I've been finding it takes noticeably more effort to plan Ruahine trips. I've figured that it's because the Tararua maps are so familiar you don't need to think about times and conditions in many places and just mentally skip over them to concentrate on the unknowns. When it's all unknowns you have to make many more conscious estimates about terrain, vegetation (mostly a bit horrible), river size, track condition ...
On this trip I underestimate the size of the Pohangina river, overestimate the difficulty of some stream travel and completely change the plan, but still do most of what I set out to do.
What: Wander around various huts, tracks and streams in the southern Ruahines.
Where: Stanfield Hut, Pohangina River ... etc.
When: 28 - 30 September 2019
Who: Solo
Maps: I wandered all over the place so they are in no particular order but if you insist: 2, 3, 2, 4, 2.
As I head north from Woodville the clouds over the Range indicate that the winds are going to be fierce on the tops. Despite a lot of the road signs being vandalised I find my way to the end of Tamaki West Road.
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| Could be a bit windy |
There's a car in the small parking area already - a chap potters over and inquires about my intentions and exhibits a bit of knowledge of the area. Turns out he lives on the other side of the Range and is in for a short day walk with (possibly) his partner who shows a slightly less than keen demeanor towards the whole enterprise. He notes that there is no longer a bridge over the river at Mid Pohangina Hut (although still marked on the online topo map) but that I should be ok with the two river crossings I have planned for the day.
They head off before me and I get myself ready as the car rocks in the wind. It's about 9.15 am as I head out.
A few minutes from the road end across a wee creek there is a picnic area and then an old toilet block. Shortly after there is a choice of heading up river, across river to Holmes Ridge or up to the Main Ridge and Traverse Shelter (A frame). I start the climb around 9.30 on a good track that zigzags up through reasonable bush.
It's almost a 700m climb and I catch up with the couple on the way. The wind is ever present but no worries below the canopy - I'm soon in cloud.
Towards the top the track breaks in and out of scrub and the wind starts to become something to be reckoned with. Finally I pop out on the side of a road and full exposure to the elements. It's tempting to call it a 4WD track but you could pretty much take your town car along it. It has all the hall marks of going somewhere important but the map indicates that it peters out 4 or 5 kms south west along the ridge. It enters the Range from the west side at Takapari Road (and bears that name on the signs).
I reach Traverse Shelter around 10.35 - it's a sadly run down and abused A frame. It looks like DOC has wisely decided to abandon its upkeep. The calibre of some of the visitors is pretty low judging by the vacuous anti-1080 graffiti on the walls.
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| Traverse Shelter |
It provides shelter from the elements as I rug up for the wind and cold. My route now takes me north east up the Range with the road meandering and rolling along with always another wee rise or corner emerging out of the cloud.
At 1170 there is a sign to Stanfield Hut (single track continuing along the main ridge) but I head left to follow the road dropping gradually north west. Hidden in the cloud to my left are relatively gentle slopes clad in leatherwood and to my right; steep slopes dropping to tributaries of the Pohangina River.
There's not much to see in the cloud so I plod along - a large native worm provides a momentary distraction.
A few larger trees start appearing creating a bit of atmosphere in the clag.
My altimeter has drifted a bit but the clouds are higher in the west so I can take a bearing off an obvious terrace and confirm I haven't overshot my turnoff. It turns out to be well sign posted so I needn't have worried. It's just before 12.40.
There's a marked but a little overgrown track that starts dropping steeply into the valley. A few hundred metres above the bottom I can hear the river and I start to suspect that it might be a bit of a proposition. The first glimpse indicates an active course with lots of white water.
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| Pohangina River |
Near the bottom the slope gets a bit mucky and with intermittent marking it is easy to lose the track. In the end I follow some animal trails arriving slightly downstream - just under an hour from the top. There's a large triangle across the river marking where the track continues.
My first impression is that the river is a bit discoloured, quite energetic and to attempt a crossing would be outside my comfort zone. I work my way down stream a little way to see if there is a better prospect - nope. It's unpleasant travel and the map doesn't offer much confidence that there will be a crossing point within cooee. I sit down under some pine trees and have some lunch and a think.
