Waipawa Saddle, Ruahine FP, Saturday 9 November 2024
Banner Photo: Heading up the Waipawa River
The five who made it to Waipawa Saddle
Five adventurers set off from the Sunrise Hut car park at about 8.20. The previous day had shown signs of summer with the day in Napier being hot and dry and around 29 degrees Celsius, so one might have thought with a similar forecast for the Saturday that we might expect to be melting when we reached the exposed tops on today’s trip.
Not so. A cool wind greeted us at the car park and I wondered if I had packed enough clothing.
Plan A was up to Sunrise Hut, around to Trig 66 via Armstrong Saddle and then down via Waipawa Saddle and the river, back to the car. After an uneventful walk up the main path to the Waipawa Forks Hut turn-off, it became clear that the wind was strong and likely to prevent us from passing Armstrong Saddle. A quick conference, and we decided to head down towards Waipawa Forks and then up the river to the saddle. This pleased me, as I had not been up to the saddle before.
The river was low and there was plenty of space to make our way up its true left without getting wet feet. The sky was overcast with high cloud but it was reasonably sheltered while we were still low, behind the saddle. As we got higher and the terrain grew steeper, it was surprising to look back down the valley and see how quickly we had been climbing. We rock-hopped, scrambled over some loose stone drifts and dodged in and out of sections of bush for the most part. Then just before the top, we had a steep section of scrub to traverse with plenty of leatherwood and the odd speargrass to avoid.
The view back down the Waipawa River from Waipawa Saddle
Just before the last scrub climb to the saddle, where you leave the river scree
We reached the saddle just before midday, withstood the strong wind coming over the top for a quick survey of the scenery and then dropped back down behind the ridge for lunch. It was going to be too windy to venture up to Trig 66, so the saddle was the turnaround point for the day.
We descended reasonably quickly, retracing our footsteps and then continued down-river back towards the car park. Just to rest our feet from the loose rock and river stones, a slow amble along the swamp track completed the day.
Trampers: Juliet Gillick, Sue Trotter, Campbell Living, Ali Hollington and reporter Craig Mountfort
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