12-14 November 2021

Leader: Tony Quayle

Pukeokahu Events cancelled this year’s walk due to the Covid situation but Kylie Gilbert very kindly invited the Parawais to come up anyway for the ‘special’ Sparrowhawk Range walk she’d organised for us.

With the Sparrowhawk walk scheduled for Sunday, we needed a plan for Saturday and this evolved into 2 teams on 2 different routes in 2 quite different areas, ultimately rendezvousing at Roger and Kylie Gilbert’s Pukeokahu home on Saturday night.

The A team, comprising people who either couldn’t get away Friday afternoon or felt the A-plus team’s objective was perhaps just a bit too demanding, made Zekes Hut their destination while the A-plus team blew away some cobwebs with an inspection of the newly renovated Toka Bivvy.

Toka Bivvy with the A-Plus Team (report by Tony)

Ben, David, Sue and I left Kapiti mid-Friday afternoon and drove to the Table Flat carpark then carried our packs the easy 30 minutes or so to Alice Nash Heritage Lodge, where Kylie was waiting for us. Sue was immediately into reminiscing mode with someone she’d know a few (quite a few) years ago at school but we eventually managed to drag her away to find a geocache down at the riverside campsite.

Saturday morning we repositioned to the Limestone Road carpark and set forth across the flats and up the hill to Toka, where the wind was blowing and the rain threatening. Embarrassingly, I had left my parka in the car, but David kindly offered the Primaloft jacket he was carrying.

Despite the wind, the walk along the tops was easily manageable and we were soon comfortably sheltering in the very nicely presented bivvy. The only thing that seemed to have failed the rebuild was the door, which wouldn’t latch shut and couldn’t be secured open. Being the one closest to the door, I sort of solved that problem by tying the door handle to my foot.

Heading back we stayed mostly dry until reaching the bush flats of the Deerford Loop, where a torrential downpour drenched us to our underwear - fortunately only a short walk from the carpark.

By the time we reached Pukeokahu the A team (easy trip) were already showered and into snacks and drinks.

Zekes Hut with the A Team (report by Peter)

The Hihitahi Forest Sanctuary is a small DOC reserve located midway between Taihape and Waiouru. Zekes Hut is located centrally in the reserve and it seemed like a good opportunity to bag it while staying with the good people at Pukeokahu that night and having the Sparrowhawk range trip the next day.

After the obligatory café stop (at MooMaa) and then picking up Roger Gilbert (one of our hosts) we reached the entry to Hihitahi late morning.

The weather promised rain, but after a few brief showers at the start the walk, it was fine (and very muggy). It was a pleasant 2½ hour walk to the hut with a generally good track that was just a bit muddy and steep in isolated places. The bush was pleasant with a sprinkling of mature Podocarps, interspersed with periods of gunfire heard from the adjacent NZ Army land.

We rested and lunched at the hut and then made our way back to the roadend by mid-afternoon. The walk back was a bit quicker, being mostly downhill. We looked forward to catching up with the rest of the group and a few beers at the Gilbert farm.

Sparrowhawk Range - The main event (report by Tony)

The Sparrowhawk Range is one of the least-tramped parts of the Ruahine Range. It’s private land, with no formal tracks, and doesn’t connect up with any recognised routes. As far as I can tell, it’s never rated a mention in any guidebooks or tramping literature. That made it pretty appealing and when Kylie (who’d also been eyeing it up) suggested she could get permission for us to go there we jumped at the opportunity.

Bruce Gilbert, long-time local farmer, leader of Pukeokahu Events trips (and Roger and Kylie’s father and father-in-law respectively) was a very welcome addition to the team, as were locals Jacqui Marshall, Katrina Overton and Robert Auld.

We parked beside the Taruarau River on the Taihape - Napier (Gentle Annie) road and entered the scrub through a gate that lead us along a promising-looking track that had been evident in aerial photographs. Unfortunately that track petered-out pretty quickly and we ended up looking for a route up a scrubby, rocky face before eventually regaining the track, which took us quite quickly to the trig at the northern crest of the range. A sheltered spot just below the trig was perfect for lunch. My suggestion to “have a look” just a little further along the ridge got a mixed reaction, but in the end most of the group did wander a little further. Before long the highest point on the range came into view, easily close enough to reach, and all but a couple of Parawais did just that.

The view from the top was great - a wonderful 360 degree panorama into the northeast Ruahine Range, the Ruahine Corner area, the Otupae and Kaikomata Ranges, plus Ngamatea, the southern Kaimanawa and Kaweka Ranges. The special feeling of topping a new range was topped-off when the group broke out the birthday greetings for my significant age milestone. Thanks, you made it special.

Heading out was easy. We bounded down the hills and despite briefly losing the route a couple of times in the scrub we were back at the road in no time to meet up with the rest of the party.

Special thanks to Kylie and Roger Gilbert for hosting our invasion on Saturday night and arranging access to the Sparrowhawk Range.

Those on the trip were:

David Williams, Kylie Gilbert, Neville Grubner, Paul Michl, Paula Richardson, Peter Davis, Rob Dey, Roger Gilbert, Sue Pate, Sue Sparkes, Tony Quayle, Wayne Williams, Yingjun Shelton, Ben Quayle, Katrina Overton, Robert Auld, Marian Cox, Bruce Gilbert, Jacqui Marshall