Days 78-83: The Tararuas

We made it through the much anticipated Tararuas! They were tough, dangerous for the unprepared, and amazing.

The Tararuas are a 3-6 day trip, depending on how strenuous you want it to be. Finishing in three days requires three full days of tramping, but is still quite doable. Six days would be a pretty leisurely pace with only 4-5 hours of walking per day. We planned to get through in four days - starting with a half day and ending with a half day.

Our first day was basically all climbing to reach Waiopehu Hut. New Zealand has an incredible network of backcountry huts. Unfortunately, the trail doesn't pass many on the north island - maybe 8 or so the whole way. The huts are amazing - most of them are way beyond basic shelters, and have tables, counters, bunks with mattresses, and sometimes wood stoves. They get you out of the elements, and save you from having to set up and break down your tent every day.

A bee, doing it's thing

Sadly, Waiopehu Hut did not have a woodstove, mostly due to lack of nearby trees for firewood, but made up for that with some amazing views from the porch. We met a Kiwi there and enjoyed chatting with him for a few hours before bedtime. Because of the lack of a stove and the somewhat exposed location for the hut, it was a cooold night and morning.

You can see all the way out to the coast!

Pretty amazing, rugged mountains

Starting a new fashion trend. Oh yeah, and an awesome view.

Even the view from the loo was amazing

Nothing like a solid sunbeam to make great views even better

The next day took us past Te Matawai (sounds like Tomato-y) hut for lunch, over Pukematawai, a 1450m peak, and ended at the Dracophyllum "hut". Much of the trail was above the treeline and along ridges, so we had more incredible views for most of the day. Dracophyllum hut was not nearly as dramatic as the name makes it sound, and was on the low end of the hut spectrum, with only 2 bunks and not very much room. We had it to ourselves though, and it was a convenient stopping point.

Ascending to Pukematawai on the ridge. Zoom in, you can see Liz

A nearby ridge from Pukematawai

The rightmost ridge curves around to the left, and Mt. Crawford is way off in the distance.
We followed this ridge all the way down over the next couple of days

Descending Pukematawai - steep at times, but not bad if you take it slow

Creepy beech forests

Inside Dracophyllum hut - a bit small. Worst part: our double sleeping bag
forced us  to squeeze into a single bunk. Cramped night!

The hut was small for us, but completely unworkable for
6'7" Ben, who came through a day or 2 after us

The next morning, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. We woke up inside a cloud, and everything outside was drenched. We got moving, and had the toughest stretch of the section to get through. There were several steep, rocky ascents and descents, which were made more treacherous with all the rain and wetness.

By the time we reached our halfway point for the day, Nichols hut, the weather, especially the wind, had gotten significantly worse. The rest of our day would have been along high, exposed ridges, so we decided to stop early, in hopes that the weather would be better the next day. Nichols hut was a very nice 6 bunk-er, and even had a wood stove. Unfortunately, there was no dry firewood at the hut, so we couldn't get a fire going that night.

The wind kept getting worse, which, in a way, made us feel better. It's always a tough decision to stop because of weather - is it really bad enough that you shouldn't keep going? Will it just get better once you get off the trail? In this case, we made the right call. The wind and rain continued to get worse, and the hut shuddered in the gusts all night long. We had noticed that Dracophyllum hut was staked to the ground with heavy duty steel cables... now we know why.

The next morning, the wind was still blowing, so we slept in a bit. Around 1pm, it seemed slightly better, and we knew we had to leave soon to make it to the next hut before dark, so we packed up and walked back up to the ridge. The wind was much worse up there, and after getting pushed around by the gusts for a few minutes, we gave up and headed back down to the hut. We collected some deadwood on our way, and got a fire going. It didn't last long, because there were only small sticks from leatherwood bushes near the hut, but it did warm us up a bit.

Inside Nichols Hut

We spent most of our 40 hours in this hut huddled under our sleeping bag to stay warm

The "view" from the hut

Soon after, Jason, Manu, Laura, and Johanna, all TA walkers, showed up. They confirmed that we again made the right call in waiting - they had been blown around all day, and had trouble even standing up in some places. Not the sort of weather you want to be up on a high, exposed ridge in. The 6 bunk hut was a lot more crowded with 6 people in it, but it also finally warmed up a bit. We got to know everyone for a little while, but all went to bed before the sun went down. We were hoping to get out pretty early the next morning, and they were all exhausted after a long day.

The next morning was totally different - the wind had died down near the hut, and the clouds were clearing. We packed up and set off again. The ridge was still very windy, but manageable. We had to stand our ground during a few big gusts, but for the most part it was easy going up to Mt. Crawford, another 1450m peak. We had more amazing views as we approached and passed the summit.

Beautiful morning!

These mountains are amazing

Nice weather, but still cooold and windy. Full gear on for a while.
Mt. Crawford is the peak in the background

The clouds were not totally gone, but you can still see the ocean off in the distance. We were even able to see the South Island.

Hooray, not stranded by the weather anymore!

From there, it was a long, long 1250m descent to Waitawaewae (pronounced: YTYY) hut for a lunch stop. It was pretty steep in places, and Laura apparently took a few good slides. It was a slow morning, and we were behind schedule by the time we made it down. We scarfed a quick lunch, and got on our way. After spending a day waiting for the weather, we didn't really have enough food to stop early again.

After YTYY, the trail continued to be a bit rough for a couple of hours, but eventually came out to an old tram route, and became much easier at that point. Oh, well, except for the places where it edged around HUGE slips on the side of the river valley. The trail notes say it "sidles" around the slips. I'd say it "gets as close as possible without going over the edge". At one point we were hanging onto tree roots as we went around a really narrow corner. If it had been raining and slippery, we probably would have bushwhacked up and around that spot. A little nerve wracking, but we made it.

Somewhat scary swingbridge

Remains of an old tram engine

A bit hard to see, but this was the second, minor slip in the trail.
It goes down to about 4 inches wide - luckily there was a well worn
path up and around this section, it wasn't really passable.

From there it was an easy walk to Otaki Forks and the Parawai Lodge, which we were expecting to be a fancy, serviced hut with things like gas cookers. Unfortunately it was a fairly run down. It had something like 18 bunks though, and there were only 3 of us (Liz, Jason, and me) there, so we had plenty of room. Also, back down near sea level, it was much warmer than the alpine huts, which was nice.

Otaki Forks was really cool - beautiful rivers surrounded by meadowed plateaus

The following day, day 83, we technically left the Tararua section of the trail, but spent most of the day walking through a bush track in the same mountain range. It was a good bit easier, but still had some nice views from the 800m peak we went over. After we emerged from the forest, we had an easy 10km roadwalk to reach the River Pa.

Tararuas - been there, done that

The River Pa is an old school that's been converted to a farm. The owner, Paul, is very TA friendly, and only asks for a $10 koha (donation) per person. Paul was away while we were there, but Pip, a flatmate, took great care of us. We got clean beds, hot showers, and did some laundry. Another great place to rest up after a tough section.

We were also invited to have dinner & breakfast there. We ate communal meals with two French girls and a Slovakian family that were "woofing" on the farm. WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) is an international program where travellers can volunteer to work on farms in exchange for room and board. It sounds like a great way to travel - easy on the budget, rewarding work, and friendly people to meet and stay with.

From here, it's smoother sailing down to Wellington, and the end of the north island. We're excited to get there and "finish" the island, but not quite as excited as we could be, since we skipped a decent portion of it. Still, I'm sure it will feel great to see the plaque at the shoreline, and we're really excited (and a bit nervous!) about the wild and crazy south island that will follow it.