The Hogget, Saturday 11 May 2024
Banner Photo: Heading to the Hogget (not visible under the low cloud at this point)
Nine trampers met at Park Island on a chilly morning for the 80-minute minivan journey up the Taihape Road, turning right into Timahanga Station and on for about 2 km, past farm buildings and the wool shed, a few shaggy ponies and two gates to a grassy parking area.
Whilst putting on our boots, we noticed a few paddocks of deer, many of which charged around, alarmed by the apparition of a big white van and its noisy occupants.
The route passes through native bush before reaching the bushline
Off we went up the track, across an ankle-deep stream and then into a very gradual climb through some lovely bush with many tall and old beech trees and lots of young rimu, a few small totara and some not-so-lovely ‘lawyer’ that needed a bit of whacking with walking poles to clear the way.
The light dusting of snow, and cold wind on today’s tramp
We stopped briefly for morning tea before reaching the bush line; and there was some undressing up the hill and then re-dressing when we made it out above, into a cold wind. A bush full of icy bits got the photographers snapping away and a few more woolly hats and extra tops were put on, plus warmer gloves.
On we plodded, trying to reach the top of the Hogget before the clouds, which lay at a level preventing us seeing the snowy tops of the Kawekas; but the cloud was roaming so we did spot some distant views at times and the lighter green farmland standing out from the darker green bush. Apparently Timahanga Station was bigger than Molesworth at one stage before sections were sold off.
We reached the actual Hogget, which is a bare clay flat (with a few deer footprints) where they used to have a stock yard, at 11.30 and hid amongst the scrub for protection from the cold wind, to eat an early lunch. Afterwards we had some brief wandering around the tops before descending into a very cold wind, leaving me with frozen fingers until we dropped back into the bush and had to start undressing again.
There were ample photo opportunities to capture some colourful mosses and ferns (and I spotted two lovely yellow daisies) and lower down we walked through shoulder-high ‘rushes’ before reaching the river and the last 4WD track back to the van.
Timing wise, I think we left about 8.30am so three hours up (including the morning tea stop and a few more stops whilst the speedier ones kindly waited at various places where the path was a bit overgrown to make sure us stragglers at the back took the right path.)
Hunkered down out of the wind, having our lunch break
Then we left the top at midday and reached the van at 2.40pm, left at about 3pm and were back at Park Island by 4.30pm. The place was humming with cars leaving, as a rugby match had just finished in the sunshine.
A nice winter walk with great scenery and company. A big thank you to Sue Martin for kindly driving us there and Juliet for collecting and returning the van and driving us home – always harder on the way home when you have been out in the fresh air all day and start to feel a bit doozy back in the warm bus. Also thank you to Simon for organising the tramp and opening and closing all the gates.
Trampers: Sue Martin, Michele Ericksen, Julian Phillips, Jenny Burns, Juliet Gillick, Liz Perry, Geoff Donkin, Simon Hill and reporter Ali Hollington
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