18-20 September 2020

Leader: Tony Quayle

Most unusually for the Parawais these days, this was an all-male trip.

The plan was to walk around the Whanahuia tops to Te Hekenga then drop down the direct spur to the stream forks at Triangle Hut but, as it turned out, the weather didn’t play ball.

John, travelling on his own from Palmerston North, was first to head up the hill Friday night while the rest of us reached the carpark a bit later, not reaching Rangiwahia Hut until about 9.30pm, after a pleasant-enough walk in the drizzle.

Saturday dawned unpleasantly, with thick cloud and drizzle, raising our first doubts about how successful we might be.

Further up the hill the drizzle turned to snow, and no further doubt - we diverted directly to Triangle rather than spending several more hours on the tops. An empty hut, with a good supply of firewood, heralded a relaxing afternoon of lunch, snacks and multiple brews.

In between, we gathered more firewood and even briefly contemplated climbing at least partway up the Te Hekenga spur, but the onset of rain put paid to that nonsense.

Evening rain cleared to a brilliantly fine Sunday. Just a pity we had to cross the chilly river before climbing back up the track, on a mission to catch up with Chris, Glenda and Yingjun, who’d walked to Rangiwahia on Saturday to start their Deadmans loop.

Reaching the prominent shoulder just above the bushline we spotted them on Maungahuia, with the youngest members of our respective parties making contact by text pretty much immediately. Putting on our best pace we eventually caught up with them at a sunny lunch spot down towards the bushline on Deadmans.

From there it was a quick blast down to the carpark, before the obligatory afternoon tea stop at Hansen’s Café in Kimbolton on our way home.

Those on the trip were:

John Sturgess, Peter Davis, Wayne Williams, Tony Quayle