We set off early on Saturday morning from the Wellington Railway Station, and made our first pit stop in Shannon for coffee and snacks. We then decided to get some pies in Dannevirke from the Bakehouse – I highly recommend their steak and double cheese and banoffee slice. It was shaping up to be a demanding weekend!
We arrived around 12.30pm at the Wakarara road end and distributed the ingredients for the shared dinner of nachos. The weather was slightly overcast with the sun attempting to break through the clouds. Our first obstacle was the river crossing which came up to below our shins, and most of us opted to remove our shoes as it was the only river crossing of the trip. We all made it across without incident and quickly put our shoes back on, and headed to the next section, a long muddy trail that our shoes sunk into. It was a short walk though, climbing over some fallen trees until we reached the forestry area, with metal roads that were punishing on the legs.
We walked along forestry roads for about two hours until we reached our first stop, Ellis Hut (Murderer’s Hut), which had been recently spruced up. It was large inside with only 4 bunks but plenty of floor space and a large open fireplace. We decided that we wanted to bag Tin Hut further into the park that evening. Selene and Oindrila decided that they would stay behind and start dinner, and the rest of us set off with a couple hours of daylight remaining.
It was a straightforward walk along the forestry road, and we checked our maps to find the spot to turn off to Tin Hut. We set off into the bush, navigating to the hut that had been abandoned, crossing under low branches and avoiding blackberry bushes. We arrived and discovered a tree had knocked a hole in the roof letting in the elements, and the blackberry bushes enveloped the outside. We could see that something had made a nest with the insulation, and was apparently still using it and did not appreciate visitors quickly scuttling across the iron. The sun had already begun setting so we headed back using our head torches to navigate back, and after refinding our path we quickly found our way back to the forestry road and proceeded back to the hut. As before, the terrain was easy but the undulation added up.
We arrived later back to Ellis Hut with dinner well underway and the hut slowly filling with smoke – it pays to read the hut book first as they had placed a warning that the fireplace was very narrow and filled the hut with smoke. We extinguished the fire and ventilated what we could before settling down to a delicious meal of nachos. We wound down for the night cleaning dishes and getting ready for bed by shifting the table and benches around to fit five of us on the floor while two people preferred to camp outside.
We woke up to better weather on Sunday and quickly packed up and swept the hut. Our next goal was to make it to Poutaki Hut. Our original plan was to stay there the prior night, but given the size of our group we decided to go to Ellis Hut instead. We proceeded down the forestry tracks before we dumped our packs in the bush out of sight and fitted daypacks for those that brought them, and continued heading up the road until we got to the start of the track. After the first part of the climb two people decided they would head back to the van.
The trail wasn’t well marked and the topo map was out of date (it showed the track on the opposite ridge) but we quickly worked out the path to get us going up and made it up to the weather station and summit – the weather had begun to come in again and we didn’t get any views.
We dropped down to Poutaki Hut and saw the ground had been ripped up around the hut by wild pigs and there weren’t really any suitable areas for tents, especially for our large number of trampers. The hut had been recently renovated by the Back Country Trust and had a cosy interior with four bunks and an enclosed fireplace. We sat down inside for our lunch and the weather began bringing in a light drizzle and dropping the temperature.
We set off the same way we had come, with a much better understanding of where the trail went but still had the occasional slide as the downhill was more difficult with mud and loose pine needles. We made it down without incident other than the mud on our clothes from slipping over. We gathered our packs from the end of the road and began the just over one hour walk back across the hard compacted forestry roads, and were treated by the sun finally breaking through the clouds.
We arrived back at the van around 3pm, and decided to check out the outdoor early settler museum in Ongaonga. We got back in the van and were greeted by the lovely generic warning tone sound and a red exclamation which took us until Danniverke to work out it was the sliding door not engaging properly. We stopped at the Four Square in Danniverke as unfortunately the Bakehouse closes at 3pm, so we would have to settle for lesser quality pies, but surprisingly affordable hot chips with chicken salt. We made it back to Wellington around 7pm.
Wakarara road end to Ellis Hut – 9.5km, 2hrs moving time, 2hrs 50mins elapsed time, 257m ascent, 187m descent
Ellis Hut to Tin Hut return – 12.7km, 2hrs 46mins moving time, 3hrs elapsed time, 406m ascent, 378m descent
Ellis Hut to Wakarara road end with detour to Poutaki Hut – 15.7km, 5hrs 6 mins moving time, 6hrs 11 mins elapsed time, 818m ascent, 844 descent.