One for the girls – Papahati / East Whakanui crossing What better way to spend Queens Birthday weekend than with a civilised and leisurely 3 day walk in the Orongorongo’s, over tracks you have never done before. This is the story of what Kirsty Hutchison, Ruth Parnell (scribe) and Sylvia Jorgensen did over a recent long weekend.
We had originally planned a Tararua’s trip, the Southern Main Range or a Holdsworth - Mitre tops trip. The weather was not looking promising. With high winds forecast, the last place we wanted to be spending our weekend battling along, was on the Tararua tops! A last minute decision on Friday evening, after seeing the weather up date, was to do an Orongorongo’s trip.
A civilised late morning start from Wellington on Saturday, to the start of the track for the Papatahi Crossing on Western Lake road in the Wairarapa, seemed straightforward on the gloriously sunny day that it was. It became a navigational challenge however, just to find the track start; according to our maps it was one and a bit km from where the tarseal ends on Western Lake road. It was proving a bit elusive but we eventually discovered that the road is sealed further than what the maps indicated, and therefore, the track started some way back up the road!
We reckoned on two and a half hours to the hut in the Wharepapa River. At the base of the climb onto Papatahi, the DoC sign, obscured from the road by long grass, said three hours. With two and a half hours of good daylight we set off to Battery stream and the hut over the low saddle from there. One and a half hours later we arrived at Battery Stream despite the over grown nature of the track and as the DoC sign had said two hours to this point we had no qualms that we had just one hour of useful daylight left to get to the hut.
The track followed a small stream, criss-crossing it frequently and eventually following straight up it, before launching vertically up and out into scrubby stuff that was more the realm of mountain goats than civilised trampers. Finally, after some vertical scrambling, aerobatics, and the track - back onto a manageable incline - meandering around imaginary obstacles, we arrived at the saddle one hour after leaving Battery stream!!! We could see our approximate destination and we hoped that the track down to the Wharepapa River would be clear and easy to follow.
We finally arrived at Joe’s hut three hours after Ruth’s mum had kindly dropped us off and as it was becoming too dark in the bush to negotiate our way safely without the aid of torches. In the darkness of the hut a tasty sun dried tomato, feta, vegetable and Tramping & Mountaineering 2003 Ruth Parnell couscous dish was put together and consumed. Despite a short afternoon’s tramp, we felt deserved of this delicious fare.
The difficulty with tramping at this time of year, is that it gets dark so early, and you need to arrive at the hut early. As a result, you end up eating early and you can then only while away so much time waiting for a respectable hour to hit the pit. On the other hand, it is a good opportunity to have an early night and catch up on some sleep.
Quality of sleep had a 2:1 ratio: Kirsty and Slyvia reported to having the most comfortable sleep ever, Ruth lucked out and got a mattress as hard as concrete and had a #$%^ sleep.
We set off in the morning for a climb over Papatahi heeding the warnings in the hut logbook to watch out for stinging nettle. The track seemed to meander about randomly and we also had to make further detours about windfall and other obstacles on the track. The stinging nettle, unfortunately, was not so easy to avoid. The track soon steepened to near vertical as the map had promised and soon brought us views above the surrounding low 400m and 500m bumps, and out to southern Wairarapa, Lake Ferry, Ocean Breach and the sea beyond. The ridge starts to flatten out at about 750m and the foliage becomes more interesting with lush ferns, carex grasses and thickly leafed trees, all be it with the odd bit of stinging nettle carefully hidden amongst the foliage and nicely placed at grabbing height. Further along, on a broad flattish bit of the ridge, large trees stood high above the ferny and grassy undergrowth but nothing else seemed to grow here. The cool wind blasted us almost off our feet and gave us two thoughts - “no wonder nothing else grows here” and “glad we are not on the Tararua tops in this wind”. Soon we were back into the bush and out of the wind, but the ridge narrowed drastically to a ragged knifeedge. Razor sharp with lots of zig-zag like burrs to keep us focused on where we were putting our feet, not all that easy with lots of undergrowth obscuring the track. We finally reached the last climb onto the rounded top of Papatahi, 902m, the second highest in the Rimutaka Forest Park to Mount Mathews, and strangely enough, covered in lots of tall trees except for a small clearing right on the top. Points of interest here were a couple of survey points and an old wooden trig, broken and lying under some trees. Not bad we thought, having taken two and a half hours to climb the 700m from the hut.
