Happy Daze Hut from Snee Road, Ruahine Forest Park.
Wednesday, February 27 2013
Map: BL36
John and Vic did their own thing for the day, but the rest of us went to Happy Daze Hut across paddocks, through the river and over farm tracks. It took an hour to get to the hut. The hut was nice and clean, with kitchen chairs, so we took them outside to sit on and had morning tea.
We carried on along a track down to the river, and along it. Then Peter lost his hearing aid and went back to look for it. Now there were seven of us.
We came to a fork in the river with an island in the middle. We got confused here as there was a big orange triangle on the island, but there wasn’t a track. We knew the hut was up there somewhere. We went along the right fork and found another big orange triangle on the right bank, but that track went up to the ridge.
We looked along the left fork, but didn’t find any tracks or markers, so we decided to go further up the right fork and found a cairn and then a bit further on the markers and track up to the Makaretu Hut. We had lost two people and there were now only five. Jennie and I whistled and called out to Ken and Kelvin and got a couple of responses, but they didn’t get to the hut.
We ate lunch and then went back to the forks where Ken and Kelvin were having lunch. We set off back down the river and when we got to the turn-off to Happy Daze Hut, three decided to carry on down the river and the rest of us went up past the hut. We all met up at the last river crossing, having picked up Peter along the way.
As we left the river to go back to the van, three got ahead and carried on along a track to who knows where. They had missed a turn in the track. The rest of us got to the van, changed, had some food and drink and a lie in the sun before the other three turned up.
A couple of the party had swims in some lovely pools. It was a great day, with a lot of laughs.
Trampers: Peter Slagter, Isobel Holdaway, Jennie Porter, John Marshall, Murray White, Tony Pluymer, Kelvin Shaw, John Burrell, Ken Ross and reporter Dorothy Sole
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