By Jackson Brown, 04 November 2022
Sometimes things don't go quite to plan, and that's okay.
We started off leaving the carpark a bit late after waiting for someone who forgot to pike off the trip last minute, and made our way up good ol' state highway 2 to the Ruahines. The goal, Howletts Hut, the iconic tramping club mascott, and arguably one of the most aesthetic huts out there (or at least one of the most aesthetic huts within easy weekend driving distance).
The weather forecast wasn't great, but hey, what's a bit of wind between friends (or complete strangers at this point)? Turns out, a bit of wind can actually be a bit of a pain - especially in the dark. We got about 2/3 of the way up to longview hut, where we planned to stay the first night, before some of the 'lighter' trampers started getting lifted completely off their feet. I made the call to head back down the hill after being slowed down to almost crawling on our bellies across the ridgeline, and we spent a lovely night in my car sleeping upright - every trampers dream. The wind had actually gotten so bad by that point that it took twice as long to descend back down to the car as it did to get up as far as we did.
The next morning we woke up feeling pretty av, but not to be deterred we headed down to the carpark about 10 minutes down the road and changed our sights for the Daphne route to get to Howletts, as the wind was still waaay to gnar to do the tops. After a slog up and down the hill to the Tukituki valley we got to experience my first Ruahine river walking, and it was pretty deluxe. Once again, some of the 'lighter' trampers didn't quite enjoy the knee to thigh high water as much as I did at points, but we all got to Daphne in one piece. Once at Daphne I could see the group was feeling a bit worse for wear after the last night's attempt for the ridge, so we decided maybe it was best to table the Howletts experience for another time and with better conditions. Later on in the afternoon another person arrived at the hut who had managed to make it to longview the night before when the wind wasn't quite as bad, but had to come all the way back down again because the wind made the tops route completely hopeless, so even had we made it that first night we would have been no better off than where we were right then - there was a small victory in that at least.
The next day it was a relatively short walk back out - the river had risen slightly much to the delight of my tramping compatriats, but we made it out fine nonetheless. On the ride out we got to experience one of my favourite tramping club pastimes: how many songs on the legendary kiwi classics spotify playlist does the international student know? We mostly struck out on this trip, with Grace really only knowing 'So True', 'How Bizarre', and 'Always On My Mind' - get educated rest of the world.
All in all, it was a pretty decent trip. I had a good time, I like to think everyone had a good time (it was Justin's first proper tramp with the club and he seems to not have run off screaming, despite being lifted off his feet by wind, so that's a good sign). 5/7, would recommend.