Waitangi 6-10 February 2019

Leader: Owen Cox

As seems normal before a longer trip the weather played up. As a result we did the trip in reverse from the original plan.

Our first day was over to Roaring Stag from the Mangatainoka road end in grey weather, then down the Ruamahanga River to Cleft Creek and then over Cow Saddle to Cow Creek. The track out of Cleft Creek has been redone and starts climbing by the start of the slip debris in the creek. It is on the eastern side and goes partway up the ridge then sidles into the saddle. We got to the hut in time for tea.

It was overcast and cool the second day. We headed up the Waingawa River into the upper gorge. I made noises about it being easy, with just some deep wades. About 10 minutes up the first deep wade had me and the others swimming. It wasn’t warm either and there were some interesting scrambles over big boulders. Even had a small cave under a couple of big boulders to crawl through and flowed by a rapid at one point. Sue had the misfortune to head butt a rock and spent the rest of the day with an egg sized bruise on her forehead. This went down slowly over the next few days but the bruising came out giving her a black eye.

We had lunch in Arete Forks hut which looks almost new with the makeover it has had from the ex-NZFS people. After lunch we crawled up the steep ridge up to the Waiohine Pinnacles. Some nice steep pitches on the bumps at the top of the ridge. On the top we turned left and dropped over the Pinnacles to Tarn Ridge. From here we were in mist over the couple of climbs to Tarn Ridge Hut which we got to just on dark. There were a couple of contractors there fixing the hut and they made us very welcome. Nobody caught anything, not even an outbreak of mould from the black mattresses.

By morning we had the weather we had hoped for, clear and sunny. We wandered down Dorset Ridge past the tarn and hut turn-off with beautiful views. The last couple of kilometres before the bush edge have quite thick tussock now so aren’t as easy they were. Below the bush edge the track has become non-existent and had a couple of minor mis-turns until we got the compass and GPS out and took it seriously. Once we did this we had no difficulty finding Park Forks.

After lunch in the sun we headed up the old track through bush to Carkeek hut. This is also getting overgrown and winds about through windthrow near the top. We had the hut to ourselves. Next day was also fine and we had a full day on the tops. Went along Carkeek ridge having regular stops. We regrouped after the steep plod up Lancaster. Peter and I sat in the sun near Lancaster for few minutes while the others ducked over to the top of the Waiohine Pinnacle, to close the loop of redline. We then headed to Arete hut for lunch. This is a beautiful small and dry hut with a fantastic view.

After lunch we had a bit of trudge to Dundas, over Logan and down to Dundas Ridge hut. There were three others, a hunter and two trampers, in the hut so David and Marcia camped outside. Next morning we had extra breakfast. The hunter had flown in more food than he needed and as he was heading to Arete he offered venison sausages; these were great. I plodded back to the ridge behind some of the others, through the saddle to Pukemoremore where we waited in the sun for everyone. The next stretch of the ridge to West Peak was easy. Then we had the deep saddle and long plod up to East Peak. Those of us near the back took our time, marvelling at the speed of the little blue dot in front (LBD).

By the time we hit East Peak the others were nearing Ruapai. By the time I got to Herepai hut for late lunch they had the brew ready which the tail end of the party appreciated. The trip down was no problem. We stopped for a lounge in the river by the bridge to soak off the last two days sweat before we got to the road. Made the drive home more pleasant.

Those on the trip were:

Owen Cox, Marcia Goode, David Williams, Rex Benbrook, Sue Pate, Peter Davis