Not Alpha Hut – changing plans in the changeable Tararuas

Plan A was an overnight loop to Alpha Hut – starting at Kaitoke road end: taking Marchant Ridge to Alpha Hut and then returning via the Omega Track (with the return involving fording the Tauwharenikau River [formerly called the “Tauherenikau” River] and taking the track on the true left of the River back to the … Read more

Tutuwai Hut – Tararua Forest Park

This trip started off bright and early with the group meeting at the train station at 7am on Saturday morning. The trip leaders had been keeping an eye on the heavy rain forecast all week and it wasn’t meant to start pouring until late afternoon – so we wanted to do as much walking as … Read more

Winchcombe Biv – Tararua Forest Park

Fri – Waiohine Gorge car park to Cone HutWithin minutes of starting our journey to Cone Hut, in an attempt to avoid getting wet feet, I had somehow managed to fall (timber-like) sideways into the creek. I hit my knee, there was blood and a bruise-in-the-making, and I needed a minute to recover. Not a … Read more

Tutuwai Hut and the Geographic Centre of NZ – Tararua Forest Park

We departed from Wellington Railway Station at about 7.30am for the drive over the Remutakas and past Greytown, to the Waiohine Gorge carpark entrance of Tararua Forest Park. It was a lovely sunny winter day. We started our walk at 9.20am – going straight across the Waiohine Gorge suspension bridge. There were great views up and down the … Read more

Mount Reeves – Tararua Forest Park

Due to poor weather, the plan for this trip ended up changing quite a bit. Originally, this was meant to be a Howletts Hut overnight trip in the Ruahine Ranges, but due to this walk having a decent portion of ridge travel and river crossings, we decided to do a loop walk a little closer … Read more

Tutuwai Hut Day Trip in Pictures

This trip was a wobble around South-eastern area of Tararua Forest Park. We started at Waiohine Gorge Road end, taking the Mt Reeves Track to Tutuwai Hut. We then walked about 45 minutes down the Tauherenikau track, finishing with a small scramble up to the unmarked Joe Gibbs Hut. We back-tracked to Tutuwai Hut, went along … Read more

Snow Cone

Despite the miserable forecast for Saturday, I was looking forward to Uta’s Medium ‘Holdsworth to Waiohine’ trip in the Tararuas. Not only is Uta a most excellent leader, but the company promised to be top-notch. In particular, I was looking forward to being reunited with my snowcraft buddy Juan who (when I wasn’t clinging to … Read more

Cone to Alpha Huts (via Neill, Winchcombe and Hector)

We headed into Cone Hut from the Waiohine roadend on Friday night (after getting Chinese takeaways in Greytown – recommended!), and got to Cone at 9.45 that night. Cone is a great little hut and is renowned in arachnologist circles for having some of the hugest spiders in the Tararuas. We crashed almost as soon … Read more

Flora and Fauna Fiesta

llona lead a group of us up to Cone Hut in the Tararuas in search of some cool flora and fauna. I was a new member to the club so was excited to see what the Tararuas had in store. We made out way down the Waiohine river gorge (via a small detour) and started … Read more

Neill Forks via Makaka Spur

We set of from Waiohine Gorge road end on Friday night for Cone hut. Our original plan was to navigate to Jak Flats biv North of Mid-Waiohine hut but the heavy rain and wind forecast for Sunday wasn’t conducive to tops travel so we reshuffled it to Neill Forks via some navigation up from the … Read more