It's possible there is a better point up stream but I have no idea what the other crossing will be like up by Mid Pohangina Hut. No matter which way I look at it there's no decision to make.
I scramble directly up the slope to intersect the track avoiding most of the nettles on the way.
Back at the road it's almost 3.30. I'm really not looking forward to the additional kilometers on the hard surface, but at least Stanfield Hut is not on the other side of a river.
There's fresh car prints on the road and after a while a couple of vehicles come through from the east - fortunately not too fast so they don't wipe me out. Apparently there is a locked gate at the west end.
The weather has cleared somewhat but the wind gets stronger the closer I get to the main ridge.
Shortly before the top I note there's a signposted track heading south which I missed on the way over. The sign notes that Diggers Hut has gone. The track looks a little over grown but there's the usual wide channel through the scrub. The other end of the track is at Arbon's road in the Pohangina Valley.
At the ridge (4.55) the wind is blasting across from the west. I can only just stand and barely avoid being flipped off the edge of the ridge.
Once I'm off the road and heading north on the main ridge, the wind howls across but the scrub provides enough protection that I can travel unmolested. To the east there are patches of sun on the foot hills.
Soon enough I can see down into the Tamaki River West Branch valley. After about half an hour there's an old sign indicating 45 minutes to Stanfield Hut and a steep, slippery downhill begins. Soon after the top the bright orange hut is briefly visible at the bottom of the spur.
It's a couple of minutes shy of 6pm when I emerge into the hut clearing. It's starting to get dim in the bush so I'm relieved to make it in daylight.
The hut looks a little elderly from the outside but inside it's tidy and well cared for. It's less than two hours from the road end so I was not expecting much. It's also empty which is hardly surprising given the forecast.
The log is predominantly hunters and they don't seem to have much trouble finding deer to bag. Reviewing other people's trips in the log helps in hatching a plan for tomorrow as I chew on a cooked breakfast for dinner (yep - time to stock up on dehy again).
Working backwards I figure I don't want a long day on Monday so Mid Pohangina Hut is about as far away as I want to be tomorrow night. I work out a route to Mid Po via Cattle Creek where I can assess timing and head up river to Ngamoko hut or return to Cattle. From Ngamoko, follow the stream up to the duck pond (near Apiti Saddle) and find a way onto the main ridge where there's a marked trail to follow to Cattle Creek for the night and exit the next day.
I remember to set my watch for daylight saving before turning in.
It's another windy Ruahine night. I'm a bit sore from all that walking on hard surface and sleep fitfully, waking to a grey Sunday morning.
I get away at 7.55 am and head up stream. The route is reasonably obvious although the toe of the spur is eroding and the markers aren't very visible.
At 8.30 I reach the top of the spur and follow the ridge around to pt 908. I can't see a trail heading south to pick up the Holmes Ridge track and decide it isn't worth trying to find a link when I come back this way.
The ridge is open for a while then the track ducks into good bush. The last down hill to the saddle above Cattle Creek is open again and the wind is howling through. The valley is somewhat scraggy - scrubby bush with lots of slips and grassy clearings. The bright orange Cattle Creek Hut is easily visible from the saddle.
Just after 9 am I drop off the ridge to follow a steep track down to the stream. A few metres down stream orange triangles mark the short track up to Cattle Creek Hut on a wee terrace. About 1 hr 20 from Stanfield.
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| Cattle Creek Hut |
It's in the open so is quite light and airy inside. It also seems to be reasonably well looked after by users. The log indicates people potter up and down the stream so I figure there shouldn't be any dramas. As I sit, drizzle starts to blatter on the windows.
It's fairly easy most of the way down the stream. I give up on dry boots after a short distance and concentrate on not slipping or being knocked off balance by the blasts of wind barrelling up the valley.
The valley starts reasonably open but is steep and there are quite a few wee gorges and relatively limited opportunity to walk along the banks - until you get to some big terraces lower down.
At one point the wind is howling through an S-bend ripping spray off the stream surface - there's a series of loud cracks which I can't source (rockfall?) until I figure that a wee overhang at stream level is catching the wind and somehow causing a local thunderclap.
