It's famous for having been marked in the wrong place on the Topo maps (it's correct on-line and in the latest hard copy maps). I guess it's a bit of a rite of passage for trampers - and there is another unmarked hut in there somewhere. I am however more interested in six spot heights in the vicinity.
The NZ tramper website has some commentary on a trip there which is helpful to a point, but I don't find a lot else on line. I could talk to someone that's been there of course but I'd prefer to find out the hard way.
What: Navigation, bush bashing and spot-heighting. Hut bagging too I guess
Where: Northern Tararuas - Mangahao Biv
When: 26-27 January 2019
Who: Solo
Maps
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| This trip in red - previous trips in purple. |
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| Start and finish - gate is at red arrow - purple line covers two trips to Arawaru |
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| Saturday - clockwise across top and around to Biv, Sunday - complete the loop and out |
The first question is - where to go in? You can get in from Kopikopiko Road in the east but I think permission is required and I don't have the contact - there's public access from the west and some instructions online to find the route to the ridgeline, that's settled then.
It's pretty gloomy as I head up the coast (via the old beach bakery of course). Shortly after Tokomaru there's a right turn into Scott's Road which heads to and winds into the hills. It's gravel most of the way but in good nick. When the road starts dropping there is a turn on the right with a sign post with various messages including that this way lies Te Araroa.
I turn down hill and in a few hundred metres reach a gate on a bridge. You maybe able to get a key from Palmerston North Council but it would only save you a couple of Ks walk. There's just space to park the car by the road (could be risky if logging trucks are about) and an information board.
Just before nine I climb the style and cross the bridge. A little way up the road a tramper comes the other way - he's local (well, Wellington) and is walking bits of Te Araroa. He's the last person I see for the weekend.
This is Gordon Kear Forest. A lot of it has been cut with replanting of various ages - with luck it will be a few years before they are logging out of here again.
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| Entrance to Gordon Kear forest |
It's a very well formed road; there's a couple of side roads but the main route (Centre Road) is easy to follow as it climbs through a low saddle and drops to a junction by a wee creek (past pt 368). There's a green portaloo on the right, and a Te Araroa campsite on the left (very basic). Te Araroa follows the road on the right to Barton's Track - but we don't want that one.
The instructions on line refer to a three way intersection which I'm not seeing - but they also refer to Loop Road which I find a short way further along Centre Road, I turn right to follow it gently upwards (I find a better way out so don't go this way).
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| Looking back down Centre Road campsite junction in distance, Loop Road on left |
What with a loo stop and poking around the campsite it's 9.30 - it isn't raining but there's clag on the hills. About 10am the road loops and starts dropping - I take a bearing and strike off up the spur. It looks like people periodically come through and there is some very old vehicle channels under the grass. It's under old manky pines that I suspect won't be cut - there's a bit of undergrowth.
I meander upwards for about 20 minutes where I join a more solid looking track from my left - it looks like a more direct and more traveled route.
A couple of minutes later (1020) the track levels and enters a grassy clearing - I head straight across and find a possum trap and marker on a fence, and on the other side a path cut through dense, high grass.
This leads into bush and a pretty well traveled wee track that wends along and up before breaking into grass and scrub. This takes me to pt 686 and east along the ridge. Although fairly overgrown the channel through the scrub is well cut and easy to follow.
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| The clearing at the end of the forestry block |
Some instructions refer to following the track to the 'rocks.' I am expecting something grand but it turns out to just be some boulders the track runs through. I'm back into mossy bush when the track starts to drop off the ridge - it's about 1040 and I don't want to follow it to the flat saddle that forms the watershed between the west (to the Tokomaru River) and the east (to the Mangahao River).
There's a DOC orange triangle on a tree but I see some fresh pink ribbon leading off in the direction I want to go - the continuation of the ridge east. I slip off the track and follow the ribbons - there's little or no foot trail.
