 metre climb to the sign
DOC have cleared the track to Arete Forks and it's heaps better than when I last did it
Though still remnants of windfall
The track was still horrible
Four hours of steep climbs and descents
We lunched at Arete Forks hut looking splendid in its freshly painted orange (thanks ExNZFS!)
Our track after lunch...the very steep climb up Pinnacle Spur
Looking back down to the Waingawa river towards Cow Creek hut
The wind got pretty strong at this point
...and the rain started
There were some neat hills to scramble over as we got closer to the Pinnacles
GUO even has his gloves on...must be cold or he is getting soft...I expect the later!
Sat on top of the Waiohine Pinnacles
It was very hard to stand it was
After a 14 hours day and what seemed like miles of leatherwood we set up camp down the headwaters of the Waiohine river...it was mighty comfortable
Back into the leatherwood the next day for the last push to the Waiohine river
...and finally out into the river. Behind is where we came down off the Pinnacles the day before and camped 450m from the river flats
The hill in the cloud is Dorset Ridge...our climb for the day
The river valley was beautiful
Swim time
We started climbing up an old track prior to Park Forks (where Dorset Ridge ends)
Rupe resting
It was a great climb and nicely met the 'steep' theme of the weekend
Finally breaking of out the bush (Carkeek ridge in the clouds at back)
A little way to go still
The Waiohine river, from whence we came is top left
We made the ridge and headed up towards the turnoff to Tarn Ridge hut
The murky tarn on Dorset
Tarn Ridge hut, our destination Sunday
We had a stunning sunset as we reached the hut
It was cold, windy and damp as we left Monday
with little visability
Over some of the awesome pinnacles on the climb up to mighty Mitre
Can you spot the track up and to the right
Top of Brockett
Climbing onto mighty Mitre
We made it...Kane was so happy he hugged the cairn
Heading towards Peggy's Peak...it was a little windy!
we got under the cloud to a half decent day
