Te Puia, Kaweka FP, Wednesday 30 October 2024
Banner Photo: At the Mangatainoka hot pools
Six of us were all early at the meeting point, so able to leave before 7.30am. The road from the Middle Hill car park was quite rutted and full of potholes – we did notice, however, that the deepest ruts we saw on our last trip have been gravelled over. So it was still a tad slower driving in, but we arrived safely at the Gums car park and ready to set off at 9.05am.
We left Ted to go as far as he wanted and he did make it some way up the valley, returning about 3.30pm. He mentioned that his favourite smoko break spot had lost a very convenient sitting log – presumably washed away at some stage.
The walk into Te Puia Lodge beside the Mohaka River
The rest of us travelled on. We were keen to go through to the hot pools at the end as one had never been there and for another of us it was 20 years ago. The river was absolutely beautiful as usual and the day was a real cracker. The sun was shining but it wasn’t too hot.
Native corokia, flowers in early spring
Along the way, we saw some lovely examples of clematis and were able to warn Teresa about the ongaonga (stinging nettle) and bush lawyer – neither of which she had seen before. There were also heaps of red admiral butterflies constantly flitting about. We stopped for a welcome break about 10.25 for 10 minutes or so and eventually arrived at Te Puia Lodge at 11.15.
On the way we had passed two trampers going out who had stayed the night before and said they had had the lodge to themselves. We had another brief stop there and carried on, arriving at the hot pools 45 minutes later.
The track en route to the hot pools
Keith immediately opened the valve to get some water in the pool. The rest of us didn’t want to have our energy drained by the hot water but Keith’s philosophy was “you can’t go to a pub and not have a beer, so why would you go to the hot pools and not have a dip?” Initially, the flow of water was cold but by the time he had finished his sandwich there was enough hot water in the pool for him to have a lovely soak.
By 1pm we decided that we had better return, as one of our group had something she had to attend at 6.30pm. Within about an hour, we started to feel the “possible showers” that had been forecast. Once we left the shelter of the bush, we decided that the showers had turned to persistent rain and stopped to put on pack covers and rain jackets. It wasn’t too heavy – just constant, so we were very pleased, when we got back to the car park at 4pm, that there was the shelter available to get changed. On the way out, we encountered a group of six trampers going in for the night.
Many thanks to the drivers – Alison and Keith. It was a great day out.
Trampers: Keith Gore, Teresa Cuthbert, Ted Angove, Alison Greer, Selina Chilton and reporter Juliet Gillick
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