We met at the Wellington Railway Station and were heading north in the club van by 3pm. After stops in Levin to refuel and Palmerston North for dinner, we made it to the North Block road end at about 8pm. Donning headtorches, we started up the hill to Sunrise Hut at 8.15pm. The track is very well-maintained and graded, but with lots of switchbacks. The evening was cool and we made quick work of the climb, getting to the hut and to bed by 10pm.
On Saturday morning we enjoyed the sunrise and were on the go by 7.30 am. As many readers will have experienced, immediately after leaving Sunrise Hut and ascending to Armstrong Saddle, we encountered strong, cold winds (which had been forecast). Rugged up with several layers on, we continued and made it to the turnoff to Top Maropea Hut after about 30 minutes.
Leaving our packs at the turnoff, we descended to the Hut (which was more of a scramble than expected, as while parts of the track appeared to have been cut, other parts definitely had not been). Josh and I both banged our heads on separate overhanging trees – which became a running joke for the rest of the trip.
Returning to the tops, we steadily made our way towards Te Atuaoparapara (a peak at 1687 m). The original plan was to make it to Waikamaka Hut by about midday (hence the early start from Sunrise Hut), have lunch there and then do an approximately six-hour return trip to Waterfall Hut. However, as we continued along the tops, it became evident that our pace was a bit too slow to stick to be able to stick to our original plan unless we wanted to spend several hours traipsing around in the dark.
We spent a fair bit of time route finding and navigating some thick bush until we found a trapping line on the eastern side of the ridge that had a better footpad. Josh spied a stag one ridge over – it stayed still for a long time, so we don’t think it spotted us.
The slips around Te Atuaoparapara did not cause too much concern, and fortunately by this time the wind had dropped (a few hours earlier than forecast). The well-reported scree descent was navigated carefully and without too many issues, save emptying rocks from our shoes. Knowing that Waterfall Hut was no longer on the cards, we took an early lunch break next to a tarn. We then continued our descent to Waipawa Saddle, passing Point 1625 and what looked like a rusted post-box in the process.
I flagged a few options to the group at this stage to gauge people’s enthusiasm. It was about 1 pm and we knew we would be at Waikamaka Hut in about 45 minutes.
Option 1: spend the afternoon at Waikamaka Hut and walk out the next day.
Option 2: have a break at Waikamaka Hut and then head to Waipawa Forks Hut (approx. 2.5 hrs away) to make for a short Sunday walk out, so we could get back to Wellington earlier.
Option 3: was more adventurous – the tops were still calling us as we descended, so it would be possible to climb up from the Saddle, traverse the tops past point 1635 to Rangioteatua, and then drop down to Waikamaka Hut from the Rangi Saddle track.
Option 3 was more of an unknown option and would take us tantalisingly close to Waterfall Hut. While option 3 was probably possible with the daylight available to us, we settled on option 2 as a compromise.
From the saddle there is a reasonably clear path down the river to Waikamaka Hut. We did miss a turnoff though, and had to down climb some rocks (and kicked ourselves on the way back when we saw how obvious the track was off to the side!).
We got to Waikamaka Hut at about 1.45pm and rested for 45 minutes, enjoying the famous rocket toilet, the sun and checking out the deformed biv on the other side of the river.
Then James D led us back up river and we made excellent time back to the Saddle (about 25 minutes). Sadly, as we started our descent on the other side of the Saddle, we noticed some rubbish (including a cigarette butt!) and took it with us.
This descent was quite rutted and took us longer than expected, with some deep ditches and roots to navigate. It took quite a while for us to drop down to the river, but when we did, there were wide banks to walk on, and no major river crossings that caused concern.
It was nice to be in a wide valley and to look back to the Saddle and to where we had come from, and see the prominent spur dropping down from Sunrise Hut to the river, which was a good point of reference because we knew Waipawa Forks Hut was just before the spur, which we would need to sidle.
By this point I had come up with option 4 (walk out that evening and head back to Wellington). While another night in the bush would have been welcome, the idea of getting back to Wellington earlier, sleeping in our own beds, and Mc Donalds Dannevirke for dinner, seemed to win the day.
We got to Waipawa Forks Hut at about 5pm and had a 15 minute break (much to the confusion of two people in residence who couldn’t fathom our desire to continue) before crossing the river and climbing the sidle track.
Our headtorches came out about halfway along the sidle track, and it was properly dark by the time we reached the junction with the Sunrise Hut track that we had passed almost a day earlier. We made quick work of the descent and got back to the van at about 7pm, after a quick detour to visit Triplex Hut. We had left the van here about 23 hours earlier.
Further demonstrating that we are suckers for punishment, we drove around the corner and did a short (20-minute return) walk to bag Norris Hut. This is a private hut, and we scampered quickly when we heard voices – despite only being about 7.30 pm it felt like 2am!
The reliable club van shepherded us south, with the obligatory and very welcome Mc Donalds dinner stop.
It was midnight by the time we arrived back in Wellington, filled the van with petrol and dropped it off at Kiwi Self Storage. James H then very kindly dropped three of us off at our houses, to bring an end to the trip.
Statistics
Friday – North Block Road to Sunrise Hut – 6.13 km, 1hr 45m elapsed time, 1hr 32 m moving time, 728 m ascent, 47 m descent
Saturday – Sunrise Hut to North Block Road via Top Maropea Hut, Te Atuaoparapara, Waikamaka Hut and Waipawa Forks Hut – 20km, 11hr 30 m elapsed time, 7hr 27 m moving time, 1,175 m ascent, 1,930 m descent
Saturday – Norris Road to Norris Hut return – 1.59 km, 21 m elapsed time, 17 m moving time, 39 m ascent, 43 m descent.