As the medium (M) group had cancelled their trip to Triangle Hut, the 5 of us had the van to ourselves and decided to leave on Saturday morning instead of Friday night. We left the Railway Station at 8.30am, and after a coffee stop in Shannon we set off from the Renfrew Rd carpark at 12.45pm. We had a cool and slightly wet walk up to Rangiwahia Hut, stopping for a snack halfway and enjoying several stops to admire the views. Jamie ran ahead to the arched bridge so we could take photos of him standing at the top of the arch.
The walk up took about 2 hours and there are two climbs of 260m and 300m respectively. The track is good, with lots of steps and now skirts the top of a slip which has removed the previous alignment.
The weather closed in just after we arrived at the empty, but still-warm hut. So we brought in wood and lit the fire again. DoC flies firewood in, and there’s a good weathertight woodshed above the hut, and an axe.
A group of 6 tertiary-age youths arrived a bit later in the afternoon, and a couple arrived out of the rain at dusk. The Hut was full, so one person slept on the seating beside the table.
Michaela and Kristen took charge of making dinner and the evening became quite raucous, as various card games and conversations in and between the groups developed. The Hut was buffeted by strong wind gusts throughout the night, which pushed rain in under the window flashing on the northern side. This wet the bunk below, although the bunk’s occupant seemed unphased.
On the next day, after some discussion about the weather, we decided to walk up the ridge and see what Deadman’s Track (a poled route above the bushline) was like. Climbing up through the cloudbase, the wind was strongly northeast, and we made 2 or 3 stops to gauge everyone’s level of enthusiasm. All group members were keen to go on, so we climbed to the junction with the Triangle Hut track and turned south.
We met a party of 3 older blokes near the Mangahuia Trig and then dropped down, out of the wind, as the track turned to the west. The route down through the tussock was a minefield of muddy holes, with a couple of short climbs along the ridge before it levelled out at 1440m elevation. The grade was easy from there until the last steep section to the carpark. The track was muddy after the wet weather and it was sometimes better avoided in places where there was space to walk beside it.
Tussock, Astelia and the odd Spaniard plant gave way to Hebes and Leatherwood as we descended the ridge. There were also stands of Goblin beech and stretches of open mossy track, as if someone had mowed it. Eventually the track dropped down into beech forest and we descended the last 230m quite steeply, kneecaps groaning. From the Hut, the track took us about 6 hours to complete. This included several stops for food and photos.
After changing out of our damp and muddy clothes, we piled into the van. We drove the Manawatu Scenic Route in the twilight, through the precipitous gorges which are tributaries of the Oroua River, to the Apiti Tavern, where we had an excellent meal. We were back at Wellington Railway Station by 8.30pm. Meredith’s dad met us there and took the van back to Taita with Meredith – for which we were all very grateful.