18-19 April 2026

Leader: Tony Quayle

No harmed stoats were found when we walked the Ruahine Whio Protectors (RWP) trap line from Heritage Lodge to Iron Gate Hut, but an unlucky thirteen ship rats had fallen to fatal temptation.

When I walked this trap line with an RWP team exactly seven months ago, project coordinator Janet Wilson suggested I bring some Parawai trampers back to see what this trapping lark is all about. After all, we always enjoy our occasional encounters with whio and would like to see more of them.

Our team of five met up with Janet and her husband Graham, at their Oroua base Saturday morning, leaving a frightfully wet Kapiti in our wake. The wet would catch up with us later.

Our work began at Heritage Lodge: opening, clearing, resetting and closing each of the sixty seven traps along the Iron Gate track. Between us we were carrying four dozen size 8 eggs - too large for Janet’s usual rigid plastic egg boxes, so packed instead in standard retail cartons: extra care required. Once a pleasant, benched sidle track, the walk to Iron Gate has become a somewhat challenging journey. Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 destabilised the hillsides between Cumberfield and Tunupo streams, triggering a series of slips that are becoming increasingly impassable with each successive storm. Officially, the track is closed, but DOC has cut a bypass around the largest slip. More on that later.

We encountered our first ‘kill’ at trap #39, the second trap on our to-do list. Just a dead rat, but Janet was able to identify it as the black (aka, ship) variety - the most common and most harmful rat species in the Ruahine. Another ten trapped rats would be found before reaching the hut (and two more the next morning) but not one stoat. We settled into a nice routine of whichever bloke was in front dealing with the first trap he came to while June recorded the catch details and supplied a fresh egg bait from her shopping bag. The remaining blokes continued on, taking it in turns to repeat the process trap by trap. Leap-frogging along like this made the work quick and easy, with nimble June having no trouble getting to each trap in time to record its details and dispense eggs.

Janet and Graham had marked a detour around the first slips, a five star detour compared with what lay ahead.

Roughly halfway between the carpark and Iron Gate Hut there’s a nice spot where the track comes down to the river. This is where, four years ago, we met an energetic solo tramper named Inny (Yeun An) who was instantly recruited to the Parawais. It’s also the spot where Janet pointed us at the DOC bypass before racing the clock back to an appointment at their base. The bypass starts out steep, as climbs out of rivers usually do, but unlike most tracks the gradient doesn’t ease off. It gets steeper. And steeper. Until it feels close to vertical. There are some exposed roots to hang onto, and handy stumps left behind where saplings have been cut off: hopefully they don’t get pulled out of the ground by trampers clutching for support. For good measure, there’s an awkwardly placed windfall to cope with at the very top, before the bypass descends in a much more respectable fashion to meet the original track.

Light rain set in for the final stage of our mission, making the roomy and comfortable Iron Gate Hut all the more welcome.

As forecast, it rained hard overnight, flooding the river and ruling out any possibility of taking the low level route around the base of the biggest slip, so we unanimously agreed that the twice-as-long tops route over Tunupo was our best option for getting out. Sunday’s weather was on our side too, at least for the most important section along the Ngamoko tops. After its inevitable steep start the track climbs pleasantly to the Ngamoko Range, where we soaked up the expansive views at lunchtime. Fast and easy travel south along the range culminates with a short grunt onto Tunupo, but from there it’s mostly downhill. Darkness and rain overtook us towards the bottom of the hill and - just as we reached the car - a thunderstorm with torrential rain. Piling into the car in our wet gear, we drove the short distance to Janet and Graham’s base for the luxury of somewhere dry to change into clean clothes and partake of the proffered hot drinks and chocolate bikkies.

June, Mark, Owen and Petr were, as always, great companions and, as it turned out, eager trappers. Thanks too to Janet and Graham for their support and hospitality. I’m not in any hurry to traverse that DOC bypass again though.

Those on the trip were:

Mark Robertson, Owen Cox, Petr Kure, Tony Quayle, Yingjun Shelton, Janet Wilson (for the first few hours of Saturday)

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.