It was to be a descent of another 700m into the Orongorongo valley and we were not sure how long it would take. With thoughts of maybe walking out that afternoon if we had time once we got to the Whakanui track, we settled down into the scrub for a quick early lunch. There is something about the sun and views, even if it is a strong cool wind blowing and the sheltered spot you are hunkering down in has no views! It must be psychological.
The track to the Orongorongo valley was well cut and maintained in comparison to the side we had walked up. Besides this, it goes S T R A I G H T Looking north, Papatahi Ruth Parnell down what is a very unstable piece of hillside and delivered us into a tributary of North Boulder creek just under one hour from the top. It was easy travel down North Boulder creek to the Orongorongo River just below the water catchment boundary where access is not permitted.
Tramping & Mountaineering 2003 We paused briefly here to say “Hi” to some people throwing stones into the river before following track, 4x4 road and riverbed down to Whakanui creek. We wanted to walk the East Whakanui track and estimated that it would take four hours, but it was two pm and not quite enough daylight left to do so. It had been a civilised, but challenging, walk of five hours and there are a few good camp spots near the beginning of the Whakanui and East Whakanui tracks, so we chose one and set up camp for an early start in the morning.
While getting organised, a group of three walked past us on the track. Shortly after another person came from the same direction and asked if we had seen the three, ”Yes” we replied and he ran off saying that they had gone the wrong way and that he wanted to catch them up. Then one more person came running along asking if we had seen these people. He asked where we had come from and explained where they thought they were heading. As Kirsty was showing him on the map where he was, the rest of his group came up behind him. They had come from the Catchpool car park via the Orongorongo track and then decided to do a Whakanui – McKerrow loop back to the car park. According to a sign at the bridge, it was a four-hour loop back to the car park. They had no map, and with only sandshoes and two and a half hours of daylight left we recommended they returned the way they had come. With the break-away group of three back, the larger group of ten welcomed our advice. This caused
Joes Hut Ruth Parnell them much amusement as they hassled one of their group about how they let a foreigner talk them into this extension to their original outing! With the entertainment gone, we continued to set up camp.
Our chosen campsite had a ready to light fire which excited Sylvia, who later on exhibited superb fire lighting skills and provided us with a nice cosy camp. We prepared and ate a gastronomically delightful tuna and vegetable Laksa for dinner to a chorus of chainsaws and 4x4 vehicles driving up and down the valley. Another early night resulted in an average of ten and a half hours sleep!
Quality of sleep again had a 2:1 ratio. Ruth reported to having a superb sleep and Slyvia also having a very comfortable sleep, Kirsty lucked out this time, although she reckoned it can’t have been as bad as Ruth’s sleep on the first night.
Up before sunrise and on the track shortly after, the East Whakanui is not signposted at either end but is marked with venetian blind slats and is on the 1999 Edition Wellington topographical map. The track follows the ridge on the East of the Whakanui Creek and about half its length follows the boundary to the Tramping & Mountaineering 2003 water catchment. It was a long two and a half hour climb of 650m over about five km which seemed to take forever. The lower part of the climb featured large trees and a bit of bird song - possibly a weak attempt at a dawn chorus. The higher parts of the ridge were mossy and the trees had their growth stunted from the wind. It was another hour through the Whakanui saddle to the junction of the Whakanui and McKerrow tracks where the path widens into a super highway and a fast half hour decent of 400m to Sunny Grove, Wainuiomata.
From here we found our way back home via the number 61 bus to Waterloo railway station and the train to Wellington. The bus driver thought he was on the speedway, as he squealed the bus around the corners on a tiki-tour of Wainuiomata. The train conductor was chatty, very impressed and interested in our adventures over the weekend. His sense of smell must have been off though as I don’t think we would have smelt too civilised by that stage!
Nevertheless we all arrived home by one thirty pm. Very civilised!
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