Waitangi 4-6 February 2023

Leader: John Glover

The plan was to take public transport to The Pines road end inland from Masterton and tramp to Poad's Road near Levin, overnighting at Mitre Flats Hut, Tarn Ridge Hut and Te Matawai Hut. A storm, forecast to arrive at Tarn Ridge about the same time as us, looked likely to play a part.

The group of eight used the (train replacement) bus from Paraparaumu to Wellington. Another train replacement bus took us to Renall Street Station, Masterton, where our shuttle awaited us. We were transported to The Pines to begin our tramp, arriving there at 12.40 pm. An hour later we were enjoying our delayed lunch in a shady spot near the Waingawa River. We arrived at a very busy Mitre Flats Hut a few hours later.

At Mitre Flats, the weather was still fine the next morning. We had decided to make a final decision on whether to continue to Tarn Ridge Hut once we had climbed above the bushline on the slopes of Mitre, and could better assess the progress of the storm. Having reached that point and with Mitre and Peggy's Peak completely in cloud, most of the party decided to sit and enjoy the view while those who wanted to Summit did so and returned. The Northern Crossing was therefore aborted at that point, since we didn't think we could all reach the safety of Tarn Ridge Hut before the storm's arrival. Our problem then was that we would have had no transport on returning to The Pines. Kylie soon had a solution, making use of the cell phone coverage at that altitude to call her folks. They agreed to meet us at the road end the next day. We made our way back to Mitre Flats Hut, by now a much quieter place.

Next morning we tramped back to The Pines and were met by Kylie's parents who had brought two vehicles over the Pahiatua Track to pick us up. They took us back to Poad's Road (our original destination) from where we travelled home. We were very appreciative of the help they gave us, going so far out of their way to do so.

Those on the trip were:

Emily Wynch, John Glover, Julie James, Kate Livingston, Kylie Gilbert, Mark Robertson, Paula Richardson, Roger Gilbert

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.