20 November 2021
Six of us left Pukahu at 7 AM on the Saturday morning to drive up the Napier-Taihape Road to the Lakes Road carpark and had started walking down to the Tutaekuri River by 8.30. The bottom of this track has been upgraded since I last walked down it, no scouring there now. The Tutaekuri River was low and easy to cross and it wasn’t long before we were at the Rogue Ridge turn-off.
Peter encouraged all of us to forgo the easy trip and instead ascend the 600 odd metres up the Rogue Ridge. It was a brilliant sunny day and we decided the views would be worth it as we slowly made our way up the scrub, scree and contorta. They certainly were worth it, the central plateau mountains, Ruahines, Wakararas and everything in between were there for us to see.
There were a few early flowers on the tops which were duly photographed before we started off down the track to the old Kaweka Hut site in Cooks Horn Basin. We had lunch not far from the tops, after which Peter got out his map and compass to explain how to navigate without a GPS. We then descended to the hut site and had another rest.
All rested we took the direct route back to our van at the Lakes carpark , arriving there around 4 PM.
Peter B, Des S, Janice L, Anne D, Derek B and Glenda H