5 – 6 September 2025
The initial plan for the weekend had been to head to Leon Kinvig, however due the amount of rain in the week leading up, and upcoming forecast for the weekend it was decided we should avoid rivers and instead decided on a trip to the newly relocated Komata Hut (previously known as Comet Hut).
Six of us set off from Hastings in the van, as we were heading along the Napier Taihape we were greeted with patchy heavy rain, reaffirming that we had made the right decision to avoid any rivers.
Previously the hut had been located at the road end, however we would now need to climb up Komata hill, follow along the tops briefly and then descend down to the huts’ new location above the Ngaruroro river. The track starts in pine forest as we climb up Komata hill, eventually moving into beech forest. Thankfully once in trees we were sheltered from the wind and rain so while we had all started in coats and jackets these quickly became unnecessary.
From the turn-off we initially dropped down steeply about 60 meters, back into pine forest. Within the pine forest the track wouldn’t always have been obvious where you would be headed if it wasn’t for the nearly excessive number of orange markers to follow. After the pine forest we eventually broke out into more scrubby manuka and it is at this point things got a lot more interesting.
The track downwards is steep. The top of Komata is 1083 metres above sea level, the hut’s new location is at around 360 meters above sea level. You descend the majority of this 720 odd meters over about a 3 km distance, not including the bonus small steep hill to climb up and back down again just before you get to the hut. Thanks to the rain the track was muddy, leading to poor footing, and often there wasn’t anything to grab on to, the combination meant just about everyone fell over at least once on their way down.
Despite this we made good time, reaching the hut’s new location (just under 4 hours). The hut now sits nestled amongst kanuka trees. There is a large cleared area around the hut but you wouldn’t want to camp there if it was avoidable due to large numbers of tree stumps and other small holes scattered around the clearing. Thankfully we were the only ones there, as the hut has 6 beds, though one almost requires you to be a gymnast to get into thanks to the positioning of the roofing beams directly above it.
It’s a nice little hut, and you could see where they had tried to reuse a much of the old hut as possible after relocating it. Part of the reason for the move was due to it being heavily vandalised in its previous location, and some of this damage can still be seen on the inside.
From the hut there is a short, but very narrow and steep track that descends down to the Ngaruroro river providing access if required.
The next morning we gathered our gear and started the slow climb back up the hill, making it back to the car park without incident in 4 and half hours.
Party: Nic W, Sascha H, Judith M, Murry A, Colin J, John M