Matemateāonga Track, Whanganui National Park, New Zealand
In June 2024 I joined Regan on a trip that was to become infamous for our colossal underestimation of how long it would take for us to travel between Ōmaru Hut and Puteore Hut in Whanganui National Park (15.5 hours as it turned out). It might seem odd then that I voluntarily agreed to join him in June 2025 on another Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club (WTMC) trip to the national park. His plan was to walk the Matemateāonga Track. With just a month to go, Regan let me know he had been offered a chance to go trapping in Fiordland so would be bailing on the trip. Was this a bad omen? Yet to be seen. Daniel Madley stepped up as leader of the group. He had decided that he had spent too many weekends in the company of ladies so had split the party in two by gender. The lads would go to Ōmaru Hut on Friday night, leaving a gluten-free dessert at Pōuri Hut on Saturday before bunking down at Ngapurua Hut. On Friday we would walk passed Puketōtara Hut before getting a 1pm jetboat down the Whanganui to Pipiriki. The ladies would do the reverse, jetboating up the river on Saturday, leaving us a dessert, swapping keys and walking out to my car on Kohi Saddle.
Continue reading for free on Sam’s blog here: https://medium.com/@bush-lawyer/a-love-letter-to-an-old-road-0f2c859c9f9f?sk=c9c6b01f37ea5564b72435bd58241752