Sawtooth Ridge

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    • #12278 Reply
      John Saunders
      Guest

      Hi, I’m planning a trip from Ruahine Corner through to Daphne Spur this summer, and I’m needing to check the route through a couple of areas I’m not familiar with. Printed information seems pretty thin, so any ideas appreciated. Basically, am I right in presuming you can tramp from Wakelings Hut up the Waikamaka River to Waikamaka Hut, then cross the Rangi Saddle to Waterfall Hut? Presumably you would need low river levels. And then, visibility permitting, can you climb up Tussock Creek on to Broken Ridge? And from there, getting on to Sawtooth Ridge? Exiting via Daphne Hut seems to be the normal route from that point. I’ve only heard widely-fluctuating, second-hand stories about the tops in this area, so any experienced comment would be of huge value.
      Thanks
      John Saunders

    • #16444 Reply
      Richard Davies
      Guest

      John, I have explored this area a bit.

      Wakelings – Waikamaka = good fast travel, lots of shingle in the river, but obviously a high flow will make it trickier.

      Rangi Saddle = Nice easy crossing to Waterfall, from there I would strongly advise against Tussock Creek (lots of waterfalls). The easiest option is to go back to Rangi Saddle and up on to Rangioteatua then traverse the tops south (eg Paemutu, on to Sawtooth, Howletts, Daphne etc).

      A more adventerous option would be to access the bottom of Broken Ridge a little way up the Kawhatau and follow this up to the main range.

      Alternatively tramp up one of the streams on to the Hawkes Bay range (this connects the main range to the Hikurangi range.) Iron Peg, or Pinnacle Creeks are OK, but the best one is just upstream from Waterfall Hut (its name eludes me at the moment but its quite obvious on the map) then head across to the main range and down Sawtooth ridge.

      Sawtooth Ridge is good travel – best along the ridge itself, no easy sidling unfortunately.

      The tops through there are really pretty good, its a bit steep and eroded round Paemutu/Broken Ridge but not too bad. A Good exit exists down to Hinerua Hut and out to Mill Road across the farm (need to cross the Tukituki).
      Its good travel out down the Tukituki from Daphne, but if you are feeling keen and the weather is nice then you could head out via the tops and Longview Hut.

      Should be a good trip.

      Cheers

      Richard

    • #16446 Reply
      Andrew McC
      Guest

      Travel along Sawtooth ridge is OK from Ohuinga to Howletts hut. Also OK going further south to Pohangina saddle & Longview hut from Howletts hut, just a few prickly spaniards. Dropping down to Daphne hut on the track is straightforward.

      Re. eastern approaches: I tried once to get to Sawtooth ridge from Triangle Hut along a ridge/spur via pt 1316 towards Taumataomekura but we faced about 2km of solid leatherwood so turned back after bashing thru it for about an hour and gaining about 400 metres. There is also a gorge option just north of this spur but this sounds tricky too judging by one comment in the Triangle hut logbook.

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