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| Track markers start when the track starts dropping |
The ribbons take me along just to the south of the ridge line out of the scrub - then (as I find is a common occurrence in these parts) abruptly disappear. I follow my nose through worsening scrub to pt 782. The clag has cleared and to the south I can see the ridge with Mangahao Biv (invisible) and the saddle down to my right.
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| Ridge with Mangahao Biv |
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| Looking back over the forestry Route up on left somewhere |
From pt 782 I make the mistake of dropping off the right of the ridge to see if it is easier going. It isn't and I have a horrendous grovel to get back onto the ridge. It's hot now and I'm sweltering in bush shirt and scrub pants.
The scrub gets a bit lower in places as the ridge starts swinging south and I can see across to Arawaru and another sea of scrub.
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| The ridge ahead |
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| Arawaru |
At long last I can drop left into some higher canopy and follow game trails - it's still pretty mucky though. Eventually I come across some markers and a bit of a foot trail - it looks like possumers have been through. As usual they don't always go where you want and there's a bit of back tracking - the ridge is very hard to follow among the trees but at last I find my way to some clearings around pt 538. It's 3.50 and I've not traveled far in 7 hours - I start wondering about daylight running out before I can make my way into the valley and around up to the Biv.
There's a few more ribbons but I quickly lose any trail and just smash down slope to the creek. Its pretty much what you would expect looking at the map - steep, mucky, patches of kiekie and supplejack, loose rocks ... there's a lot of game trail so there's also some easy going patches.
I hit the creek where I was aiming - a few hundred meters up from the side stream I want to follow. I'm aiming to follow it up to the spur to pt 422.
The spur starts with some flats and I startle a stag about 50m away. A few minutes later a hind and fawn also head off into the undergrowth.
Someone has been up the spur before as there's bits of plastic stapled to trees. I'm expecting to come across a more solid trail where this spur joins the larger spur above as it looks like the logical location for a route in from Kopikopiko Road in the Wairarapa.
There are more markers on the main spur but I manage to find myself following the wrong ones on a couple of occasions. There are some clearings to keep an eye on direction but it's mostly under canopy to pt 531.
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| Looking back (north) at the ridge I came down |
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| South - the ridge with Pohehe and Ratapu ahead, Ngapuketurua Stream in cloud to right. |
I'm loping along following some orange sprayed dots into the saddle past 531 - at some point I find they have headed off somewhere else. I suspect the trail drifts off to the right and maybe crosses the wee stream before climbing to Mangahao Biv. I'm wanting to hit the ridge further up to pick up pt 705 so stick to the main spur. There doesn't seem to be much of a trail but I get up to the scrub zone ok. The top is pretty horrible and I have to scramble through high scrub and bush lawyer to get to 705 which has a clearing. It's 7:10pm and starting to get a bit dim under the cloud.
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| Pt 705 at last |
Crashing back down, the scrub has a few lower patches - I can't find any trail so just follow the compass. Standing in a wee clear patch on the ridge about 400m from the hut I can't see it. There's a bit of a gully which shows as a notch on the map - I figure a wee stream will form lower down the notch and that the hut will be near it. I zigzag down through the bush a little concerned about finding the hut before the light wanes.
Just before the slope steepens I find a bit of a foot trail, about 50m from the hut. 7.45pm and a bit of a relief to arrive.
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| Mangahao Biv |
I crawl in (you can't stand up) and sort myself out for the evening. Damp socks and boot liners go on the line (complete with pegs) and I fill a bottle from the creek.
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| Home for the night |
Once in my bag with dinner on (there's a tin sheet on the wall and floor to cook on) I can relax and study the hut literature. The hut log goes back years and there's not a huge number of visitors. I recognise a few names and there's some regulars that look like they are doing maintenance. A few people report being cooped up for some days in bad weather - with two people you'd soon get cabin fever.
A lot of people report trying to find the hut further up the ridge when the map was wrong - goodness knows how they found it. Many come up from Kopikopiko Road and lots of those coming from Scott's Road report problems finding their way up from the saddle. Most of the Scott's Road visitors refer to the hut in the saddle - most call it Punga Hut, but more on that later. From their reports and studying the map there are no real clues about the route so I just hope that I can work something out in the morning.
