Hiking to Makahu Saddle Hut

 

Hiking to Makahu Saddle Hut

The Tuesday night before, I was persuaded to go on this trip. There were five of us in our group and after the usual stuffing about at the Hunter Carpark we were off.  The drive up was long but made more eventful by the lightening and strong wind.  The final destination was Makahu Saddle Hut; about 1 hour’s drive in from Taradale. The hut has only four bunks but it has enough floor space for four more.

Saturday morning started with an awesome dawn as we ran up the hill behind the toilet. It was my first proper view of the Kaweka’s since every other time I’ve been looking at them it has either been misty or dark. Wandered up the hill toward Kaweka, Eric was busy trying to work out where he went wrong during the last Kaweka Challenge; I was busy trying to stay on my feet on some slippery sections.

At about the same time as we entered the mist just above Dominie biv we hit the first of the snow. We were all very excited and the mist didn’t stay long on the tops because it was cold but as we continued down the western side of the main range it warmed up again. It was a bit difficult to find the track to Back Ridge Hut and we kept walking down the ridge until we came to the other linking track. The hut is a little way off the ridge beside a small stream near the bushline. It seemed quite South Island-ish because the stream is very quiet and gurgley at this point like some high country streams get. The ridge bumps along a bit and one hour later we were at the turn off. We dropped off the ridge to visit Back Ridge Biv; noting as we did so that again we had missed an earlier turn off and gone the long way round. The biv is standard orange forest service but has a built in entertainment system in the form of the toilet: a great source of amusement for some. Soon we were off again for the decent to Rocks Ahead Hut. The boys ran off (literally) so Jo and I ambled and enjoyed the ambience of the forest. When we arrived at the hut the billy had just boiled and the boys were looking just a little shattered. The final leg of the day was the haul back up the ridge again to Venison Tops. It began quite interestingly with a three-wire bridge but soon turned into plain simple uphill slog. When we reached the Tops it was just about dark, couldn’t be bothered stopping for torches so we strode off through the sub alpine in the cold. Tira Lodge was welcoming; four plant people and one Labrador already in residence.

Sunday was cold to start, spitting gently; we were holding out for snow but the forecast kept on delaying it. It was a nice easy start to the day, down and then along a rather pretty bush covered ridge. Dave mentioned that he’d like to linger here. I mentioned I knew a song about lingering. I warned him it was bad, but it was to no avail. The song was forced out of me and it haunted us for the rest of the trip. As we arrived at the turn off to Ballard Hut we saw the group we had left at Makahu Saddle in the distance but decided on another early lunch at the hut. Some fun scree jumping on the way down and a very groovy waterfall on our right. Of course if one were running down the hill one probably wouldn’t have noticed such detail. After munchies we were on our way again and wombling around past Whetu to Makino Hut, a certain tune following us. I don’t think everyone in our group appreciated the song. The tops were a little chilly but no snow, Makino Hut was warm. We had our second lunch and lingered a while but were gone at 3.30PM sharp. We popped into Te Puia Lodge on our way to the Hot Springs and stayed awhile; we did try and move camp but Tim, well he just wasn’t keen. We did make it to the hot springs a little later for a few hours soaking and then trundled back to the lodge for sleep.

Monday was a long day. Some pit time to start before the long walk out. It was kind of sunny at times and the river was impressive with some extra water in it. We sat at the road end for a while as the other groups arrived and then waited for the van to come and take us away. Only it didn’t, Phil’s group were unable to make it over the tops due to Sunday night snow and so came out at our road end. Graham, Eric and I drove off on a dual-purpose mission to not only retrieve the van but to also discover petrol. We completed both tasks in a record time of 4 hours return. So the final drive back to Wellington began at 7PM and we arrived back at about 2AM.