Ten of us (4 M and 6 EM trampers) met at 1pm on Waitangi Day (a Thursday) for the drive to Kaweka Forest Park. After stopping for leg stretches in Shannon and Woodville, and a meal in Hastings. We arrived just before dark at the road end campsite and pitched our tents for the night. … Read more
Day One: Travel Day – Wellington to Mangatutu Hot Springs campsite Day Two: Makahu Road to Ballard Hut Day 3: Ballard Hut to Te Puia Hut and hot springs Day 4: Te Puia Hut to Wellington
The long weekend started with a Friday evening drive to Norsewood, to camp overnight. This allowed us to break up the long drive, along winding gravel roads, to the beginning of the track at Makahu Road road end – about 1.5 hours from Napier. It was sad to see some of the damage caused by … Read more
The Te Puia Lodge is an Easy-ish tramp located in the Kaweka Ranges. It was my first tramp as a team leader, and it was a pain in the ass, literally, but I will get to that later on. This guide is structured as follows. Chapter 1 describes the first day and our long drive … Read more
On the Wednesday before our Wellington Anniversary long weekend trip up to the Kawekas, Megan gave a talk about a trip she did with Tony, Fons and Rohan at Labour Weekend last year, where they were able to visit seven huts over the three days. Not that we were into anything like competitive hut-bagging but … Read more
It was hot hot hot in the Kawekas on Wellington Anniversary Weekend! The Medium group commenced their trip into the Kawekas from Makahu Saddle. Ahead of us was the climb up Kaweka J. Minutes into the trip I was sweaty enough to pick up a fine dry coat of Kaweka dust all over my legs. … Read more
Labour weekend was a good chance to venture further afield so four of us set off from Wellington for the Kawekas on the Friday evening. Kuripapango campsite, on the Napier-Taihape road, is a long-way from Wellington and with holiday weekend traffic and a pizza stop in Carterton we didn’t arrive until 11.45 pm. Kuripapango campsite … Read more
Friday We all met at the railway station and got going at around 5:30pm. We were not in a rush as we were not going to the road end tonight. We stopped in Masterton for dinner, then onto Hastings, sharing the driving and passing the time with chat and a few hours of what we … Read more
We headed for Bulls which was our dinner stop, then a short 40 min drive to Mangaweka camp ground – our destination for the night. We were all in bed at 9.30pm to get a good sleep as I told the crew that there is a steep hill first thing when we get to our … Read more
If the weather were on our side, we were looking to do a big semi-circuit anti-clockwise tramp. From Ballard Hut to Kiwi Mouth Hut via Venison Top and Manson, around to Mackintosh Spur via Kiwi Saddle, down Mackintosh, across Matauria Ridge returning to the Makahu Saddle carpark. But we (party of two) learnt ahead of … Read more