Taking it easy

Taking it easy

On the Monday before the weekend of 30-31 October 2001 I phoned the trip leade

Rachel Sander, to put my name down on her Easy trip to the Kaweka Forest Par

Rachel told me that no one had signed up and that the trip was not runnin

However, I was very keen to get out for the weekend and in discussing th

! got out my maps and we decided to go into the Ruahine

I Forest Park, as it was much closer than the Kawekas. I Taking it easy, along with flexibility was part of our plan for the weekend. We decided to tramp into Heritage Lodge Friday night and then onto Iron Gate Hut for Saturday night.

Taking it easy, I took Friday afternoon off work. Rachel joined me at my place and on her arrival I found out that there was a big hold-up at the Paremata roundabout - worse than usual due to a diesel spillage. We took the back route through Porirua East and eventually left the roundabout at 7.30pm to join the slow crawl north. With stomachs craving for food we purchased fish and chips at Paraparaumu, just before closing time. At the local Mobil station Rachel could not resist the urge to buy a gossip magazine, something she confessed that she would normally not do. Tramping that night was not an option as it was

Her left leg was stuck in the mud right up to the top of her calf.

now raining and it would be rather late by the time we started. Camping at the roadend did not appeal to us either, so we opted for a backpackers or motor camp for the night.

Out came my road maps to search for a place to stay. Rachel contacted her Dad to look up a list of motor camps, and we finally booked a cabin at the Feilding Holiday Park. We were not too sure what to expect as the guy answered his phone as the local mortuary. The predicted front passed through that night and we awoke to a clear day. I soon found out that I had left a bag of food in my fridge at home. Thus I had my cereal with plain water instead of fresh milk (not quite the same). We departed Feilding at 9.00am after a quick visit to the local supermarket to buy a replacement salami for the night's dinner and milk for my Sunday breakfast.

We arrived at the roadend to find a campervan and one other car. Another car arrived as we were getting ready and we hoped that there was going to be room at Iron Gate Hut for us all. Last time I had been there I remembered that it slept about 8 people. The sign at the carpark said it slept 10. The track starts by going downhill

Lvndsav Fletch we decided that staying at home was not an optio

So the trip was on, but where tc to Umutoi Creek, which I appreciated as I had not be< hamping since July. We stopped to admire the arched bridg made of laminated wood, across this creek. The plaque ( the side stated that it had been constructed in 1980 t RNZEME (we could not decipher the acronym). From he we climbed gradually up to Heritage Lodge.

We chose to tramp the Oroua River track to Iron Ga Hut as opposed to the track via Mt Tunupo and tl Ngamoko Range. It was a beautiful sunny day with lit wind. About half-an-hour past the lodge we came acro the first of many treefalls. We later found out that this w caused by a heavy and wet snowfall. Thus a lot of tin was spent climbing over and around the piles of brok branches and whole trees. We decided to stop for lunch Tunupo Creek. About midway through this relaxing lun stop (1' hours. . . ) the people from the campervan and c arrived. Thev were four members of the South Wairara

Tramping Club and they also stopped for lunch. They we a mixed bunch and the fitter ones had made use of t easy pace by clearing as many of the fallen branches frc the track that physically could be moved. At one sta Clive (leader of the South Wairarapa group) offered arou gingerbread men and women.

The others soon showed signs of continuing. Tl prompted us to move also as we wanted to be in front a thus get to the hut first. They made it easy for us to do tl because one of them took a long time crossing the cret The person concerned did not want to get her boots w After failed attempts on trying to hop across on slippe boulders she removed her boots and crossed barefoot. ! left them to it and continued along the track. I had forgott how many climbs this track had. At one point Rachel end up misjudging her steps, while trying to negotiate a bog patch. Her left leg was stuck in the mud right up to the t of her calf. I helped her by taking her pack and giving he hand to extract her leg. One last rest and another fall hee had us at the hut around 3.30pm - about three hor walking and 2' hours resting.

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Rangiwahia Hut (Simon Ward)

The other group soon arrived and we all had our chosen bunks sorted out. We went about settling in for a comfortable night. Then another group, a father and two children, aged 11 and 9, arrived and immediately set about lighting the hut stove to cook on. They were a family from a farm near Sixtus Lodge which is just past the junction to the carpark where our vehicles were parked.

Realising that the bunk space was now not going to be so comfortable, I proceeded to put up my Huntech fly out in front of the hut. We waited for the others to have their dinner before having ours, which started with Thai noddle soup, followed by salami and vegetables with rice and finished with {resh banana and custard, made with coconut milk. The children had plenty of energy and spent a lot of time playing on the top bunk and eating the many goodies that were on offer from the South Wairarapa group. Out under the clear night sky and full moon I had a quiet night, helped by having the luxury of two thermarests, mine and Rachel's full length one, whereas Rachel had to put up with endless chatter, snoring and a warm hut, before she could get to sleep.

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The weather on Sunday was not as good as the previous day. Rachel and I had considered going back out over the Ngamoko Range. We monitored the situation during ended boggv he top Ehera fallen r hours

Tramping and Mountai neering 2001 /2002 breakfast. The clouds were building up and we could see that there would be high winds on the tops. Taking the easy option we decided to go back out the same way we came in. Clive and Vince from the South Wairarapa group decided that they would do the tops route though. The family group was going to stay another night.

Our travel time was much faster due to lighter packs and the track having been cleared of a lot of the heefall. Remembering that we had spotted the Apiti Tavern on the way up on Saturday, itwas decided thatthe pub would be a better place to dine at for lunch, rather than Heritage Lodge. We were pleased to find my car had not been broken into. The localfarmer had said that this carpark had been targeted a few times.

We pulled up outside the tavern, parking alongside a fleet of Mercedes cars. It was a car club outing and they had chosen to luncheon at the tavern too. The lounge bar was quite large for such a small settlement pub. We selected our lunch of homemade pies and sandwiches along with a beer to wash it all down.

We took it easy by lounging in a couple of comfortable settees and toasted a successful trip. Rachel took the opportunity to sleep while I drove home. So ended a great weekend trip - and I do recommend taking it easy.