Trip intentions

Come along on an easy tramp to some hot pools over the Matariki long weekend! This is a beginner friendly trip, so even if you've never tramped before, feel free to sign up! We're only taking 3 cars as we don't want to over crowd the pools. Trip cost is TBC but will likely be somewhere between $50-$80 to cover fuel and group food costs. 

Friday: Leave Wellington by mid-morning and make the 5hr trek up to Hawke's Bay. We'll arrive at the Mangatutu campsite by dark, in time to set up the tents, cook some dinner and jump into the hot pools around sunset. There's no walking on this day!

Saturday: Walk 2-3 hours to Te Puia Hut in the morning. Drop our bags, eat some lunch, and then walk another 45min to the Mangatainoka hot pools where we can hang out for the afternoon and evening. Alternatively, we could choose to camp next to the hot pools at the Mangatainoka campsite. 

Sunday: Walk the 3-4hrs back to the roadend in the morning. If we have time, we can jump in the Mangatutu hot pools again before we leave. Drive back to Wellington in the afternoon, likely arriving home around dinner time!

The Mangatutu hot pools. 

If you for some reason have 4-5 days free to go do a spontanious bash to Ruahine Corner then come along!

The plan is to walk in to Ruahine Corner hut (2 days) then spend a day mucking around the big limestone plateu up there and search for caves + just look at cool limestone cliffs and formations.
I've managed to get confirmation that there's a least one real cave up there for us to go explore, but I'm hoping to scout for some new entrances in some interesting terrain.

This will NOT involve any ropework or serious caving, just what we can achieve on foot. You can certainly come along and just not take part in the caving stuff too if you prefer.

We will then walk out over another 2 days, making 5 days in total. But depending on how we feel we might compress that info 4 days.

Good fitness is required, as these will be long hard days on porentially pretty old tracks.
The dates are also very flexible, we will move it around to get good weather, but this trip should be sometime in the next couple of months.

This whole plateu is full of interesting limestone formations and sinkholes. Perfect for searching for caves!
In fact thanks to modern LIDAR hieght data, you can pretty much see exactly where to look! 

This is very flexible, but here's the rough route:

(more specific details coming later)

First big North Island snow dump of the year and I want to be in it! Apprently it hits the Ruahines a bit harder, as well as they are higher so should be very snowy! Definitely a MH-H tramp as we want to get to Mangaweka peak which has no good public access nearby, Tommy is only avaliable until Tuesday night and we dont' particularly want to be tramping during the storm itself.

I bring car and we can do a supermarket shop on the way.

We either do it as an overnighter getting up real early on Monday

Or do the driving on Sunday and go up to Rangiwahia hut so that we have the full day of daylight Monday and Tuesday

ya let's do it I am excited

Come along on a medium overnighter in the Tararuas! On this trip we’ll be driving out to Waiohine Gorge carpark early Friday morning (around 8 or 9am, TBC), approx. a 1.5 hr drive. Then we’ll be walking to Tutuwai hut from there to stay the night. It’s around a 4 hour walk and we can stop at Cone hut for lunch or a break. The next day we’ll walk back the same way we came, and then drive back to Welly that afternoon/evening. At the moment the trip will be limited to 5 as that’s all the space in the car, but if that fills up and anyone else wants to bring another car we can potentially have more people. Tutuwai hut has 20 bunks so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Bring: 

• Enough food for the 2 days (breakfast, 2 lunches, a dinner, and snacks) + gas cooker if you need it
• tea + cup (if you want)
• Plenty of warm clothing/layers plus spares, it could be cold!
• Beanie and gloves if you want
• Rain jacket
• Sleeping bag
• Headtorch
• Plenty of water
• Toilet paper
• Other personal items like toiletries etc.

Cost:

• 1 blue hut ticket ($10, can be bought at outdoor shops), or free with annual hut pass if you have it. I also have a few spare hut tickets for anyone who can’t get one :)
• Possibly $5 each for fuel