First time in the Kawekas

Trip: Kawekas - Kiripapango / Cameron's Carpark to Kiwi Saddle Hut; Kiwi Saddle Hut to Studholme Saddle Hut via Kaweka J; Studholme Saddle to Lakes via The Tits (tee hee) and Cooks Horn (tee hee) Basin track.

Date: 22-25 October 2021 (Labour weekend)

Trip Grade: EM

Trampers: Mike and Janine

Notes:

• Next time I'll take a better topo map. I should buy a Kawekas map.
• Don't know whether it's my lack of familiarity here, but navigation was trickier and the map seemed less accurate than I'm used to in other ranges.
• The Lakes is a better roadend than Kiripapango/Camerons.
• Take care navigating to Studholme Saddle Hut and note the contour lines!
• Tracks at bottom end of Cooks Basin track bear little resemblance to what's on the map.

Discombobulated is how I described it. It's been a while since I was properly tramping and we've "tidied" the garage at least twice since then so my hurried packing was held back by endless searches for water pouches and first aid kits. And I was off somewhere uncharted and new. The Kawekas. I'd never set foot in this mountain range before, and so piecing together a 4 day itinerary was challenging. Between Janine and I we made guesses and estimates and drew on bits of topo map with highlighter. We came up with a plan. Janine thought it was a little unambitious but it would do.

Anyway, Thursday night saw me driving off to deepest, uppermost Upper Hutt to meet Janine and swap to her car. Google told us to take the SH2 way so that's what we did. The journey was dark, windy (both blustery and twisty!) and a little misty, but mostly uneventful. We stopped in Dannevirke for pizza dinner but the pizza place that google recommended looked a little unclean and unloved - went to The Black Stump nearby and what a great decision. Lovely food, great portions and and friendly staff. It's now my Dannevirke local.

Mist gave way to fog and rain, the highway morphed into the winding Taihape-Napier road and an interminable time later the Kiripapango Campsite appeared. We headed down the gravel road, not knowing what we'd find. It turned out to be a lovely spot, reminiscent of Holdsworth, with plenty of tucked-away nooks to pitch a tent or park a caravan and be quite secluded. But we were here to set up, sleep, and be out of there. I'd brought my oldest cheapest tent just for tonight so I didn't have to carry a wet tent. It wasn't the best start when the zip fell off the fly and I had to secure the entrance with two dubious velcro tabs instead. But it kept me dry for six hours so I can't complain.  

Day 1 - Kiripapango to Kiwi Saddle

Friday dawned foggy, misty, damp and cold. Not an inspiring morning. We wearily packed up, ate some breakfast (not I - I was still digesting delicious Black Stump Thai Chicken Curry) - and headed the 3min drive from campsite to road end. Naively we thought that the lack of cars at the roadend meant a lack of people on the track. There were plenty of campers and caravans about though. Some campers were leaving and called out to us, "Are you two mad or keen?!". "BOTH" we shouted in unison. Then at 8:30am we were off. 

Janine pretends to be enthusiastic

First stop was to see the cableway on the map, and try it out - I'd never winched myself across a river before and was keen to give it a go.  Technically the map was correct. There was a cableway. It had no car and the ladders had been removed. Disappointing.

Then the real work started as we ascended Mt Kiripapango. It was steep and it was hard, and we were slow. Janine's boots hurt.

After an hour or so, the sight of a rusty trig made us very happy. But alas it was a fake trig. We were probably only halfway!

Not the top. Not even close.

Kinda the top, kinda close. (as close as we got, anyway)

We never did find the top of Mt Kiripapango. The track didn't go there, another track wended around the top too, no sign of a way up through the bush. We weren't especially keen to try, since the mist and rain meant the view would be uninspiring. And now we got to go downhill! Or at least, little bit up little bit down. Kiwi Saddle was our next destination.

Yeah, lots of this.

We'd seen nobody on the track so far and were pretty hopeful of a hut just to ourselves. Two blokes came past moving fast - off for some fishing they said. This part of the trip was all a blur really. One foot in front of the other, trudging through the mist without end. Janine's back was aching and her toes were hurting. It never seemed to end... and then a hut appeared. We had reached Kiwi Saddle Hut around 2pm. Time for soup and a recharge.

After an hour or so we were ready to head off. Kiwi Mouth was our planned destination and a DOC sign helpfully pointed off to it "2 hours". But someone had scratched below it, "Yeah right! More like 6 hours!" Thankyou, random scratcher! Kiwi Mouth was going to commit us to a big loop too, and we were not feeling particularly heroic. We decided that we were in a perfectly good hut with really good options for following days so why leave it.

