Luna Loop

Ok, change of plans I thought.  Dragon’s Teeth is out of the question, a 11 hour round trip not counting the ferry, no way.

But what else is there? Preferably in the Mt Owen area of Kahurangi? Looking at the topo I thought, well you could go from virtually the same place, up and over the Patriarch ridge, bag Mt Patriarch, drop down to Kiwi Saddle hut, go over Luna Tops, bag Mt Luna, come out Stone Creek and wander out the Wangapeka back to where you started.  That could work.

After selling/telling the idea to the punters a plan was hatched.  The Norwegian forecast called for apocalyptic amounts of rain over Sunday night/Monday morning, but no severe weather warning was issued.  Ok, we’d have to go and see.  The only nagging thing was the Dart ford at the start of the road, but if that was high, then surely all the other fords would be up too, right?

We set off from Kowhai Point early on Saturday and navigating a shortcut got to the road-end at about 10:30.  The Wangapeka track proved to be quite reasonable, like a Great Walk as Shay put it.  After about 25 minutes we crossed the wide but perhaps only thigh deep Wangapeka River and took the Gibbs Route to the top of the range.  The route proved to be quite rough at the start, but quickly gave way to a gentle gradient in a spacious beech forest.

After reaching the tussock at a reasonably high elevation of 1300m, we got a glimpse of Mt Owen and the triple summits of our objective Mt Patriarch.  Some scrambling up the tussocky slopes ensued until we were able to reach the rocky ridge that eventually joined the Patriarch ridge.

The going proved to be quite slow as the rock was not sure underfoot and the other side offered a lot more exposure than I or some of the others were comfortable with.  Once the ridge was gained, much more scrambling and sidling followed until we were finally at the saddle at the bottom of Mt Patriarch and the turn-off to Kiwi Saddle.  Unfortunately, the weather was closing in and we were losing daylight.  Standing at the foot of Patriarch, it was probably doable, but consensus was to get to the hut, rather than risk coming down in the dark.

The hut was an old and cozy Forest Service six bunker, with the famous photo of Bill Denz attached shrine-like above the fireplace.  Dinner was dehy, which was quite good after what felt like a relatively long day – with over 1,200 m of elevation gain.

The next day we went over Kiwi Saddle to the Luna Tops, just as we exited the bushline the weather started coming in, with intermittent Tararua-like visibility.  Straight away we saw that Mt Luna was out of the question, as it was capped with cloud.  The immediate obstacle was the range leading up to point 1,578 (hereby renamed as Mt Zubkov, after all it is a prominent peak in it’s own right and merely 52 m shorter than the named Mt Luna).  The ridge was sharper and more exposed than the topo indicated.  After we got to a reasonable height, high above Luna Lake, we saw Mt Zubkov jutting out of the mist like some kind of domestic miniature Matterhorn.  The ridge leading up to it looked even more narrower and exposed than what we had just come to.  Well, we could drop down to the lake and go out Luna Creek I suggested.  Nope not going happen.  Ok, well we could sidle Mt Zubkov, either left or right depending on what looks better – it looks better to follow the ridge to the top was the reply.  Ok.  Not feeling supremely confident, I asked if anyone wants to lead across the ridge? No volunteers.  Ok, to hell with it, if I survive the next 500 m, I’ll survive anything.  And bravely, your dear author and alleged trip leader, led the troops across.  The crux of the entire endeavour was a boulder, just seemingly sitting in a gap between two spires.  No way I thought, and surely enough there was well trodden ground trail to quickly sidle it and regain the ridge.  Some punters however were more than game to try the boulder, all with great success.

The ground trail remained reasonable up to the very top of Mt Zubkov where a large cairn awaited us.

A quick check of the map, compass, and a break in the weather confirmed that we ought to travel north and find a place to drop down to Stone Creek.  The descent was very much willy-nilly with no discernable ground trail and sliding down wet tussock.  At the bottom we picked up Stone Creek without trouble and saw that DOC put up double-triangles to mark the start of the pre-track down to Stone Creek.  About 30 mins of following the track we were greeted with yelps and wahoos as the advance party saw the hut, or so we thought.  It may also been due to a solitary Whio who was chilling out in the Wangapeka/Stone confluence.

A long lunch with the comfort of a hot billy was followed by a quick two hour jaunt to Cecil King’s hut.  After snapping photos of the derelict structure we moved about three minutes to King’s Creek hut.  The rain started up, but seemed to be coming in later than forecast.  We had the hut mostly to ourselves, until a late visitor turned up, who we later learned was named Joachim.  With six loud and boisterous Tongue and Meaters in the hut Joachim decided to spend the night in Cecil King’s hut.  After some heavy rain in the evening, it seemed to have stopped in the night, and I swear I saw stars out.

After a lazy start and some hut yoga we set off back the van.  Lively discussion was had on the etiquette of walking out to meet another party – whether one should leave early so as to not keep anyone waiting, or to walk out to meet at the arranged time.  After some persistent drizzle subsiding we got to the van.  My fears of pumping side creeks proved unfounded as most of them were barely a trickle.  We ran the van over to Courthouse Flat to meet up with the Mt Owen group and found that they came out some time earlier.  We packed the van up and negotiated the winding road and some wandering livestock until we came to Dart Ford.

The Dart was well and truly in flood.  Swift and discoloured it was at least knee deep over the ford.  Joachim was waiting ahead of us, his sedan could well and truly not cope.  Much deliberation was had, and in the end it was decided to try to wait it out.  It had stopped raining, but paradoxically after one and a half hours the river was flowing higher.  We scoped it out, checked out the van and with the ferry cut-off time looming, Barry decided he was keen to try to drive over the ford.  Fair enough, while some of us wanted to get across, nobody until that point really wanted to try it.  After rubbing the soft stuffed Kiwi for good luck, Barry floored the Ford over the ford! After the bow-wave crashed over the windshield the venerable Transit kept going like a majestic icebreaker.  Success! We reached the other side and after picking up Fiona who went ahead, and giving Joachim some spare dehy’s, we raced off to the ferry making the queue just in time.  On the ferry many beverages and much food was had and reflecting on a good trip, one with many thrills and much intrigue.  Such is life in the misty mountains of Kahurangi National Park.

Track Times

Roadend to Kiwi Saddle via Gibbs Route 6.5 hrs

Kiwi Saddle to Stone Hut via Luna Tops 4 hrs

Stone Hut to Kings Creek Hut  2 hrs

Kings Creek – Roadend 2 hrs