We knew the Papatahi Crossing track was overgrown and, besides visiting Wharepapa Hut, we also wanted to see the extent of the growth to help decide whether the club should help DoC maintain the track.
We met at Wellington Railway Station and headed over the Remutaka Hill in Mon’s car, arriving at the road end at 9.15am. The first couple of kilometres were relatively straightforward over farmland, before we entered forest and started climbing around a sidle track. This is where the going got tougher, the track got harder to find, and the pace grew substantially slower. Not to mention the wind – it had picked up and was roaring through the valley.
Many cuts and bruises later, we descended into a dry riverbed and found a stream that we climbed adjacent to. It became increasingly steep, until we reached a ridge affording us fantastic views of the valley. We then descended steeply to Wharepapa Hut, arriving at about 12.30pm for lunch.
Leaving the Hut at 1pm, I figured we wouldn’t get as lost as we had on the way in, and that we would be out by 4pm. However, reaching the dry riverbed, we decided to pursue an alternative track marked on the Topo Map – one that would take us to a 4WD track and then require us to walk approx 1.5 km back along the main road to the car.
Going down the river was tough – even though it was dry, there was a lot of slash and logs to clamber under, over or around. Once we found the track, the going was much faster, and flatter, and we reached the 4WD track relatively quickly. However, we would advise future groups not to go this way, as we subsequently found out that the 4WD track crosses private land, instead of being a road that led to a DoC trail-head carpark. So instead, we recommend taking the sidle track back to the marked start of the Papatahi Crossing.
The day was longer than we had anticipated. We rewarded ourselves with a dairy visit in Featherston before heading back to Wellington.
Trip statistics
– 18.44 km return
– 6 hrs 30 mins elapsed time, 5hrs 35 mins moving time
– 860m ascent, 849m descent