Labour Weekend in the Tararuas

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LABOUR! PEEKEND INTHE TARARUAS. The following account of a Scuthern Crossing is reprinted with the p ermission of the Waitakere Tramping Club to give our members some idea of what an Aucklander thinks of our tramping country. The ar* ticle is published exactly as printod in "Trailblazor", the above Club's magazine so please do not blame us for putting a Maori Bunk in Tauwharonikau Hut a it must have crept in through a mirage or something. Kany thanks to the Waitakere Club for the readily given permission to romprint. Ed. On arriving at Otaki by train I met Jack Woodward and then picked up the truck with Mike Monteith and 7 T.T.C. members and proceeded in it to the Otaki Forks. A little excitement was caused in spots where slips had fellen in the two gorges through which we had to pass to reach the Hut at the Forks. After a hasty snack we left the Hut, crossed the river by suspension bridge and started climbing. After about 600 fett of cleared ridge we came to the bush which is beech forest much the same as in the National Park area. A trip of close on two hours brought us to 3,000 feet where we spent the night at Field Hut. This trip was done in rain which was rather heavy, and which turned into hail as we climbed higher. Field Hut is a barn-like affair with a loft upstairs which is reached by a ladder, thus giving twice the accommodation. That night vas fairly cold and it snowed in the early hour s. At about 5a.m. we arose, Breakfasted, and were away around 7a.m. After climbing through snow several inches deep to about 4,000 feet we had a brief halt at Kime Hut which closely resembles the inside of a refrigerator. As we were fairly cold we moved on across the tops where we encountered a strong, cold wind, strong by our standards, but not by Tararua standards. If you can stend up in the wind they do not consider it strong. All the way across the tops we were above the bush line so the only shelter we had was when we were on the leo of a ridge. Visibility was around 50 feet most of the time but we were lucky to have a break in the cloud at the most advantageous position for a good view. We could see the Hutt Valley and the Weirarapa plains and also up over the Northern Tararuas. They are very rugged and death from exposure has occured several times in them, They are very much like the Hunua Ranges but on a scale of twice as large. The tracks are mostly like sheep tracks, at least those I saw were, winding across the hills, worn deep by the passage of clinkers and triple hobs. We arrived at Alpha Hut very tired and after about an hour left for the Tauwharenikau Valley via Hell's Gates, so called because of the long drop down to reach the Hut we then had to climb up about the same amount again. Tramping in the Tararuas seems to consist solely of ups and downs. We reached Tauwharenikau Hut fairly tired at about 5.40p.m., having that day covered close on twenty miles over hard going. This

-24= Hut was also barn-like witha loft, but it was strained to néar capacity with 70 bods. It has held 100. It is about 30 by 16 feet, so the crush can be imagined. So many people were upsteirs in the loft that a rafter snapped and had to be propped up with a log, A novel feature was a Maori Bunk, which is a raised platform about two feet above the floor, covered in bracken, extending the width of the Hut, where everyone can bunk down together and save a lot of space. AA VA Monday morning was spent basking in the sun listening to the river and watching the clouds race across the sky. In the afternoon we tramped out over the hills to Kaitoke Station, a 22 hour trip, arriving about half an hour before the train was due. However it was over an hour late, but after a speedy (downhill) trip we reached Wellington in time for the 7.40p.m, express for Auckland. - - R. Anderson.