Labour Weekend 21-23 October 2023

Leader: Chris Keating

This was a repeat of a trip we did at Labour Weekend 2020 – a circuit from Kiriwhakapapa campsite north of Masterton, to Blue Range Hut, Cow Creek Hut, Waingawa River, Mitre Flats Hut, an untracked route over the southern Blue Range, and the Mikimiki track back to Kiriwhakapapa.

There were four of us on the trip – myself, Glenda, Julie and John. After a pleasant coffee break at the Clareville Bakery north of Carterton, we headed off from Kiriwhakapapa campsite at 11:15am on Saturday. It’s a 700 metre climb from there to the top of the Blue Range track, so a bit of a workout with full packs. We had lunch at the junction with the Blue Range Hut track and walked down to the hut and back without packs. This four bunk hut is in nice condition and features a number of amusing hospital signs – always worth a visit.

A further short climb, a long bushy ridge top traverse and a steep downhill track took us to the Waingawa River, and a long swing bridge took us over the river to Cow Creek Hut where we arrived at about 6:15pm. John and Julie grabbed a couple of hut bunks and Glenda and I pitched the tent at the nearby clearing in the bush. It rained lightly overnight and our tent got very wet as we dismantled it on Sunday morning.

The light rain continued through Sunday for our trip down the Waingawa River. There are a number of big ridge climbs on the track down river and a number of very muddy sections which slowed us down. We arrived at Mitre Flats around 2pm and were surprised to find at least half a dozen tents set up on the Flats. The hut was also quite crowded but we managed to get the last three bunk spaces out of the total of fourteen spaces. I slept on the floor under one of the benches. With more arrivals throughout the afternoon and evening we ended up with nine people on the floor and another four on the balcony outside. However, the hut is quite spacious and it was good to see a lot of co-operation amongst all the trampers there.

The rain had stopped by Monday morning and we headed off before 8am. After crossing the swing bridge over the Waingawa River we followed a track directly upwards for a short distance then left the track and climbed around 400m on bushy slopes and a broad bush covered ridge up to a pair of peaks marked 865m. From the northern 865m peak we dropped down on the ridge and slopes running out to the east. A mixture of stream, bush and old tram track travel then took us out to the old tram track along the Mikimiki Stream, a track that is now used for rugged mountain bikers and day walkers. A long climb up to a saddle on the track and a shorter trip down the other side took us back to the Californian Redwood trees and the carpark at Kiriwhakapapa. We arrived at the carpark just after 7pm.

It had been a long day and by the time we had driven back out into phone reception we were getting messages from Steve H and John’s wife Pam asking about our whereabouts. It’s reassuring to have that emergency contact system in place.

Thanks to my participants for an enjoyable trip (and to Kate for a copy of her useful topo track image from the previous trip).

Those on the trip were:

Chris Keating, Glenda Robb, John Glover, Julie James