A walking commentary from John D

Sentry Box to Master’s Shelter, Ruahine FP, Saturday 2 July 2022
Banner Photo: The closest we got to Aranga Hut, and Alison on her throne. Photo by Campbell Living

Lynette, Anne and I met the van at Maraekakaho where there was a good frost and an amazing sunrise. The sky was perfectly clear and so we were looking forward to lovely sunshine and a fabulous day.

The van arrived, John D driving, with Shona, Alison, Juliet (T.O.) Sue, Gaye and Campbell. Inside, it was pretty steamed up (maybe too much talking) but it was possible to see a glorious day developing, a few pheasants alongside the road and several hawks flying low for their breakfast.

We arrived soon after 8am and started walking at 8.20. By the hut was a robin with a very large earthworm, which it dragged into the undergrowth.

Alison forged ahead and the rest of us tailed behind. The track was quite slippery but could have been a lot worse. It is steep most of the way, but very do-able, taking about two hours. There were some lovely views across the bay to Napier and the ocean.

John D did a running commentary on the plants and trees. On the way up, we saw beech (mountain and hard beech), mountain totara, mountain toa toa (celery pine), kaikawaka (mountain cedar) and dracophyllum.

John, Alison, Gaye, Lynette, Campbell and I had morning tea at the trig, Pohatuhaha (1368m), after a very slippery, icy climb. The views were fabulous and not a breath of wind. Ruapehu looked magnificent, sparkling with snow.

The sign said it was two hours to Aranga Hut but we reached the turn-off within an hour. It was decided not to go to the hut as it was probably another 20 minutes each way, and the hut is said to be very dilapidated. The ground was wet, mossy and boggy and we worked out we’d be rather late back to the road, so we stopped for lunch on the boggy ground, finding dry tufts to sit on. Alison scored the dry ‘Throne’ (a rat trap) and Lynette got a very wet behind!

The five of us decided that it would be nicer to walk Golden Crown ridge. We had a good bet that the others would have stopped much further back for lunch and gone back the way we came up. We knew they’d bring the van round but Gaye volunteered to go back to ensure this happened, which it sort of did – but more later on that.

John continued to tell us what a lot of the plants and trees were, which was nice, but please don’t ask me tomorrow! It was interesting to see which plants preferred a lower altitude, or higher up.

On the way down, we saw horopito (pepperleaf), lancewood, astelia, pututaweta (marbleleaf), rangiora, various coprosmas, ferns and mosses, and tute (the poisonous weed).

It is a longer way down from the top to Master’s Shelter than the top to Sentry Box. Actually, it seemed to go on and on but the birds and plants were lovely. We saw robins, fantails, yellowhammers and kereru.

After walking across the farm tracks back to the road, we were surprised to see the van there. It had only just arrived and Sue and Gaye were getting changed. It turned out that Gaye met up with Sue and on their way down they met another couple and had a nice chat. In the meantime, the others at the van thought they’d gone the Golden Crown Range route, but no… We would have gone back for them, honest! But the couple they’d chatted to had kindly given them a lift to the van.

So, a lovely day with no upsets or injuries. We got back to the van at about 3.45pm; it had been quite a long day with the climb being nearly two hours (and much longer for some).

It probably takes 6.5 hours for the loop, going at a reasonable pace.

Trampers: Campbell Living, John Dobbs, Alison Greer, Lynette Morgan, Gaye Gasser and reporter Di Reid

And, Anne Blackwell, Shona Tupe, Sue Martin, Juliet Gillick who reached the trig and returned to Sentry Box to move the van.