The Mysterious Hot Spring of Pouakai Hut

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The Mysterious Hot Spring of Pouakai Hut Harry Smith To the north-west of Mt Egmont (orl Mt Taranaki to the politically correct - but to hell with them!*) lies the broad basin occupied by Holly Hut and the Ahukawakawa Swamp. This basin is my favourite part of Mt Egmont National Park. n most other places in the park, when you are not fly for those who had been too slow in the rush for the immersed in the gloom of the bush or enveloped by porch, I found a nice, spacious, comfortable possie for the torrential rain or swirling mists, you can see down myself out under the trees. I settled down to sleep with and across the borders of the park to the farmland and the stars twinkling above and the bracing patriotic blast civilisation beyond, thel boundary between bush and pas- of Rule Britannia blaring out one last time from the bus ture as sharp and geometrical as ifit had been marked before Roger retired for the night. out with the sweep of a giant protractor whose central My peace was suddenly disturbed by the.roar of a car leg was firmly planted on the very summit of the moun- engine and the squeal of tyres. There was a lot of slamtain (which, of course, in a sense it was) but here, down ming of car doors, much shouting and giggling, then a in the basin, all the farmland and lights of civilisation blast of loud heavy metal music erupted from around disappear out of sight and you could be a million miles the far end of the Camphouse. The North Egmont from anywhere. roadend is obviously the place to go for New Plymouth But while I had visited Holly Hut several times over bogans on a Friday night. Roger, retired in the confines the years, generally on abortive climbing trips on which of the Orient Express with his Union Jack pyjamas, Corowe never even SO much as glimpsed the mountain nation Jubilee sleeping cap, and Royal Wedding tooththrough the pouring rain, - I had never been beyond it, brush must have been mortified, but no doubt he kept a up onto the far rim of the basin, up onto the Pouakai stiff upper lip and reflected on the lost glories of the Range. This range is the remnants of an ancient vol- Empire. Suddenly the music stopped, there was more cano, one of a line of volcanoes stretching north-west slamming of car doors and the car roared off down the from Mt Egmont, each successively more ancient, more road, obviously out to prove thatyou could descend the eroded, and therefore lower, than the last. length of the North Egmont road in two minutes flat. The Pouakais looked like a fascinating place to visit, a Peace and quiet redescended upon our mountain night. mini version of the Tararuas with steep spurs and ridges, But not forl long. Soon the car was back, with more noise deep valleys, and tussock tops emerging just above the and music. Finally it departed and we were left in quiet thick, impenetrable leatherwood scrub. Even the weather for the rest of the night. seemed to be the same as the Tararuas, or perhaps I if Next morning we awoke to find the mountain glorifysuch a thing were possible even worse. But photos I ing in the sunshine. watched Andrew's climbing party had seen showed brilliant views back across the basin set off for the summit laden with heavy climbing gear, to Mt Egmont, especially shots taken from a set of tarns simultaneously saddened that wasn't going with them on an open tussock plateau near Pouakai Hut. So all in on such a perfect day and glad that I didn't have to lug all Iwas keen to visit this area, and in September I had one of those heavy packs to the summit. We then my chance when I led a trip there. watched thel Easy tripset off upt the razorback track ahead We arrived at the North Egmont roadend some time of us before setting off ourselves some time later around midnight after a long - very long journey in Roger, fortunately, shared my views on what constituted which Roger, our driver, serenaded us with playings of a civilised, British time to get away in the morning on a one of his treasured tapes from Old Blighty, "Songs that Medium trip. won the War". Shouts of "change the tape" from the We overtook the Easies soon enough, halfway along rowdy punters in the backseat had no effect on the stir- the Round the Mountain track, then descended graduring massed male choruses of "Run Rabbit, Run Rab- ally to Holly Hut for lunch. Some of us relaxed on the bit", Roger being determined that the rest of us should verandah in the sun, while a few of the more energetienjoy his musical tastes as much as he did (an attitude cally inclined took off on a quick side-trip to Bell Falls. which, I must confess, I would have shared if it had The Pouakai Range rose invitingly in the sun across the been a bit of Blues). other side of the basin. As the bus pulled to a stop 25 punters headed for the A day-tripping local Taranaki-ite told us we had the door, into the stillness and crispness of the mountain best weather for weeks. After lunch it was across the air. Soon the narrow porch of the locked Camphouse swamp and up the track onto the Pouakais (except for was jam-packed with a crush of people staking out for Reb, who decided to stay at Holly Hut with the Easies). themselves a precious fews square-feet of sleeping room, On the crest of the range we turned right towards the like some squalid Third World slum. After seeing that hut. (Fortunately the day before I had decided that as the punters on my trip were all right, and putting up a leader maybe I had better have a look at a more recent Tramping and Mountaineering 1998

