I have never spent much time in the Ruahines. Too far from home. Too difficult to get to. You have to read a map just to work out where the road end is. Too similar to the Tararuas. Why would anyone go that far just to get away from a bit of wind? But after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I got talked in to a trip to the Ruahines for Easter. It turned out okay. I could even be tempted to go again.
We left town on Thursday night, the forecast wasn’t flash, but I trusted my trip leader. After a bit of ‘take this road until intersection X’ and then ‘go on to intersection Y’, which I observed in complete calm from the back seat, followed by a 15 minute wander around to get to a picnic spot 2 minutes from the road end, it was dark but we were set. From now on it was on foot, so pretty straight forward.
Good Friday
The mist cleared overnight to a fine day. A quick jaunt up a broad creek to Standfield Hut, where we met a couple of hunters, followed by a track on a ridge over to Cattle Creek hut for lunch, I was beginning to appreciate how different the Ruahines were. This is no place to think a wander off track at any time could be the go. The bush would be very slow going and quite annoying.
We ‘scrambled’ up creek to Pohangina Hut, where we met another couple of hunters. Not really a scramble, but the creek has been washed out a bit so it was not as straight forward or fast as it used to be (reading the hut books confirmed). Again, any off track adventure would take real dedication, now because of the loose, non-vegetated nature of the terrain. The DoC short cut across the ridge to the hut is reasonably entertaining by DoC standards.
From here we headed up river to Ngamoko Hut, where, at exactly the right time of day, we saw no hunters. This was our stop for the night. The river was full enough to keep you interested without being dramatic. But it was cold with no sun in the valley. A tidy hut with a nice fire and supply of dry wood kept all punters smiling. Plus gooey creme eggs!
Easter Saturday
The barometer looked good, so as a break from the creeks and rivers we headed up to pt 1350 just south of Whaihgapuna and along the ridge to Toka. Along the ridge we met a group of three hunters and saw another pair before heading down to Leon Kinvig Hut where we saw no hunters. Another nice tidy hut with an open fire and lots of dry wood cut. Plus a pair of whio in the river. This was the night for marshmallow Easter eggs! The tops were a fine variation, a fantastic choice to go up.
Easter Sunday
Time to start to go find the road end with the car… Where did we park it? The hut log books gave a few hints about the route. And as we were forewarned we made good progress, coming across pt 1232 (no worries), down to Birch Whare (a good pointer for getting out of the creek in the hut book helped) and along the ridge back to Cattle Creek hut. The ridge route is unmaintained and so quite interesting. It was hot on the final big climb out from Birch Whare and I got a sunburned nose. We saw no hunters, had caramel Easter eggs and were disappointed by the state of the fire place.
Easter Monday
The wind picked up over night and a bit of driven drizzle set in. Not to worry as we had two packets of crisps in the car! It was a simple wander back to the road end. We took the high route to keep things different.
So some trips you should let yourself be talked in to. I loved the nice huts and varied route and was puzzled by the non-off-track nature of the terrain. Sure you can do it in the Ruahines, but you need to take more care on the route or have oodles of time and patience and maybe a spare layer of elephant skin would help too. Certainly worth another look.