Hauhungaroa, Southern Pureora (Trip 1 of 2: Medium-Fit)
Weekend Trip
Friday 27 August 2010 to Sunday 29 August 2010 (3 days)
A trip to the Hauhungaroa Range, Southern Pureora region west of Lake Taupo
The Omens Was it going ahead at all, second time around?
In August 2009, the same trip was cancelled due to lack of numbers and as the weekend approached a repeat performance looked likely.
However, come the weekend we had enough people to run the trip (we thought) and we headed off to the King Country arriving at the Mangakahu Road-end around midnight.
6.30am rise and the forecast rain had not yet arrived - the medium-fit (or rather slow and long) trip was away by 7.45am. A half-hour walk along a permissive right-of-way brought us to the edge of the forest park. Two signs caught our attention:
a) Track muddy -- proceed with caution.
b) Waihaha Hut (our destination) 10 hours.
The first sign proved to be true. No sooner had we started to climb up to the ridge that led to Hauhungaroa Hut, than light rain began to fall and conditions underfoot became slippery and muddy.
Up on the barely perceptible ridge, conditions did not improve and we sloshed our way along to the hut, arriving at 11.00am, to see another welcoming sign - ‘Waihaha Hut 7 hours’. We decided not to take an early lunch within the luxurious confines of the hut but proceeded along the ridge through moss-festooned bush and stopped for lunch around 12, just before dropping down towards the Waihaha River. The rain picked up as we ate and Tina, not feeling too well, decided that another six hours in the mud and the rain was not something she was looking forward to. She decided to head back to the hut and meet up with the easy party. Claudia decided to join her and so the remaining four in the party carried on with the planned route.
Within half-an-hour of lunch, the day had changed completely. We were following a well-defined ridge down to the river. The bush had opened up. The track was flanked by luxuriant carpets of kidney fern, and underfoot the track was cover in leaves rather than mud. The rain stopped. We even had sunshine and as we walked we disturbed kereru and kaka.
By 2.30 we were beside the Waihaha River watching a pair of whio ply the riffles. It was easy going by the river at first, passing from one grassy area to another. But this area had been buried deep in pumice after the Taupo eruption and soon we were scrambling down and up steep gullies cut by side streams in the pumice banks. The valley started to open up - a sign of a confluence of two major streams - and nestled close to this junction was Waihaha Hut. We had taken just 5½ hours at a leisurely pace to get from the last hut, rather than the advised 7 hours.
We had plenty of time to light a fire, but with Graeme claiming only a Cub badge in fire-lighting, our efforts with the few bits of damp coal and twigs we had managed to forage were woeful.
It rained heavily during the night but, come morning, the sun was shining again as we set off up the stream to the north. Pureora Forest was to have been milled in the 70s and 80s and was subject to treetop protests which led to the cessation of logging. The area just north of Waihaha Hut contained many impressive, old, tall trees. A steep descent to the Mangatu Stream was followed by a steep climb out and part way up, a change in the weather brought light rain and a drop in temperature. At the next track junction we left the main Pureora track and after a short while hit an old logging track which took us down to the lagoon carpark at Waihora Road-end. Lunch was followed by a walk to the lagoon and back - a fair expanse of water after the recent rain, accessible across a submerged board walk. Then rather than wait in the cold at the road-end for the bus, we donned packs and walked down the road to the bushline to meet the bus with the members of the easy party.
We were: Graeme McGowan, Tony Walton, Denis Brown and Martin Woodhead (leader and scribe)