13-15 November 2020

Leader: Tony Quayle

Pukeokahu Walk 2020 - Timahanga Station. This was Pukeokahu Walk #6 for the Parawais and - as usual - a good turnout from the club.

The weekend started with the usual spectacular Friday night BBQ, laid on by the hosts, an interesting talk by the owner, Alan Roberts, about Timahanga Station, and a rustic overnight in the woolshed. We also got a tour of the station museum that Alan’s father Jack had created with interesting pieces of old equipment used in past years on the station, particularly interesting was the pin wool bale press, much smaller than a standard press, that created bales small enough to be carried - 3 at a time - over the Gentle Annie hill to Kuripapango where they could be transferred to horse-drawn wagons for the rest of the trip out to Hastings.

Saturday we were guided up through Boyd’s Bush and over the Hogget tops, a place where few trampers get to wander. Spectacular Kaimanawa/Kaweka-esque landscapes, with views deeper into both ranges, down onto Ngamatea and Timahanga stations and south to the distant Ruahines. There was even a hut and bivvy to bag.

Back at Timahanga we enjoyed some more of the farm cooking and a refreshing drink or 2 before the long drive (even longer for the lost souls in one car...) across to River Valley Lodge for a night camping beside the Rangitikei River.

Great fun with great friends. A bonus was having Kapiti-raised Kylie Gilbert - now a Pukeokahu farmer and mum - helping organise the event and along for the walk. Kylie has since become one of our remote members and has already been on one of our trips.

Ohutu Hut

After a cozy night camped beside the Rangitikei we rode the flying fox across the river, scrambled across the washouts, and climbed the zig zag up the grassy face into the Aorangi Awarua Block, a fascinatingly different part of the Ruahines. An hour or so saw us at the Bivvy Hut, nested in the bush below Aorangi Maunga. Beyond the Bivvy the tracks are a bit vague, but we located the required spur OK and only lost it near the bottom, resulting in a bit of a scramble down to the valley track and the log bridge leading to the new (vastly better than it used to be) Ohutu Hut: very baggable.

We took the same route out, most of us enjoying a refreshing swim in the Rangitikei before heading home.

Those on the trip were:

Ben Quayle, Brandon Holman, Chantal Heller, David Williams, Elisabeth Hynes, Jing Zhou, Yingjun Shelton, Neville Grubner, Nisa Promchot, Patrick Liss, Rob Dey, Peter Davis, Sue Pate, Sue Sparkes, Tony Quayle