The call went out for Mt Owen and Luna Tops leaders. When Luna Tops was cancelled, nine of us planned to head south.
Planning got tricky when weather bombs and uncrossable fords scuppered our South island plan B’s. North island plans C, D, Es were banded around. Given we had a long weekend, we decided, we could venture a little further north to escape the weather. Finally, Te Puia Lodge. That became the plan.
Friday, the day of the trip!!!
Margaret baked a coconut/almond meal cake in the morning (one of the punters was GF) and picked up the van. The cake was utterly delicious. This was the literal taste of things to come!
We were off! A slight detour (unintended) had us winding up the the Taihape/Napier road which is narrow and winding. It is also not used by many people – we met about 6 cars the whole evening. And we hit a peasouper of a fog. We crawled along VERY slowly, but even so, one of the party was feeling a bit motion-sick. We pulled over and a moment later, a kind man in the opposite direction also stopped, resulting in the highway being completely blocked, while he established that we were not broken down or in need of assistance. He had a deer on the back and then showed me his night vision viewer.
We piled back into the van making it to the turn-off for the Kuripapango campsite. We set up the tents, went to bed, and FROZE. There was a hang of a frost on Friday night, and I’m not sure any of us slept too well.
Saturday
A number of us woke to a fog-horn sound. I just presumed that it was the alarm settings of a phone. (Nope.) It was, in fact, a group of men doing taiaha (spear) practice, perhaps for an upcoming powhiri. The sound we heard was someone blowing a (huge) Māori conch shell. This was a wonderful start to a lovely chilly sunny day in the Kawekas (photo of frost).
We reached the Te Puia road end and started walking around midday. It was a lovely warm afternoon, where we had wonderful views of the Mangatinoka river in all its gleaming glory (photo).
Along the way we discussed our camping arrangements and decided to stay at the lodge, camping by the river. The hut was 95% full and a scout group shared the campground. Then the trip highlight was in full swing! The making of a gourmet multi course dinner with Margaret carefully orchestrating chopping, mixing heating and serving dinner, complete with that wonderful cake for dessert.
Afterwards Margaret took a small group off to the hot pools which was around an hour and a half round trip. A cheeky possum was wombling around the camp looking for treats and looked largely unperturbed by a busy hut and me wandering after it.
Sunday
In true King’s birthday ‘plans Z’ fashion, we woke on Sunday morning to make several plans. Under a team vote we decided to split the group up, one group would head out the way we came and meet us at the road end, Lynsey would take another group up the spur to Makino hut and out to the road end. It was an easy enough climb (600 metres) up some clay clad spur to the high point and then a wind down through bush down to Makino hut.
Our weekend adventure of hot pools was not over yet and once we had all reconvened, off to the hot pools we went again for a lovely soak (this time the Mangaturutu pools). It was pretty busy but a lovely family group smooched over and let us all in. Back up to camp, our Sunday was not over yet. Margaret once again led an able team of wannabe chefs through another multi course gourmet food adventure.
While that was cooking, I went to check out the possum that was eyeing us up quite happily a few metres away and noticed in some of the bushes there were ‘things’ that glowed. Ellen our resident entomologist worked out these were tunnel web spiders and they were everywhere on these bushes! We had a cosy evening in the tent with just a few splatters of drizzle and woke up on Monday morning to a lovely rainbow over the river (photo). A pie stop was obligatory and we reached wellington in the early evening. It had been a fantastic weekend, despite multiple plans.
Stats:
Day 1: Makahu road to Te puia lodge:
3.4 hours 7.25 KMs (slow walking and lots of breaks), 388 metres elevation, 370 loss
Day 2: Te Puia lodge, to Makino hut and back to Makahu road end
5 hours total time, 9.71 KMs, 847 metres gain, 732 loss
Day 3: driving