Kiwi Saddle Hut

While we lounged about, the hut slowly filled, and then tents started appearing on the grass outside. Dave, his mate, and his dog Juna turned up and we chatted away to them. Callan and Caitlin the lawyers with a glass bottle of wine they'd carried in. A party of 4 older folks who camped and cooked on the porch. A couple of hunters that camped well away from the hut - we got glimpses of them through the window, that was about it. One amazing bloke who'd run in that morning with rifle and pack, and turned up at the hut periodically to wolf down a can of rice pudding and run back out again. Eventually decided to run back to his ute and go home. So much energy!

You definitely don't just go to the Kawekas to tramp. Lots of people were there to fish, and certainly lots of hunters. Success seemed to be mixed. One fellow came clean in his hut log entry of unsuccessful hunting and described his trip as "armed tramping" rather than actual hunting.

Today was Janine's birthday and I'd managed to smuggle a cake with candles, largely unscathed, all the way to the hut. Candles were lit, happy birthday was sung and we got through half of it. Back in the pack it went.

Happy birthday!

We were off to bed by 8pm It's unusual for me to actually sleep inside a hut on a mattress, I'm normally on the porch or in my tent (I like my tent). But I slept really well.

Day 2 - Kiwi Saddle to Kaweka J, Studholme Valley Hut

I was awake by 6 and enjoyed the lie in, got the coffee on at 6:30. I wandered out to (what does this say about my priorities?!) pick up the little patch of cell signal on the saddle itself and discovered clear-ish skies and stunning views of Mt Ruapehu. Wow! Janine wandered out too and we watched the sun slowly hit the top of the mountain and light ridges and faces.

Today was going to be a better day.

We were one of the last to leave at 8:30am, just behind the older folks who stayed just ahead of us for most of the day. This part of the trip was nice and gentle, gradually climbing, with stunning views of Ruapehu and then Ngauruhoe coming into sight, just the tip at first and eventually the whole face with Tongariro marching off to the right. Terrain was a mix of sub alpine and rock (clearly lots of slips here, and driving snow keeping the vegetation away!), beech forest, and alas much wilding pine. I'll bring my folding handsaw next time.

We passed Castle Camp shelter on the way.

Our lunch spot was at Kaiarahi, the high point just before Studholme Saddle and with some overhangs that nicely sheltered us from the wind. This is when we spotted Studholme Saddle Biv and (I thought at the time) hut, and the meaning of the contour lines hit home. No we weren't going via the hut to drop our packs as the hut was nearly 300 vertical metres below us. Okay.

Then off to Kaweka J. The older folks too, but were heading back to Mackintosh Hut so dropped their packs very early. We trudged on with packs on up steep scree faces to Mad Dog. 

That ascent was hard, two steps up and 1 step back, and the added weight made it harder. I'd have loved to be scampering up without a pack!

When we made it to Mad Dog we met two of the party ahead of us who were not the 'older folks' at all. I think the original group had actually gone straight to Mackintosh and this other group had seamlessly taken their place. Anyway there were two couples.  The women had decided not to go all the way to Kaweka J, and the men had carried on. 

Now we got to drop packs and carry on over the tops. It got a bit colder, the wind could definitely see us more up here! Kaweka J itself had stunning 360 degree views all the way from Ruapehu and the Kaimanawas in the west, the Kawekas marching off to the north, Napier and the sea to the east. I met an teacher from Colorado who'd come up from a car park close by, he was interesting to chat to and pass the time with. He was very new to the NZ outdoors so it was fun explaining the hut system and what those big snowy mountains off to the west were.

With all this standing about chatting, we were losing body heat to the wind and finally the cold got us moving again. We were back at our packs at the top of Mad Dog pretty quickly. The weather was changing, and mist was coming in again so we kept moving, down the spur with me looking to the left to try to spot the hut or the track down.

Janine had her doubts, especially when we ran out of waratahs to follow.

Janine was right.

She spotted the hut gleaming orange through the trees - to the right of the spur, not the left! I was completely wrong. We considered our options and while we were doing that I started down the very steep scree face to go directly to the hut. Janine followed. We didn't die. We hit the forest and were able to pick our way down okay, and just near the hut we met the track we should have found and been on, that left the spur a long way further back.

Oh well. Janine was not the least bit happy with the sudden injection of bush bashing and descending steep faces but she did great.

Studholme Saddle Hut is really nice and cute - and not really anywhere near Studholme Saddle Biv. (That was the toilet I could see from the ridge!)  It's an old orange NZFS style hut but rebuilt and comfortable inside.  We had it to ourselves which was great. Janine's rum and my whisky came out to celebrate a long but successful day, along with the last of the cake too. We tried an experiment with the birthday candles that was mostly successful and didn't burn the hut down. 

Studholme Saddle Hut, a welcome sight

The candles didn't go to waste

Day 3 - Studholme Saddle to Lakes Roadend, via The Tits (teehee) and Cooks Horn Basin track.

