By Lewis Thomson, 12 April 2023
The plan for this trip: 'Something in the Tararua's'. The trip leaders: Tommy, Lewis, Ira.
Nobody else signed up. Whether this was because our trip intention wasn't specific enough (unlikely) or we were too cool (much more likely) we'll never know. But it's besides the point, this is the story of something in the tararuas.
We left Wellington on a grey wellington afternoon, we realised we should probably choose where exactly in the Tararua's we wanted to go. So it was that Mitre Flats was chosen and a long, rooty walk in the dark followed, but we tamed a few horses along the way.
At the hut we met with a group of real hunters. After a long day of hunting they were on the piss, and some attempts at friendly conversation deterioated and we were soon met with various accusations of being vegan greenie masochistic ultra marathon runners.
Naturally the question did arise, that if they were 'real hunters' why had they had helicoptered in? The response was something about them walking this track hundreds of times. But suffice to say, we weren't too bothered leaving the hut early the next morning.
So up to Mitre we went. Making it to the highest peak in the Tararua's we were rewarded with some great views (pictured below). After that the ridge got quite narrow and exciting, Ira was so inspired he name it Gargamel ridge, becasue 'the ridge makes us feel small like Gargamel makes the smurfs feel small'. A poetic moment.
Lunch was properly miserable as it started to rain, and we hurried along the rest of the way down to mid king palace. The bash down through the leatherwood was apparently long and miserable, but I honstly do not remember.
Mid King palace... how to describe it. Maybe it's the large patches of mold, the constant dripping on the roof, or the platform that means you can only fit two people, but there's something intangibly special about this place. It was a cosy night, we had the best tramping meal ever, that I'll never be able to recreate as it had the most random collection of ingredients. Ira read us a bed time story and we all got the heebeejeebees (well maybe just me).
The next day we said farewell to Ira, the brave boy made his own way down to the car and drove off. Leaving Tommy and I completely starnded. We went all the way up the mountain (To south king), then all the way down the mountain (it was cold and windy) the all the way back up the mountain again (to the warmth and comfort) Jumbo hut. Well the idea was warmth and comfort but turns out the fire was buggered and even tommy thomson himself couldn't get it to go.
The next day was once again cole and windy, our clothes were all soaked, and so instead of a night at mid waiohine we bailed to totara flats. The walk down high ridge was awesome though; goblin forest!!!
Totara flats felt like a return to civilization, with plenty of people and wilderness magazines. Although we hadn't booked spots so while I found a spare bunk Tommy was on the floor (sorry Tommy).
The final day: Blue skies! We admired the view of hector from the northern side and got to the road end in good time. The adventure wasn't over however, as we still had a long walk down the road, a dash across some private land, and carrying our bikes over a river.