A Dangerous Business

Date: 31st December 2023

Start: Makahika Outdoor Centre (km 1547.2)

End: Waiopehu Hut (km 1560.9)

Distance Travelled: 13.7 km

Total Distance Completed: 1400.9 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Some Nights by fun.

Grunting: putting Sharapova to shame

Well there’s no use worrying about it anymore. This is my D-Day. Technically I guess it’d be T-Day, the start of the Tararuas. We may have past through parts of the forest park over the past couple days, but that was just the entree. This is the real deal, the notorious mountain range that I’ve heard so much about. Today’s journey, thanks to the weather, would be shorter than planned, only travelling to the first of six huts we’d pass by on our crossing of the range. Perhaps that is for the best, giving us a chance to settle into the hard tramp the mountains will demand from us.

The morning of our depature was soaking wet, with bouts of heavy rain coming every few minutes. It was supposed to clear up in the afternoon, but there was a lot of climbing to do so a group of 5 of us (myself, Team Camera, Vicky and Snacks) set off at 10 am. We had 5 km of road walking before reaching the track, 10 minutes of which was in dry weather.

When the rains did come, they came fiercely, almost like we had done something to offend them. My rain gear didn’t stand a chance, Gore-Tex can only do so much. After an hour or so it had failed, soaking my clothes underneath, right as we arrived at the beginning of the track to Waiopehu Hut, starting with a short stint through a farm.

This is going to be one of those days where I’ll be doing more talking rather than showing. Now in the relative shelter of the forest, the rain became less intense, replaced with the mud. Lots and lots of mud. Not severe mud per se, but constant mud. Anywhere that water could pool there was mud which in a thick forest was most of the track. Moreover, we had to climb 800ish metres to the hut. Speed was non-existent, toiling over each step up the mountain.

The first half was a miserable experience for me. This may come as a shock to some people, but I don’t like being wet on trail. It’s an awful feeling, made worse when there’s no ability to get dry in a hurry. The only shelter up here was the hut were aiming for. Thankfully I did get a modicum of relief as the afternoon came around. The rain stopped as we could stop and eat a quick lunch on the trail next to a section of boardwalk am that was reminiscent of the descent down Pirongia. The local tramping club is intending to boardwalk the majority of the muddiest sections of this track, but that will take time and money that they just don’t have at the moment. At least they seem to have a plan in place, I don’t know what DOC’s excuse is on Pirongia.

With soaked clothes and rising altitude, it was beginning to get cold, typically solved by moving or finding shelter and putting on dry clothes. The latter wouldn’t be possible until the hut, so move we did. Up and over tree roots and rocks, through mud pools that I’d give a 3/5 on the Pirongia scale. Definitely not a comfortable affair in the slightest, but now closing in on the hut I felt myself gain a new burst of energy. Gone were the loud groans after I pulled myself up yet another steep step, replaced by encouraging pep talks urging myself to go on and get to the hut. Sooner than expected I started seeing tussock lining the ground and the trees becoming shorter and less densely packed.

It was surprisingly not that windy. I was fully expecting gale-force gusts, but I suppose something was dissipating the full force of the winds that were forecasted higher up. No complaints from me, although I would’ve liked to have had some sort of view; whiteout isn’t the most enthralling of sights. What is a nice sight is a large wooden structure looming out of the clouds: Waiopehu Hut.

A smiling Melly was already there, unexpectedly alone. We had figured there was going to be a huge crowd of people coming up from Levin today, but they had either carried onto Te Matawai Hut or stayed put an extra day. No matter, that means we get free choice of beds. The rest of the group were close behind me, and once our shoes were off we hopped inside and quickly took off our wet clothes, replacing them with dry ones. Sadly this hut didn’t have a fireplace so drying them out would be tricky. During dinner I tried to help dry my socks out a bit by wrapping them around my fuel canister which didn’t seem to be as effective as when I did it on the Great Ocean Walk.

Now, today was New Year’s Eve. When we woke up tomorrow it will be 2024. This is the second year in a row I’ll spend New Year’s in a hut. Last year I was in Mangatepopo Hut doing the Tongariro Northern Circuit with Eli. None of us felt like staying up till midnight, so our celebration was held at “hikers midnight”, aka 9pm. Matt had brought a small bottle of whiskey which we mixed with hot chocolates and Snacks had a similarly small bottle of sparking wine. The mood in the hut was very merry, helped further by the clouds lifting for the briefest of moments.

Tomorrow would be a long day so we all hit our beds early. The forecast was promising, the early start we’d have to make was not. Hopefully we can get some actual views to repay the effort it took to get up here.