Pourangaki Hut, Ruahines

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    • #14962 Reply
      Gareth Morton
      Guest

      Hi All,

      I am leading a Medium Trip to Pourangaki Hut in the Ruahines in mid-Feb and wondered if anyone had been here before and had any advice about the best route in and out.
      Looking at my map I like the idea of the loop from Purity Road-end via Purity Hut to Wooden Peg/Iron Peg, navigating the tops passing Pinnacle Creek and then down to Pourangaki Hut for Saturday night. Sunday would be the climb up and then down via Kelly Knight Hut and out via the Pourangaki River. Is this feasible? Looks like more of a M/F trip to me!
      Is there good camping at Purity road-end? Any estimated times for the various legs of this route for a group of 6-8 trampers?
      Any advice/info greatly appreciated.
      Cheers,
      Gareth.

    • #18251 Reply
      Gareth
      Guest

      PS – i am also thinking of leaving Pourangaki Hut and exiting over Maungamahue to Rangiwahia Hut and out at the Renfrew Road-end. Any opinions about this route out? Thanks.

    • #18252 Reply
      Mike
      Guest

      Hi Gareth.

      It’s very feasible. That’s exactly what a group of 4 of us did in November 2007. We were planning for Waterfall Hut, but some very strong wind meant we bailed down to Pourangaki instead, as it had better escape routes. That was an MF-rated trip at the time. I wrote some notes about it at http://www.windy.gen.nz/index.php/archives/58 (also in the 2008 journal). Pourangaki’s a nice hut, and very sheltered — it can be blowing a gale on the tops yet still be warm and sunny down in that valley.

      From memory you can camp at the Purity road end, more or less in a farm paddock so you might have to contend with the odd cow depending on which side of the fence you set up on.

      You can alternatively get from Pourangaki to Kelly Knight via the river if people don’t want to climb or if the wind is too strong or something, but I’ve never been that way personally. 3 of us took just under 4 hours to get up and over and down to Kelly Knight in good weather, which I think was marginally longer than a larger group that was heading along the river.

      Pourangaki to Rangiwahia is another option in reasonable weather, and you’ll get to stay on the tops longer this way. A group of about 9 of us (roughly MF to F) took about 5 hours to get to Rangiwahia Hut from Pourangaki in nice weather in April 2008, fairly relaxed (albeit with fit people), so it’s another not-too-unreasonable walk out on a Sunday as long as you get going early enough. You might want to check with someone knowledgeable about potential weather conditions to look out for in that region, though, because in some conditions I bet you might want to switch and go directly out via Kelly Knight.

      Mike.

    • #18253 Reply
      Glynne Lloyd
      Guest

      Another camping option is the public camping domain at Mangaweka.

    • #18254 Reply
      Paul Christoffel
      Guest

      Pourangaki to Rangiwahia hut is pretty straightforward, and quicker than getting to Kelly Knight I think.

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