As the stream gets bigger there are more scrambles to avoid small water falls and pools
At one point I scramble up the left bank and am sidling along above the creek looking for a safe way down when I come across a chain bolted into the rock - clearly a well travelled route.
The lower reaches have more terraces - some are quite large and show signs of a lot of deer grazing. A lot of the slopes are unstable and some side streams are bringing down large quantities of shattered rock.
I'm looking for a slip face on my right with orange markers for the track over the toe of a spur to Mid Pohangina Hut - it's not the end of the world if I miss it as you can just head a few hundred metres down stream to the river and follow it up a short way. But that's not the point is it!
There's a DOC sign so no worries about that. It's about 10.50, I can't see any foot trail from the sign and there is a bit of active movement on the old slip. On the down stream side at the top I can see an orange triangle so I scramble up as elegantly as I can and follow a fairly rough old track down to the hut clearing.
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| Turn-off to Mid Pohangina Hut |
It's 10.55 - three hours from Stanfield and 1 hr 40 from arriving at Cattle Creek Hut. It's looking good for heading up stream to Ngamoko and the long loop back to Cattle Creek.
Mid Pohangina is an older looking hut and not bright orange. It's a four bunker and again, quite tidy. The Whio protectors clearly come through regularly and have some kit stashed. There's not a lot of tips in the log as to what to expect on the trip up river. I have a bit of a break and leave about 11.15 to check out the river I couldn't cross yesterday.
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| Mid Pohangina Hut |
The wind is much more gentle here and the cloud cover is breaking a little. At first glance I'm not too keen on the river but with a stick, a bit of study, and picking a good route with back out option and run out I cross comfortably. There were only about three wobbly steps to cross the main current.
Before long I have crossed many more times as I make my way up valley. I hear a whistling call and wonder what on earth it is until I spot a pair of Whio across the river - they are very well camouflaged. I try to imitate their breathy whistle and am somewhat surprised when they taxi easily across the river to the shallows about 7m in front of me. They potter about chasing each other and generally larking about, completely unphased by my presence. It's a real treat and a testament to the work of the whio protectors who have set traps all the way up this valley.
I'm enjoying the improving weather (not about to take my rain coat off though) but starting to think I may have missed Ngamoko Hut. However, after a large slip on the true right, the river swings east and a sizable stream enters from the true left and then the hut appears on a terrace above the river.
It's 1.20 - 2 hr 5m from Mid Po Hut and way past time for a lunch break. The track up to the hut is on the upstream side.
Ngamoko hut is another tidy six bunker, this time with a lino floor. I tiptoe in to get the log book as I am still seeping water from being immersed in the river for the last two hours.
Over lunch I mull the options and study the map: Back to Mid Po or commit to go up Ngamoko stream. Progress has been surprisingly good so onwards it is.
The route up Ngamoko stream will take me up to a tiny lake marked in the surprisingly flat looking headwaters. The older maps have a bypass track marked for a waterfall near the start but this was scribbled out on the map in the hut and doesn't appear on the current topo map.
The stream starts fairly narrow, dim and slippery. When I hear a waterfall ahead there's an old slip on the true left so I bash up to try to find the old route - I don't find it and make my own way, scrambling through bush on the steep slope. It sounds like there are a series of cascades so I stay up the slope until I can see that the stream has widened. It's taken a bit of time but after that it's an easy amble up stream.
The weather has improved such that the afternoon sun is shining directly up the valley and warming my back. I potter along discovering that there are more side streams than marked on the map. However, the headwaters forks are obvious when I reach them (the only junction where both tributaries have little fall). It's 3pm so plenty of daylight left but this is where the going could get really messy.
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| Random section of stream catching the sun |
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| Junction |
I haven't done much homework about this next bit. I've heard there's a pond and that there may be an old hut in the area. I'm assuming that people follow the true right tributary to where the pond is marked but have to say it didn't look very well travelled. I wonder if there is a route along the bank that I missed.
It's getting tighter and messier when I get to a side stream and scramble onto the bank as the way ahead seems blocked - working back towards the course of the creek I walk into a boggy patch and discover I'm standing in the duck pond - about 20 minutes from the junction.
