9 – 10 August
Three of us (Paula, Judith, and Nic) set off from Hasting at 6 am on a chilly Saturday morning with the goal of heading to Ohakune via the Napier-Taihape road, we would then be heading up the Ohakune Mountain Road where we would meet Anton and walk to Mangaehuehu Hut to stay the night and back out the next day.
As we headed along the Napier-Taihape road it started snowing heavy enough to settle on the road, which wasn’t what we were expecting, and meant we were reduced to crawling along down the middle of the road as my car was only a 2 wheel drive. It continued to snow on and off all the way to Ohakune, but thankfully never enough to become problematic.
Upon reaching Ohakune we tried to head upwards to where we were meant to meet Anton only to find Ohakune Mountain Road was closed and the forecast for the area was to further deteriorate overnight, so even if we had been able to go up there was a high chance I wouldn’t have been able to get my car out again the next day.
We regrouped with Anton in a Cafe back in town, and decided to drive round to Whakapapa Village where we could then walk into Whakapapatit hut instead.
The walk into Whakapapaiti hut is fairly easy, you start off following along the Silica Rapids track for about 15 minutes before turning off. We followed the track through bush for about the first hour and half until we reached the first long boardwalked section across an alpine marsh. It was very exposed to the weather, which was thankfully still co-operating, and fairly nice.
From the boardwalk the track takes you down a short steep rocky section back into bush for a short time until you reach the bridge crossing over the Whakapapaiti stream. Across the bridge is the final section of bush on the way to the hut. We stopped here for a quick snack as, due to the later than anticipated start, it was basically lunch time but we knew the hut would be too far away.
We emerged from the bush onto another boardwalked section and then on to a tussock plain which left us exposed to a strong cold wind we would have to walk into the rest of the way.
Eventually the track took us back down towards the stream where we had to boulder hop for a good 200 odd meters to find a point where we could cross while attempting to keep our boots dry. Once across the stream it is about 10 minutes to the hut through more tussock and another short boardwalk.
It was very cold that night, with the fire in the hut doing very little to alleviate the cold. After we had the fire going for about 4 hours the temperature had only risen to about 8 degrees inside, compared to the -1 outside.
The next morning, we woke to a thin layer of snow around the hut, and very strong wind gusts. This meant some sections of the track back out suddenly became considerably more challenging. The 3 boardwalk sections were all now covered in a thin layer of ice providing very little traction, which combined with the strong wind gusts almost sent you sliding off the boardwalks into the mash below.
When we reached the Whakapapaiti stream we realized all the rocks we had previously used to hop across the stream were also now covered in a layer of ice, so quickly abandoned the idea of trying to rock hop back across and instead aimed for the shallowest sections to try minimize the water which would no doubt get into our boots. After crossing the stream rather than try to continue through the boulder field section (we decided it wouldn’t be worth risking ice coated rocks) we took the shortest path across it and went into the tussock early, joining back onto the track shortly afterwards. In the tussock while exposed, we thankfully had the wind behind us this time.
Once back into the bush, after surviving the more icy boardwalks, it was easy going back to Whakapapa Village. We decided to return to Hastings via state highway 5 not wanting to risk a potentially snowy Napier-Taihape road.
While the trip hadn’t gone to plan, it ended up being an enjoyable trip.
Party: Nic W, Judith M, Paula K, Anton D