Happy Daze, Wednesday 13 September 2023
Banner Photo: Heading down to Awatere Hut, from the ridgeline
Six intrepid trampers set out in two cars from Napier. The weather for Napier looked as though it was going to be beautiful. So much so, that Cherie requested a special trip to our meeting point by her husband to drop off her forgotten sunhat! However the Ruahines were forecasting colder and rather windy.
We negotiated our way successfully over the vast chasms of a few extreme potholes which are just in a very short stretch after the Kashmir farm entrance on Kashmir Road. Hopefully they may be history by now, as there was a road crew hard at work with graders before that point. We arrived at the Moorcock Saddle car park where our seventh tramper Sue was waiting patiently for us.
Low river levels meant boots almost stayed dry
So we left together for a brief climb up to the ridgeline from the saddle, where the wind was trying to blow us sideways. Fortunately it is a fairly wide pathway so as everyone was feeling comfortable; six of us travelled across the ridge, leaving Ted to make his own decisions about where he would go in those conditions.
At Happy Daze Hut
There were fantastic views along the way, with a rainbow appearing following brief bursts of rain. Fortunately the rain cleared up by the time we dropped steeply down to the river and across to Awatere Hut. It is a lovely hut and made a good place to have a snack away from the cold wind still blowing along the river.
The riverbed was quite low in the first section so some of us were focussed on keeping boots dry as we travelled downstream. The vistas as we rounded each bend were quite beautiful, although inevitably we got to the point of ‘are we there yet?’ thoughts. Just in time for those of us who were hungry, we got to the river junction and the signpost for the 15-minute track to the hut. It did take us a bit longer than that, as at one point we ended up off the track and had to bush-bash (through fairly open areas) until we met up with the track again.
An easy river tramp when river levels are this low
Looking at our maps, we knew we weren’t far away – we just didn’t want to drop too far down knowing that we would meet up eventually anyway. Once back on track, it was a quick walk from that point to the hut. The weather there wasn’t too windy at all so we had chairs outside for lunch as the hut itself was quite dirty. It looked like mice had been having a ball.
It was a much faster trip back home as by that stage we weren’t trying to keep boots dry and knowing what you have left to do always helps in monitoring the pace. We arrived back about 4.15pm to find that Ted had decided it was safer not to go across the ridge so instead of going to Awatere Hut he had gone up the Longview track to find a nice sunny spot out of the wind for lunch and then back down to the car park.
Then we said goodbye to Sue, who is off to walk the full length of New Zealand on the Te Araroa trail in a couple of weeks time. Thanks very much to the drivers, Marie and Bruce.
Trampers: Ted Angove, Marie Deroles, Bruce Hodgson, Cherie Le Lievre, Sue Trotter, Keith James and reporter Juliet Gillick
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