Aorangi Crossing

19-21 June 2026

Leader: Graeme Richardson

The weather forecast for the weekend was promising, trip on, yay! We left Paraparaumu Friday at 8am in three vehicles. It was a warm winter morning, and we were excited as we headed off on our three-day winter tramp.

We regrouped in Featherston at a coffee stop before heading on to our starting point at the Putangirua Pinnacles Carpark. There, we unloaded our gear and got ready whilst the drivers went to the tramp’s end point at Cape Palliser/Mangatoetoe Hut Carpark. There, they left two utes and returned in Owen’s car.

Trip Report Photo 2 — Ready to leave Washpool Hut

We started walking up the Pinnacles Ridge Track around 11:30am. I’ve seen the Pinnacles many times and still find them fantastic! We stopped to admire the view and take photos before following the main ridge between Huripi and Putangirua streams. We then headed along the Mt Surf ridge. We had a steady climb with occasional views of the sea, the Rimutakas and Lake Ferry. From the top it was all downhill, very steep in places, especially as we got closer to Washpool Hut.

Trip Report Photo 3 — Lunch at Pararaki Hut

We lost daylight surprisingly early (headtorches on at 5:15pm) and made it safely down to the hut (it was rather pleasant tramping in the dark). We arrived to find the standard 6 bunk hut empty. As it was dark, and with no nice camping areas nearby we lit the hut fire and made ourselves comfortable. We settled in for the night with six in the beds and four on the floor! There is no water at the hut, and it is quite a walk down through patches of ongaonga to the river to get water. We had a pleasant night.

Saturday morning was warm and overcast as we left the hut at about 8:30am. The track starts about 100m upstream from the hut on the opposite bank. Here we had a steep steady climb over a high ridge and then we descended into the next valley continuing on to Pararaki Hut where we stopped for lunch. We met some hunters who were doing the crossing in the opposite direction. From Pararaki Hut we had another climb (not as big as the morning climb) up and over to Kawakawa Stream and a very pleasant walk down the stream to Kawakawa Hut. This is a beautiful standard 6 bunk hut (with water) and has a very nice camping area. That night we had 6 in the hut and 4 camping and a very pleasant night. There was a bit of rain overnight, but it had stopped by the morning.

Trip Report Photo 5 — Climbing another incline

On Sunday we left Kawakawa Hut about 8:00am and followed the Kawakawa Stream, before tackling a very steep climb (which was a bit greasy after the previous night’s rain) up and over to the Mangatoetoe Stream.

From there it was a pleasant meander down to Mangatoetoe Hut. This is a lovely 6 bunk hut with another good camping area. We had lunch at the hut then walked out down the Mangatoetoe Stream to the awaiting utes at the carpark.