Rogue Ridge, Kaweka FP,
Saturday March 12 2016
Feature image is the newly maintained track up Rogue Ridge which has received a chainsaw haircut courtesy of DoC.
Just five of us – John, Jude, Juliet, Rosemary and Ali – left for Kuripaponga in John’s new car at 7am, started walking at 8.20 and got back to the car by 4.20, so about 6.5 hrs walking and 1.5 hrs eating (morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea) and chatting to folk we met along the way.
On the way up Rogue Ridge, we met a nice young hunter with his adorable black lab (he had walked up at 3am but it had been too foggy to see any deer), then at Kaiarahi we met two hunters and a girl companion who warned us about a St John’s College Duke of Edinburgh group staying at Mackintosh Hut. They had walked in on Friday night, done a morning of orienteering and we met them at the junction to Mackintosh Hut when they were turning right like us to walk along the up-and-down track to the old Kaweka Hut site for their second night camp. We decided to do this to avoid the 2 km walk along the road back to the car park. One of the kids was Rosemary’s neighbour, so she had a good chat and we walked along with them for a while. But they had their ghetto blaster at full bore, and eventually we managed to escape the noise.
On the top, it became lovely and clear with good views of Mt Ruapehu with not much snow on it and Mt Ngauruhoe and lots of nice gentians and – some say – eyebright around. I did not see any eyebright as I don’t know what it looks like, but John D told me to report it! Next time, I will try to learn what it looks like.
Rosemary was the fittest, like a mountain goat, and we all trailed along behind trying to keep up. We were all a bit sore-kneed by the time we got back to the car park.
So a great day with good company and lovely weather, a cool start and then sunny and clear – and we tried to put the world to rights along the way.
Trampers: John D, Jude P, Juliet G, Rosemary J, and reporter Ali H.
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