25 – 27 April
Day 1 River Road end to Mangamate Hut
We had 9 of us total, 6 from Hastings picking up 3 from Naiper on the way. The start point for this trip was the River Road end car park, which we reached from the North via Minginui off highway 38. We finally arrived at the car park at 11:30 am to find it nearly full and only one spot left to park the Van.
We set off about 12 noon, the initial part of the track was easy going for the first hour until we reached the turn off to Mangamate Hut where we stopped for a late lunch. From here we then started the walk upstream in and out of the river we would need to follow most of the way to the hut. Progress slowed considerably at this point, the river was probably higher than it normally would have been due to the rain the previous week, along with fallen trees and a few slips taking out markers making it hard to be certain where the track was heading other than up river. We continued onwards stopping for a break around 3:30 pm, and most of us needed an extra layer, the weather was clear and sunny when we weren’t in the shade of the trees, but wasn’t warm.
Once we reached the old Hut site that signalled the last time we would need to cross the river, from there there was a short climb upwards towards the top of the ridge. We then sidled along taking us to Mangamate Hut finally arriving a 5pm, 5 hours after we had left the car park. Mangamate hut has 9 bunks and there was already four people in the hut when we arrived, so two of us camped while the rest found a bunk, or decided it would be easier to sleep on the floor than try to climb into the upper bunks.
Day 2 – Mangamate Hut to Central Whirinaki via Upper Whirinaki
It was chilly the next morning, a thermometer outside the hut showing a crisp 5 degrees as people had breakfast and those that camped took down their tents and readied for the day.
We headed off southwards and once again into a stream, thankfully smaller than yesterday’s but impossible to avoid getting boots wet again (not that there was any chance for them to have dried out from yesterday). We left the hut about 8:15 am, and about an hour and half or so later we encountered the first group of people who were heading to Mangamate Hut from Central Whirinaki, the previous night Central Whirinaki had 40 people staying there with a large number of them heading to Mangamate hut the next night, so people were racing to claim a bed.
Two and half hours after we started we reached the intersection where people had the option of heading straight to Central Whirinaki Hut for a shorter day or detouring past Upper Whirinaki Hut for those wanting a longer day. At the junction 5 of us (Colin, Paula, Judith, Ally, Nic) decided to head past Upper Whirinaki Hut and the other 4 (Selina, Christine, Steve, Connie) decided to go straight to Central.
The track to Upper Whirinaki was good, the track follows alongside a stream but you aren’t continuously in and out of it this time, however there was plenty of muddy patches to make up for that instead. We reached Upper Whirinaki hut at 1 pm, taking a bit longer than expected as Colin was having some issues with his back. We had a fairly long lunch break, giving Ally and I time to try to dry out damp tents. We distributed some of Colin’s gear to help lighten his pack, finally setting back off about 2 pm to head to Central Whirinaki via the cave and Swingbridge.
The track from Upper Whirinaki to the Swingbridge was once again continuously in and out of streams , finally reaching the Swingbridge at 3:35 pm. Here we stopped for another break, Paula and I took the short detour to explore the Cave. It was considerably larger than I expected and I regretted not grabbing my torch beforehand, but due to time we couldn’t stay for long. From here it was back on a well formed track, finally reaching a rather full Central Whirianki at 5 pm, most people still managed to grab a bed with Ally and myself deciding to sleep on the porch outside rather than put our tents back up.
Day 3: Central Whirinaki out via Waterfall Loop
Another crisp 8 am start, the track back out to the car park was generally good, no more walking in and out of rivers, though a bridge across one of the streams is only now connected to the bank at one end, with some logs from the other side meeting it part way. Between Central Whirinaki Hut and Verns camp t quite a few very large trees that had fallen over the track, making it a challenge to find ways round many of them safely.
We stopped for a break at Verns camp around 10:45 am, and then continued onwards to the Whirinaki Waterfall as most of us hadn’t seen it previously. We then followed the Waterfall track back to the River Road end car park, arriving back at the van at by 1:20 ish for a late lunch before we set off back to Hawkes Bay.
Colin J, Paula K, Judith M, Ally H, Nic W, Selina C, Christine L, Steve B, Connie F