Having just received a text asking where this column is, it will of necessity be brief! I hope you’ve managed to enjoy some tramps during this holiday season, though to describe it as “summer” has not always seemed accurate. Christmas Day excepted, the weather has been more notable for wind and rain than sunburn.
As we approached Powell hut last weekend, we were also experiencing the unfortunate realisation that our trip had just gone out the window. Being blown over below Powell is a sign that, even the most optimistic would agree, means heading to Mid Waiohine will not be possible. As we neared the hut, massive clouds of coaly smoke billowed out. Going inside was hardly better and seemed strangely warm on what wasn’t a cold day (despite what we later learned were 160km/h gusts at the Cone weather station). The people in residence talked of how cold they’d been in the morning, in what I mentally tagged as inferior sleeping bags. I guess providing coal is a step forward from those stupid push-button gas heaters, but when people overload the stove (to the extent that flames at one point licked out of the shut vents and door) the safety improvement seems negligible. I restrained myself from a lecture on coal range usage (well, maybe there was one helpful suggestion that, given the extreme downdraft from the chimney, it might be wise to open the vents before those flames set their clothes on fire!).
The booking system at Powell also removed any chance we had of completing our planned route, which would in theory have been possible if we’d been able to stay. Enthusiasm for this option may perhaps have been nil in any case, after our encounter with the coal smokers. But the experience threw into stark relief what has become a duality of experiences in our conservation estate: ill-equipped and perhaps inexperienced people staying in bookable, serviced, semi-palatial huts that they reach via “trails”; and trampers striving on tracks to stay in six-bunkers that all too often come under threat of removal. Did I mention that the “track” to Powell is about to be upgraded? And that the people at Powell had a large billy on the boil constantly in the 30 minutes we took to eat lunch, for no apparent reason other than that the gas was there?
I don’t really mean to rant; we were feeling a bit annoyed about our enforced change of plans, so not exactly in a well-disposed mood anyway! We did have some polite, friendly conversation with the two hut inhabitants about the area and our respective plans. They seemed nice enough, and it is great to see people stepping outside their comfort zone into the outdoors. But it is frustrating to see increasingly endangered DOC dollars treated with so little respect.
Looking on the bright side, it turned out our planned gorge trip down the Waiohine would have been torpedoed by the river flows the next day anyway. So that wind – and that booking system – did us a favour! We took our 17kg packs (wetsuit and multiple plastic bags still included) around Kapakapanui the next day to achieve our training goals; and put the Waiohine back onto the wishlist.
On 9-10 March, we’re running a Bushcraft course at the club’s Paua hut in the Orongorongos. If you know someone who’s keen to tramp but doesn’t know where to start, they might be an ideal candidate. It will cover the basics of gear, navigation and terrain awareness, as well as answering all those questions you might feel too stupid to ask. Plus hut etiquette.