[paul christoffel]

Can anyone give me some information on route between Kiwi Saddle hut and Studholme Saddle Hut, and between Studholm e and Kiwi Mouth – duration of each section, preferred direction etc?

[paul christoffel]

I’m afraid my secretary was a bit vague when posting this query.

We’re planning to start at the roadend near Kuripapango on the Taihape-Napier Road and head for Kiwi Saddle Hut then continue on to Studholme Saddle hut. But I was wondering how long that would take. Does anyone know how easy the travel is on the Kiwi Saddle to Studholme Saddle route?

The alternative seems to be to parkat the Lakes Road car park and go up over The Tits, which doesn’t look anything like as far.

Any advice?

[Glynne Lloyd]

Hi Paul,

Harry and I did this tramp a couple of years ago.

We went from Kuripapango to Kiwi Saddle and then along the ridge passed Castle Camp to Studholme Bivvy as the Studgholme Hut nearby was full with hunters. You should go right round the ridge so that you are on the tops right above the bivvy before heading down. I wouldn’t recommend trying to take anyshort cuts down through the felled Pinus Contorta, it doesn’t look very nice travel through that.

The travel was easy and we got there in plenty of time. We even stopped on the ridge for an hour or so to pull a few Pinus Contorta seedlings. On the Sunday we headed out to the lakes carpark over the Tits and then we climbed up on to Kuripapango and back to the Kuripapango carpark. This was good travel as well. Note though we had perfect weather (Harry doesn’t get that very often!)

Another alternative to get back to Kuripapango carpark from the Lakes carpark is to head through the forest and then along the road back to your car. I have also done this route on another occassion and it is straight forward as well, but I remember there might have been a couple of navigational decsion points in the forest.

Note: The Kaweka Hut, between the Lakes carpark and the Tits burnt down.

Cheers,
Glynne

[harry]

As Glynne says, we did a weekend trip a few years ago starting at the Kuripapango carpark and doing a circuit around Mt Kuripapango – Kiwi Saddle – Castle Camp – Studholme Bivvy – the Tits – Kaweka hut – the Lakes – Mt Kuripapango – Kuripapango carpark. This makes an excellent two-day round trip. We had lunch at Kiwi Saddle on the first day, stayed in Studholme Bivvy overnight, and had lunch about halfway up Mt Kuripapango on the second day.

The travel from Kiwi Saddle around to Studholme Bivvy is straightforward. As Glynne says, to get down to Studholme Bivvy it is probably best to continue around the tops until you are due east of it, and drop down the spur from there. An alternative would be to take a short-cut and drop down a spur to the south or south-west of the bivvy, but when we were there this was covered in recently felled pinus contorta and looked like it would be difficult and scrambly to get down. From Studholme Bivvy it is about 15 or 20 minutes walk on a track up the stream to Studholme Hut.

The descent from the ridge south-west of the Tits down to Kaweka hut was steep and scrambly with loose scree. An alternative, especially since Kaweka hut is no longer there, would be to continue along the ridgetop to the south or south-west and drop down from there. (I think from memory there is a track off the end of the ridge down to the river.)

A slightly shorter trip would be to do the same circuit but start and finish at the Lakes rather than Kuripapango. That way you would have a shorter climb up onto Mt Kuripapango at the start and a shorter distance out at the end.

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