Over the time we’ve been here we’ve been lucky enough to do a few trips, so I figured we might as well try to document a few of them here.
Our most recent one was a tramp Hop (who is 10 now) and I did in the Tararua Range to the Totara Flats Hut. On paper it’s a 9.5 km / 3.5-4.5 hour walk (DOC provides both times depending on which of their signs you look at). We’ve done one of the easier walks in the Tararuas previously, so even though the range has a reputation as being fairly gnarly, this seemed like a good walk for us. Interestingy, the hut is billed as being both “suitable for newer trampers” and “best suited for people who have some experience in backcountry tramping”.
The walk starts by crossing a swing bridge high across the Waiohine River, and follows the river the entire way to the hut. The first hour was fairly easy going – a few roots and rocks, but overall, fairly straightforward going. As we neared the first swing bridge on the route the going got more technical, until a steep decent (ie holding onto roots and rocks to get down down) brought us to the bridge. A similar ascent on the other side of the bridge gave way to several kilometers of slow, technical travel over roots and rocks.
Following the second swing bridge the track followed close along the river until reaching a large slip that had come down all the way to the river. A high water route led off into the bush, but we were able to traverse along the river below the slip.
Some more solid walking finally brought us to the first of the flats. It was followed by a short climb up and over a bluff before we found ourselves on the final flat, and about 45 minutes later at the hut, about five hours after having set off from the start.
The hut, which can hold 26 people, was a little over half full. We had a good dinner, played some games, chatted with some of the other trampers, and hit the hay early as rain started bucketing down overnight.
We awoke in the morning to clearing skies, but a raging river outside the hut. Without having to wake up early or rush ourselves we were able to hit the trail fairly earlyish, around 8am.
An hour later we arrived at the slip to find water right up against it. I tried my best to see if we cuold get past the slip, but inthe end figured we would do the safe, responsible thing and take the high water trail above the slip. I should have realised it would be an ordeal when we couldn’t even find the turnoff for it (just a sign pointing up a hill). We finally found it and struggled uphill. It was obvious the trail was hardly used, as it was overgrown, with branches fallen across it. It wasn’t marked well, so we spent a fair amount of time moving up, trying to locate the next trail marker, eventually finding it, and repeat. After about an hour of this we reached a place where the trail went up a little ledge, and as we tried to pull ourselves up it Hop cried out “wasps!”. There was a wasp nest right in the middle of where we needed to go. We’d had it at that point so decided to head back down to the river and give it a try below the slip. And if the river was too high to get past, we would sit and wait for the water to recede. Half an hour later we were back at the bottom, and a little while after that we were past the slip – if the water had been half a meter higher we wouldn’t have been able to make it but.
We retraced our steps back down along the river, and pulled ourselves up and down the roots and rocks we had tackled the day before. Tired and muddy, but smiling from the challenges we’d overcome we arrived back at the car about six and a half hours after we started. And Hop’s favourite part? The detour!
Kiwi Bound 