Mt Egmont from the Pouakai Range Harry Smith map than my 20-year-old edition which meant wan- tually I could take it no longer and went out onto the dering downtown at lunchtime and looking at one in verandah to watch the lights of New Plymouth and the the bookshop rather than actually buying one! It turned other towns of northern Taranaki twinkling in the disout that there was a new Pouakai Hut in a completely tance. That night slept out on the verandah. different position from the smaller, older one shown on The next morning's entertainment was provided by my map!) Roger sending poor Garry off in search of the little-known Pouakai Hut proved to be a large, modern structure "Pouakai hot spring". "Just over that hump and down with a spacious lounge, separate bunkrooms, anda a wide the hillside a bit," explained Roger, pointing at a distant verandah. We removed our muddy boots and spent the knob. "We checked it out when we were here a few rest of the afternoon lounging around, playing cards. years ago but I can't quite remember how long it took Roger displayed his stoic British determination and stiff us." upper lip as he persisted with his efforts to light the coal Garry set off eagerly for the distant knob, like a big, fire without the aid of any sort of paper or kindling wood. friendly, trusting dog bounding enthusiastically after a That evening we werej joined bya a group of bogany-look- stick, unaware that its owner actually has the stick hiding locals, dressed in jeans and smoking cigarettes. Af- den behind his back. "You're a cruel bastard, Roger, "I ter dinner they proceeded to dump about a sackful of said as we sat back in the sun on the verandah, sipping coal onto the fire. "You'd have to be a real bogan to tea andwatching the proceedings. Garry bobbled around stoke the fire up like that," = Roger announced loudly. I on the top of thel knob for a while, then disappeared off cringed and waited for the reaction, but none came. down the other side, out of sight. An hour later he re- Discussion around the table that evening centred on turned, disappointed. "I couldn't find it," " he said, puffserious deeply serious issues of economics. Even- ing with exhaustion. "Are you sure it's down there? Tramping and Mountaineering 1998

The Pouakai Range from the Round the Mountain Track Harry. Smith I couldn't see any steam.' " "It comes and goes," I ex- proved to be a rat-infested hovel. Then it was a final plained patiently. "Sometimes if you're lucky you can hour along the track to the North Egmont road, ascendpin-point thes site exactly by the steam; other times you ing and descending the occasional ladder on the way. havet tol hunt aroundi in thel leatherwood to findi lit." "Oh," Just before the road we had to cross the Waiwhakaiho said Garry. "Oh well, maybe I'll findi it next time.' n Roger River. Roger and a group of others had disappeared ahead reached for his handkerchief to stifle a sudden fit of of the rest of us. We crossed the bridge and wandered coughing. up to the road, only to find that the others weren'tthere. We packed up and headed back up to the top of the When they turned up some time later it turned out that range. For a brief moment the cone of Mt Egmont was Roger had decided that crossing the bridge was a visible in the distance, but it soon disappeared in the dashedly un-British thing to do, so he had led the group clag. The Pouakais were beginning to seem more and off on a difficult river crossing. more like a mini version of the Tararuas. Down at the And that was the end of the trip. We piled aboard the tarns we saw nothing but the inside of the cloud. So Orient Express and headed for home after a very enjoymuch for my plans of taking some brilliant photographs able trip to an interesting area. like the one on the back of the Park map. Oh yes - I nearly forgot. Somehow Roger's Dad's From the tarns the track deteriorated dramatically to Army music went missing on the return journey and a rough, muddy trail through the leatherwood even mysteriously found its way into my pocket. Naturally I morel like the Tararuas. We sidled around Maude Peak returned it to Roger as soon as I found it there - - just as andcrossedanother flat plateau. Then came Henry Peak, soon as we pulled into Platform Nine of the Wellington where we unexpectedly found ourselves hauling our- railway station. selves up a steep, near-vertical track of slippery mud. After a rest on top we set off down the other side. The Punters: Harry Smith, David Garratt, Ferrida Curwood, clag dispersed as we descended the spur off the end of Roger Bolam, Garry De Rose, Hervé de Bressy, Angela the ranget towards thel bush below. Clear views of Egmont Barnes, Eva Lottermoser, Adrian Smith, Will Aitken, appeared again. Rebecca Burtt. Down in thel bush we found ourselves following along the top of a vertical chasm, with the Kaiauai River inac- Actually I prefer "Mt Taranaki" to "Mt Egmont". But cessible way! below. Eventually we reached a point where it's al bit like the metric system: while I like it in theory it was possible to descend to the floor of the gorge, Iwas born just a little bit too early to ever get comfortwhere we stopped for lunch in the sun.. After lunch we able with it andi to thinki in terms ofi it. It's still Mt Egmont climbed back out of the gorge to Kaiauai Hut, which and it's still 8,000 feet high as far as I'm concerned! Tramping and Mountaineering 1998