It's not as small as I expected but shallow - it looks like the creek course has been blocked and flooded surrounding flat, low lying land.
If I had done my homework I would have known that I was very close to the old hut. Apparently it is a wee two bunker about 50m from the pond. Although seemingly in the middle of the Ruahines it is on private land but no longer maintained. Checking the forest park boundaries later confirms that there is a wedge of land from the east that is not forest park and the pond and hut are right on the edge.
I figure that the hut will be close to the pond and strike off in exactly the wrong direction through the forest paralleling the shore. It's tricky going through fallen and rotting trunks and I pretty quickly give up the idea of finding the hut and start thinking of how to get to the main ridge.
My fear is that there will be a belt of leatherwood so I decide to head towards Apiti Saddle as a named feature on the map that may have a trail. As it turns out, the forest is pretty good so I angle up and around the knob east of the saddle and find and lose a bit of a trail before a not too bad scramble up to the ridge north of 951.
A piece of pink tape alerts me that I have reached the ridge track (4.05) - it used to be a wide swathe but is somewhat overgrown here.
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| From Pt 951 to duck pond basin - Apiti Saddle somewhere on right |
I figure I have three hours light left so all good, but a bit of ground to cover and I'm feeling the combined efforts of the last two days.
There's a wee knob on the ridge just north of Pt 951 - I suspect this is where people drop down a wee spur towards the hill at the junction of the tributaries then circle around the pond to the hut. I didn't note any trail from the knob but wasn't looking.
The weather is deteriorating now and there seems to be an endless succession of knobs on the ridge. I plod along taking regularly rests on the up hills. Eventually I'm looking into the very recognisable saddle above Cattle Creek hut. The wind is once again howling through from the valley below.
It's 5.55 - I'm tired and sore and it's so tempting to drop to the comfort of Cattle Creek Hut, only 15 minutes away. On the other hand it only took around an hour this morning to get to this point from Stanfield hut ... I should make that just on dark which would make for a very short walk out tomorrow ...
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| Ridge track south from Cattle Creek |
The sight of the ridge track which is wide and easy from here clinches it. I limp on hunched against the wind. 40 minutes later I'm at the top of the spur to the Tamaki River West Branch, and 23 minutes after that at Stanfield hut - just before 7pm and no headlight required.
The hut is again empty - even on the track I only saw my own foot prints from the morning. It's nice to settle in knowing how this hut operates. The only difference is the wind has dropped away and I can hear the odd rat fossicking around in the roof (no sign they have got inside the hut).
In the morning I get away at 7.45 taking the river route to avoid the small climb to Holmes Ridge.
Less than 10 minutes downstream the route to the ridge is marked and sign posted. I potter down finding some indications of trail but as often as not finding my own way through what looks like willows and buddleia.
As the ridge on my left gets lower I start keeping my eyes peeled for an exit marker - it's pretty obvious about 1hr 10 from the hut. There's a trail through the trees that leads to a sign and then the clearings. Including a loo stop, it's 12 minutes from the river to the car (9.05 - just over 1hr 20 from the hut).
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| Time to leave the river |
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| Road end |
Postscript
Despite not being game to cross the Pohangina and having a significant change in plan, I did manage to tick off most of the goals for the weekend. With a little bit of homework I would have looked a bit harder and found Duckpond Hut - lucky I'm not a hut bagger.Traverse Hut isn't up to much but the other four were in good heart - surprisingly so given how close Stanfield is to the road end. Marked tracks were generally cut widely through the scrub although the ridge north of Cattle Creek Hut is getting a bit overgrown. The road across the range is well maintained but a bit dreary.
It was very much a range of two halves - the weather was markedly better in the west than the east - the wind on the main ridge was pretty fierce at times even though it was much calmer not far west. This is still very much the thin part of the park so the variation was surprising.
The vegetation is pretty mixed - a lot of leatherwood which makes off track travel highly variable, and a lot of weed species. I was surprised how many pines there were in the park.
The river and stream travel was varied and sometimes a bit challenging but seeing the whio just cruising in the river was the undoubted highlight.
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