By Zita Keller, 25 April 2024
Our little part of the Bag-All-the-Huts extravaganza - a trip to Penn Creek. We pulled up at the carpark and Tommy sped off for his own solo mission to Waitewaewae and beyond. Vic, Connor, Sofie and I followed behind, starting with a ~50 minute walk along the former road and over the slip (which was totally fine - quite nice really, there are steps over the slip now). We got to the "road-end", crossed the bridge and made our way to Parawai Lodge at 11:45 - our first hut!
The track to Field Hut was harder, although there was a beautiful view of the river. I needed a few breaks to get through the first section. We climbed up and up, eventually entering the trees. The rest of the walk was fairly uneventful but nice - lovely bush, good track, many fantastic mushrooms, caves, and crannies that looked inviting (or not, depending on your thoughts on dampness and critters), and lunch at 2pm after we got too hungry to wait for Field Hut. We got to Field Hut around 2:50pm, which is now red.
Then the climb to the Tabletops. As we climbed we entered the clouds and the wind picked up. Mist cloaked the slopes below us and for all we knew the mountain had become untethered from the ground. The tops were windy but not the gales we'd been expecting. We were lost in an island of tussock, floating on a sea of mist. A little white daisy greeted us.
The turn-off to Penn Creek! A sign warned us not to go that way, but some helpful person had written in sharpie that the threatened slips were after the hut, and the track down to it was fine, although steep. We soon experienced this for ourselves, and could add muddy and a little overgrown. There were often beautiful little white flowers beside the track. Once we'd dropped below the bushline, there were also lovely red flowers which I think were rata. The track continued to be steep in many places. Several large trees have fallen over the track, so it might be worth going in with a chainsaw to do some tidying up. Although maybe the wild factor is exciting? Anyway, we continued to descend for hours (literal hours, and it felt like it too). I thought we were surely underground by now.
Finally, after several false alarms where I thought I could hear a river, we reached it. Unfortunately, now it was time to get wet feet as we zig zagged back and forth across the river bed. It was dark now and I hoped we hadn't missed the hut. Almost by accident, I saw the orange arrow pointing up the left bank (thank you, whoever put reflective tape on it!!). A short walk and Vic exclaimed "a toilet!" We'd found the hut!
Penn Creek is now NZFS-orange and seems to be a hunters' hut - there's a meat safe outside and the hut is full of hunting magazines. It has three slightly rickety-looking metal bunk beds (six beds total) and the top ones are very close to cross beams, so I hit my head once or twice. Generally a cute hut that looks well looked-after and cosy. After a dinner of couscous, we slept fitfully as it rained hard all night.
The next morning we decided to keep away from the river, which was now high, yellow and fast-flowing. A DOC sign points upwards to the 'Tabletops track' (or something like that), but it was hard to find this track at first. Once we'd found it, it was easy going to the spot where we'd met the river the day before. We'd missed the track to the hut then, which climbs away from the river and is very close to the end of the track from the tops. The beginning of the track to the hut may benefit from a big orange triangle.
After that, there was no place to go but up. The tops (once we'd reached them) were slightly windier and mistier than the day before (contrary to the weather forecast).
Field Hut meant lunch at around 1:30. After that, there was no place to go but down! We entertained ourselves with many rounds of twenty questions, leading to musings such as "Is Bob the Builder bald?" A headfirst tumble from Connor thankfully resulted in no injuries, and the trip down was otherwise uneventful. A nice sunset on the drive home completed a great trip. I think we were the first ones out - hopefully the others can bag the rest!