Wellington Anniversary Weekend 19-21 January 2019

Leader: Neviile Grubner

The plan was to do a Ruahine Sawtooth ridge trip over the 3 days of Wellington Anniversary Weekend. Hinerua hut Saturday night, Sawtooth ridge Sunday, Howletts hut Sunday night and down the river Monday.

The forecast wasn’t great with a bit of rain Saturday night as a southerly front moved up the country, this would be followed by high winds for the next couple of days. Oh well with 13 people on the trip we would go ahead as planned and hope the winds may not be as bad as predicted enabling us to get over the tops. Saturday saw us heading up the Tukituki river and then to Hinerua hut as planned in fine and hot conditions. Arriving at the 4 bunk hut the 13 of us managed to find spots for all our tents and settled in for a comfortable night.

As predicted the rain came through early Sunday morning along with the wind. By 9:00am, as forecast, the rain had eased off but the wind was getting worse and was forecast to increase as the day went on so Sawtooth wasn’t going to happen this weekend and we needed a plan B. It didn’t take too long to make the call to head back down to the river and up to Daphne hut for the night. A good call as it was hot enough to swim in the river on the way up and overall a really pleasant day. Even though it was quite blustery at the hut on arriving, the majority of the group put up tents or opted to sleep under the eaves of the A frame. I did note after dinner a few more had moved inside and taken bunks.

Daphne has had a bit of a makeover by the army recently and was in great condition. Next morning, we woke to light rain and decided to split the group with 6 heading down the river back to the cars and 7 heading over to Kashmir road. The Tukituki river is really a nice river to travel and we were back at the cars around midday. Driving around to Kashmir road it was extremely windy confirming we made the right call to leave Sawtooth for another weekend. We don’t often have to have a plan B, but this was one weekend where it worked out very well in all aspects.

Those on the trip were:

Neville Grubner, Elisabeth Hynes, David Williams, Peter Davis, John Sturgess, SuePate , Marcia Goode, Tony Quayle , Patrick Liss, June Shelton, Chris Keating and Glenda Robb