Thread: Looking for info on traverses of Ruahine/Kaweka/Kaimanawa

Hi all,

Trying to use this lockdown for something productive and am hoping to start planning a long walk..

Is there anyone on here who has hunted across the Kaimanawa/Kaweka or Kaweka/Ruahine in one trip?

Thinking Desert Rd to Puketitiri/Kuripapango, Poronui to Wharite or anything close to those, looking for routes followed, travel times, time of year the trip was done, just anything that might prove useful in terms of planning a trip like this.

Feel free to PM or reply here.

Thanks
Hebe

Another member posted a link to the FATMAP website recently. It's turned out to be quite useful to me for this kind of thing.

Originally Posted by MB

Another member posted a link to the FATMAP website recently. It's turned out to be quite useful to me for this kind of thing.

I don’t know FATMAP? What is it?


I have rough ideas of routes but always good to hear from people who have done things themselves.

Look up Salt and Pepper hikoi for some inspiration

@Frodo


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Watch this for some inspiration

Have planned to do Poronui/Clements Road through to Makino or Middle hut.
One day will do it with of plenty options tenting and huts.
This lady has wandered around a bit.
Writes a good yarn.
Tramping in New Zealand: Nine days in the Kaweka

I’ve done poronui out to makahu.

Ive crossed the Tararuas, Ruahines and the Kaimanawas hunting. PM me if you want.

Tararuas: Shannon to Putara
Ruahines: Purity to Waipawa
Kaimanawas: Boyds/Waipakahi/Urchin/Desert Rd

That video was neat.

All the tracks between huts are pretty good.

That salt and pepper challenge vid was epic!!

I've done Mangahao to Marchant ridge a few times, Gentle Annie to Ashurst three times and Kaweka J to Kiko road twice. But back in the day when there were plenty of huts in them thar hills. 1970's there were 65 huts in the Tararuas. Been to all except 3. Now there's only 40 or so.

Ensure your rifle is LIGHT!!! Borrow a mates if yours is a heavy weight cannon.

Did these all in the era prior to gps's. So accurate map and compass work was a life saver. Many days the vis was waffting 50-200m. And you need to stay on the tops to maintain distance covered.

If you get clagged in/blown off the tops, NEVER use a gully or valley for getting off them. They will always lead you into the most horrible crap you can imagine. Always try and stay on a spur.

Wool will stay far less honkier over a ten day trip than synthetic.

Freeze dry was only just a thing when I did these trips. It can be a god send, but is quite bulky when talking 8-10 days tucker. You should have seen the size of our packs with 9 x one man freeze dry ration packs on board

Did a MTB/armed tramp/kayak from Waiouru to Linton many moons ago. Guys swore they would never go into the hills with me ever again
May be something to do with the 12 hour days and getting down to 4 rat packs, then me tipping over a spiker on the Sawtooth and loading them back up with meat
Those freeze dry rat packs didn't have much other than energy in them. Was day 6 before any of us took a dump

My choice for time of the year would be late Spring (mid Nov to mid Dec). Nice long days. Everything is just starting to come to life, and bumping into animals will be a far more frequent occurrence.

Originally Posted by XR500

I've done Mangahao to Marchant ridge a few times, Gentle Annie to Ashurst three times and Kaweka J to Kiko road twice. But back in the day when there were plenty of huts in them thar hills. 1970's there were 65 huts in the Tararuas. Been to all except 3. Now there's only 40 or so.

Ensure your rifle is LIGHT!!! Borrow a mates if yours is a heavy weight cannon.

Did these all in the era prior to gps's. So accurate map and compass work was a life saver. Many days the vis was waffting 50-200m. And you need to stay on the tops to maintain distance covered.

If you get clagged in/blown off the tops, NEVER use a gully or valley for getting off them. They will always lead you into the most horrible crap you can imagine. Always try and stay on a spur.

Wool will stay far less honkier over a ten day trip than synthetic.

Freeze dry was only just a thing when I did these trips. It can be a god send, but is quite bulky when talking 8-10 days tucker. You should have seen the size of our packs with 9 x one man freeze dry ration packs on board

Did a MTB/armed tramp/kayak from Waiouru to Linton many moons ago. Guys swore they would never go into the hills with me ever again
May be something to do with the 12 hour days and getting down to 4 rat packs, then me tipping over a spiker on the Sawtooth and loading them back up with meat
Those freeze dry rat packs didn't have much other than energy in them. Was day 6 before any of us took a dump

My choice for time of the year would be late Spring (mid Nov to mid Dec). Nice long days. Everything is just starting to come to life, and bumping into animals will be a far more frequent occurrence.

On the Gentle Annie to Ashhurst trips , did you stick to the main range and down the Pohangina?

Yes. In those days it was relatively easy to gain permission to walk the 4x4 track from the roadend to Ruahine corner hut. Unsure what its like now... Possibly get flown to the airstrip there (or choppered??). Po base still existed then, so just swapped packs for kayaks there and paddled from there.
Well not exactly paddled. Not much water that time, and spent an awful lot of time in wetsuit booties hauling the kayak down the trickle that passed for the Pohangina river