We travelled up to the Ruahine Ranges with another (EM) group from the club who were going to Sunrise and Top Maropea Huts. The weather forecast for our ridge travel to Sparrowhawk Biv had been looking unkind for most of the week, but was improving, so we all left Wellington in good spirits.
After stopping to eat dinner in Masterton (accompanied by most of us having difficulty paying for our meal due to the widespread Crowdstrike update outage) and a detour to drive around a washed-out bridge, we arrived at the road end and made the short walk to Triplex Hut for the evening.
On Saturday morning we rose at around 6 am and started walking at 7.15 am. There was thick fog, so we did not have good views as we climbed the well-formed track to Sunrise Hut. The temperature was cool. We made light work of the climb and arrived at Sunrise Hut shortly after 9 am. The people who were at the hut when we arrived had hut nice and warm with the fire going, so five of us (Megan opted to join the EM group) reluctantly removed our heavy overnight gear and made our way back outside onto the exposed tops.
We made it to Armstrong Saddle in good time – much quicker than the 30 minutes stated on the signage we saw. Turning right, we climbed to the high point and set off along the ridge line. The weather was drizzly, but importantly there was only a light breeze (for the most part). Visibility was still low, but fortunately the ridge was quite wide and only narrowed in a couple of places as a result of slips. We could see small patches of snow but they were few and far between, and often down a bank.
The ridge line to Sparrowhawk Biv is quite varied – open tussock gives way to more dense forest. Some of it had quite easy paths to follow, while there was thick Leatherwood in other parts, which made you second (or third) guess your chosen route. Fortunately, we had some great navigators in the group, and we made good time. One of the main things to note is you need to make 3 or 4 undulating climbs and descents. And this felt more arduous on our way back.
We got to Sparrowhawk Biv at around 12.30 pm (taking us just over 3 hours). We thought we’d made good time until we saw signage saying it was 3 hours to Sunrise Hut. I’m pretty sure I had read a trip report that said 4 hours! At any rate, we were grateful for the shelter and we rested for 30 minutes while we had lunch. While not being the tidiest of huts, we were proud of the fact that, despite the weather forecast and the alternate routes we’d planned leading up to the trip, we had achieved our main objective.
We took a better, more direct, route on our way back due to the knowledge we’d gained of the ridge. We still got stuck in a couple of Leatherwood patches though and our return took us close to 4 hours – I blame the climbing and the fact that, for an hour or so the clouds cleared so we were able to enjoy good views (such as a waterfall) which we had missed in the morning. We even walked into a patch of sunlight – so we stopped and basked in its warmth for all of two minutes!
We considered making a detour from Armstrong Saddle to visit Top Maropea Hut, but decided to head straight back to Sunrise Hut to spend time with the other WTMC group and to get warm and dry. It was nice to be back at the Hut before 5 pm given that I had told the other trip leader (Megan) that we might get back at around 8 pm.
An enjoyable evening was had by all and we settled into our sleeping bags listening to the wind outside. The next morning we were treated to a lovely sunrise (in keeping with the name of the hut). We were all well organized and wanted to leave slightly ahead of schedule, and made our way back to the road end via a nice detour walking the Swamp Track. We considered a detour to Waipawa Forks Hut, but realised the water level of the nearby river would likely be high after the recent rainfall, so we opted to leave that for another time.
It was nice to arrive back in Wellington in daylight (after a lunch stop in Dargaville). Despite being a relatively short weekend of tramping (particularly on the Sunday) much drying, sorting and washing of clothes and gear was still in order! All in all, another memorable trip to the Ruahines.
Statistics
Saturday 20 July – Triplex Hut – Sparrowhawk Biv – Sunrise Hut: 20.32 km, 9:34 hr elapsed time, 8:07 hr moving time, 1,916 m ascent, 1,234 m descent.
Sunday 21 July – Sunrise Hut – road end via Swamp Track: 7.29 km, 1:49 hr elapsed time, 1:39 hr moving time, 68 m ascent, 790m descent.