Another good sleep, broken by the sound of rain on the roof overnight. Three days, three seasons! Friday was mist, Saturday was sunny - today was to be occasional showers of driving rain, and a cold wind. But it was ok when we woke up around 6:30am. We breakfasted on last night's leftover Backcountry Meals. I popped out to recce the track we missed and work out where we went wrong. 

Captain Hindsight says, look for this cairn and waratah.
That's where you drop off to the right to the hut.

We set off for Studholme Saddle Biv, and to head back up to the ridgeline from there. The track led us down the little stream by the hut, and 20 minutes or so we found the Biv, and the two couples camping outside it. Across the stream was the way back up to the ridgeline. It was certainly steep at first! But not as bad as we'd been led to believe. A good track that missed most of the scree and it flattened out slowly but surely as we ascended. 30 min later we'd reached the top. 

It was very windy, now coming from north instead of northeast, and surprisingly cold. The mist was now lurking on the other side of the ridges to before. We donneed parkas and beanies and we weren't particularly cold. But I was keen to get off the tops as it looked like it could change for the worse fairly quickly. We decided to drop off down the earlier Cooks Horn Basin track instead of hanging around on the ridge til the Rogue track dropped down a little later.

We battled up the hill to our Friday lunch spot, and then onwards into uncharted territory. Icy rain came and went. Eventually we reached The Tits. You needed to use a bit of imagination but tits they could have been. The turnoff to Cooks Horn Basin track was very soon afterwards, marked by a tripod of waratahs and then familiar orange markers when we headed left.

The track wended its way through wilding pines, very steeply downhill. The gravel surface was just loose enough to be tricky and just firm enough to prevent scree running. It was tiring stuff. Eventually the pines gave way to beech and manuka and the track flattened out a little.

We had an early lunch under the canopy. Janine's feet were agony by now with all the downhill in new boots.

The orange markers changed to silver cut-up blinds. Suddenly we appeared at a memorial to the old Kaweka hut! That was a bit unexpected. As the plaque explained, it was one of the oldest huts in the Kawekas but burned down in 2003. The fireplace and toilet remained, along with good camping around it. 

Now things got confusing. Our map had the track heading south. But, on the ground, our track had ended in a T intersection with tracks going east and west. What to do? After a bit of discussion we made what really was a 50:50 call to go east. We headed down to the stream and crossed it, the track then followed the stream to the south-southeast which looked perfect - we'd meet a cross track that would take us where we wanted to go.

As expected, we met the cross track at a T intersection. What wasn't expected is that the right fork of the track had been 'deleted', with brush piled up and four orange triangles pointing away from it. What to do? Well, at this point there was not a great deal of choice. We climbed over the brush and set off.

Those markers ain't gonna tell US what to do

The track was completely fine, even though the orange markers had all been removed. But what wasn't fine were Janine's feet. Eventually she changed to her hiking sandals which were lurking in her pack as a Plan B. So much better! 

Our track continued down the spur. We passed a big slip to the right, that luckily didn't affect our track, and descended to the stream we were aiming at. Janine was so happy to soak her aching feet in the cool water!  

As we crossed the stream the orange markers resumed and the track headed back up the stream too. That must be where the west track would have gone, if we'd have picked that way. All a bit strange.

What the map said - what we found

The track now went over ridges and down valleys and through streams. We heard some whooping and hollering of people having a really great time... and then some mountain bikers caught up and passed us. Not sure whether they were meant to be there or not, but they weren't doing any harm and having so much fun. It was pretty challenging riding! 

Finally we crossed the last stream and the track turned into a 4WD track. I offered to run ahead and try to hitch out to get the car. So off I set. Trouble is though that after 15 min of going "fast" I'd gained like 20 metres on Janine. So I gave up.

The carpark appeared soon enough and, so lucky, two women were drinking coffee sitting on the back of a ute. We approached them warily. "No problem, we're leaving in a few minutes and we'll drop you both off" they said. JOY! It turned out the drive was a LOT further than we'd thought. And they detoured away from where they were going to take us right to our car! There are true heroes in the world.

We leaped in the car and headed the 5min back to Kuripapango campground. Our spot by the toilets was still free for some strange reason so we camped up there again. Janine had many treats in her car and we relaxed on a picnic blanket and ate well.

Day 4 - Ongaonga and Tui Brewery

OK so not so much of a tramping day today. 

I recommend the 2min detour to Ongaonga if you're driving through, it is a lovely wee village with historic houses and a nice walking tour.

And the Tui Brewery was great! It feels more like a little restaurant attached to a microbrewery, than a sales outlet for a mass produced beer from a Heineken subsidiary. Beer snob Mike was well impressed and would go there for lunch anytime.