A blustery Friday evening saw 12 eager punters off along State Highway 2 over the Rimutakas towards the Ruahines in Southern Hawkes Bay. 5 destined for an Easy grade walk to Sunrise Hut and 7 for the Easy Medium aiming for Top Maropea Hut. A slightly longer than expected but worthwhile wait for kebabs in Carterton had us held up slightly.
The van rocked and boogied its way along with the drivers successfully fighting the howling Westerly to keep on the left side of the road. The straight open roads off the Takapau Plains North of Dannevirke gave way to narrower wiggly roads weaving in around the Wakarara Range to the Ruahine foothills. We received a friendly greeting by the local farmer at the road-end car park who was gratefully keeping an eye on people arriving after dark as mischief making and vandalism had been encountered by nefarious miscreants in the past. A short 20 minute walk to Triple X Hut had us in our sacks around 11 with Karl and DJ from the Easy group electing to fly camp and only 1 other person, a deer hunter, in residence who seemed pleased to learn we were from a tramping club and not rabble rousers. Overnight the roaring sound of the wind in the trees outside was mysteriously replaced at some point by… nothingness. An eerie dead silence descended over the hut.
Morning was greeted by calmness in weather and mood, and a sense of quiet anticipation of the 700+m climb ahead. The route to Sunrise Hut could better be described as a path rather than a track, and while the zigging and zagging of said path made the ascent longer in distance, it was easier in terms of effort. Arrival (pre-midday) at Sunrise Hut which could better be described as a ‘lodge’ saw some of the EM group destined for the more rustic Top Maropea Hut, experiencing pangs of ‘hut envy’. For the Easy group, this was looking like a very easy trip.
So the Easy Medium group after a good look around the Sunrise Hotel, picture taking and feeding set off along the ridges and up another 150m past some spectacular erosion scars. A mild Southerly breeze brought a brief shower along the top but didn’t amount to much.
The descent in a Northerly direction down a spur to Top Maropea lit by intermittent sunshine was uneventful albeit steep at times with the hut situated in a small flattish clearing at around 1200m. A leisurely lunch was had followed by discussions about whether we would retreat to the more luxurious surroundings of the Sunrise Palace with its gas heater.
The conclusion reached was that the other group would be inundated by hordes of other overnighters from Hawkes Bay. Besides, the historic quaintness and sheltered peaceful tranquillity of Top Maropea seemed more appealing. The decision was cemented by the prospect of an extra side trip further down the spur to a pretty waterfall which Kate C had tipped Pete off about. So off we trotted happily with a spring in our step, unburdened by the weight of packs, down the spur to the stream below. Following a slightly tricky descent there were a few reflective moments by the waterfall and vague contemplations of stripping off and jumping into the inviting green splash pool which were quickly dashed by a check of the water temperature.
Later there was some lazing around by the hut in the sunshine, which was becoming less intermittent, although some rain clouds threatened from a distance. Earlier in the day some curious wild red berries were consumed by some in the group, leading to speculation as to what effect they might have. When Derek commented on the threatening clouds in his Celtic brogue that “it looks like rain there” sounded to one of the group (who shall remain nameless) like “Reindeer” and excitedly looked into the distance presumably hoping to spot Santa and his sleigh. Amusing assertions of the potential hallucinogenic effects of wild berries then ensued.
The lazing was interrupted by the unanimous desire to cook and eat. Alfresco style dining with pasta Bolognese on the menu was later followed by S’mores.
Contribution from Anita on the subject of “S’mores”:
>>>>>>>>>> The mysterious surprise for dessert that night was soon uncovered while the group were warmly content outside sitting by the log fire. Colin (co-leader) began by telling us how he came about this dessert on one of his trips to America, and how he decided that we would be one of the lucky groups to experience it. “S’more” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S’more was to be our dessert for that weekend.
It seemed that Rory, fairly new to the club from Canada and working in NZ temporarily, was destined to be part of this group for a purpose. As Rory grew up with S’mores, he was elected to be our educator in this delectably delicious dessert. First off, he hunted around in the bush for the right type of marshmallow holder as this had to be held over the open fire. After handcrafting 7 stalks, he then demonstrated over the fire various ways of melting marshmallows, from lightly toasted around the edges to almost burnt (for some, a desired result). (This may be common knowledge for everyone, but for those of us who grew up in the city, never having experienced the outdoors growing up, believe me, it’s a handy piece of information to learn.)
Once toasted, he then placed the marshmallow in between two chocolate biscuits, in our case – chocolate wheatens. He then squeezed the two biscuits together giving you a delicious oozing creamy middle in between the biscuits. As the name suggests – the group did try S’more, once, twice, and for some, three times. The chocolate biscuit packet, sadly for everyone, started emptying way too quick so it was then onto the next best thing – the addictive toasting of marshmallows. Derek found a way to discontinue his addiction by throwing his stick into the fire, others were unwilling to follow, but in the end reluctantly surrendered their sticks to the fire.
“S’mores” are a quick and easy dessert for tramping trips and really fun to make. It’s addictive, but who cares, you’re going to be walking it off the next day anyway so who’s counting? Thanks Colin for introducing us to this new scrumptious dessert, you’ve probably started a trend if it hasn’t already been discovered. And if you find punters beating down your door to be on your next trip, you’ll know why.
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After our fill of toasted marshmallows and toying with the remains of the fire, the clouds cleared as the sun went down and stars thickly filled the moonless sky. Huddled under the fly, maximising the thermal properties of tightly zipped sleeping bags, again a deafening silence descended over the site.
We awoke to a frostier than expected morning with a generous coating of ice on the inner and outer surface of the fly. The three who elected the hut for their quarters presumably stirred more readily from their bags than those of us outside. We were greeted by a calm cloudless day, but long morning shadows hung across the hut site until just before 9am when the fly could begin to thaw and dry.
The tramp back up the spur to Sunrise Hilton seemed much quicker than the descent the day before, and there were some brief stops for obligatory photos of the uninterrupted albeit distant views of the Rangipo Desert, Mt Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe to the West, and all the way out to the sea in Hawkes Bay to the North East.
Upon arriving at Sunrise Inter-Continental we learned the Easy group had left already and taken a longer route via the Waipawa river which may be documented in another story. A busload of silver haired Forest & Bird members met us on their way up the hill as we marched down with friendly greetings and enquiries about whether we were the WTMC group, having noted our van in the car park. Great advertising win.
We were back to the van at 1pm, as had been carefully planned by Pete, so we hit the road again and were in Pahiatua by mid-afternoon for ice-creams, snacks and a play in the playground. An excellent weekend was had by all and the treat of the Ruahines in good weather was a sublime experience.