Someone has left a 2017 Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club year book in the hut - to my amusement the first trip report has a photo of me on a day trip to Tama Lakes (Ruapehu). It was probably the most recent club trip I've been on.
I sleep well and don't set an alarm - despite the uncertain route I figure it's not going to take all day to get out from here. In the early morning the rain sets in. I roll over and remember my socks on the line - oh well.
Despite dawdling over breakfast the rain doesn't let up so I head out at 9.30 in drizzle. There's a bit of a foot trail from the hut but rounding the shoulder of the slope it is very easy to lose. I waste quite a bit of time trying to follow it - it seems to either dive into scrub or lead down the spur. There's a pink ribbon down the spur but the trail seems to fade away.
I recall a trip report from Mad Pom where he tried dropping down and sidling and found it a no goer. I head up and into the scrub.
It's pretty horrible going. The scrub is as dense as ever and my top half is water blasted by wind driven rain slamming into the slope from the north. Eventually I give up and just head downhill. Eventually there's good forest and I start sidling left and down. I drop onto a strongly marked trail - this suggests that there may be a lower sidle that avoids the scrub. The tape markers disappear again so I bash on down.
By now I have little solid idea where I am and suspect my altimeter needs calibrating. I hear a waterfall and recall from the hut log that there is an impassable one somewhere down here - I don't know whether it is on the main stream or a side stream.
I drop down a steep bank into the stream. It's one of those situations where I could be here or there on the map - the clag on the hills means any glimpse I get gives no clues. I follow the stream down wading chest deep at one point, before reaching a cascade I won't get down.
A bit of a think then a hairy scramble up the bank and I reckon I know where I am - at the bottom of a spur off 782. I scramble up through the bush and come across some fresh pink ribbons. By now I'm a bit skeptical about the damn things and decide only to follow them if they match the compass.
I reach the stream again (above the falls) and cross. There's more ribbons of various ages - one starts heading up so I leave it and stumble on a stronger trail which takes me in the right direction and suddenly into a clearing with a hut made of Punga. It's taken about 3 hours - I reckon it should take two or less.
It's quite an endearing place - it is indeed made of Punga but the log tells me that it is called Miro Valley Hut and was built in 1958-59. There's a bit of a vestibule then a spacious enough room with a fire place, bunks, a bench ... and it's dry.
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| Vestibule |
After lunch I pack up and head out, about 1.10. I take a bearing to where I think I'll be heading (back up to the first ridge from yesterday). However, straight after leaving the hut I found DOC markers - I figure these will lead me straight to the markers where I left the track yesterday. There's a solid track to follow and I basically stop navigating beyond an occasional glance at the compass.
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| Miro Valley Hut - or is it Punga Hut? |
The track does indeed lead up to the ridge and the 'rocks'. I follow the route back in clag again - over 686 and down to the clearing at the edge of the forestry. This time I take the route I thought might be more direct - it is. It quickly turns into a 4WD track with fresh tracks. At 2pm I drop into a turnaround area and the start/finish of a forestry road (going up you would cross the flat spot and bear left up the spur).
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| Looking back - I came down that gap between the pines near the middle |
Ten minutes later my road drops onto Centre Road and I find out I am on Scrub Ridge Road - delightful. It's still a bit of a trot down to pass a different Loop Road, then the Loop Road I took, and then the campsite. It's still drizzling at 2.35 when I reach the car - about an hour 2 from the hut.
Postscript
The navigation is tricky in these parts. There are so many trapper and hunter trails around that you have to watch your compass all the time or you will find yourself heading off in the wrong direction. The route to Punga is pretty good - after that you're on your own!The six spot heights for the weekend were hard won but I still have unfinished business in the area. There's a named 'peak' I want to visit (Ngawhakaraua) and some nearby spots. I can't find anything on the web about people visiting them and from what I've seen this weekend - it will be nasty.
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