By Chris Russell, Patrick Hayes, 21 December 2023
Beforehand and Friday: Chris
It was at a tacos at my place when I heard Patrick and Dugal talking about doing an SK. Note that it is common to drink a bit at a tacos so every idea becomes a bit more interesting. So I also become interested in the idea and we put it up on the calendar for the upcoming weekend. The next day Dugal realised he is busy and Patrick and I are left wondering why we signed ourselves up for an SK. So we downgrade it to a bannister crossing.
We head off after some indian at the Putara road end. It is important to note that this is probably the hottest tramp I have ever been on. At this point, the sun was setting but it was still baking hot. We had been eating some Favourites on the car ride over. I knew they wouldn't last in the heat so I put the rest in the shady crack of a tree at the roadend, hoping that they would still be solid and that we would remember them on the way out. Even walking up the first flat section of the track we were overheating. We kept spotting swimming holes from the river track and eventually gave in at the final swingbring and had a swim. It was probably the best river swim I had had because we needed it so bad. Unfortunately I went in with my shorts on which had my handkerchief in it which came out and drifted downstream. We tried to chase it for a while but had to give up.
At this point it had gotten dark but the plan was either roaring stag hut or even cattle ridge hut as this would make the bannister crossing over to dundas hut easier the next day. We arrive to roaring stag to find there was one person in the hut and they came out for a chat since we had actually given them a fright arriving late at night. We then found out she was ex vuwtc member Charlotte Long, and we talked about the mesh of club members all knew about.
We thought about going up to cattle ridge, but we also thought about how sweaty we would get and decided against it. It was also so hot that we slept on the porch outside. I also remember being woken to a rat who would not give up trying to get into my rubbish until I hung it up.
Saturday and Sunday: Patrick
We left reasonably early the next day and headed up to Cattle Ridge hut for a late breakfast and water stop, this being the last point for hydration barring a few stagnant tarns along the way. It was another incredibly hot day, with no wind and clear bluebird skies making the tops travel beautiful but pretty hard work heat-wise. Travel was straight forward until Waingawa, thereafter a few bumps along the ridge made the journey more exciting - at one point we got my 10m rope out for a photo and tied it to some tussock to see if it would hold Chris's pack (it didn't). (The TTC route guide mentioned bringing a rope on this section for comfort, and we couldn't really find a spot where it was actually needed, or useful, despite extensive searching).
We were both getting quite low on water by the time we reached Bannister peak, and started reconsidering whether we wanted to head straight for Dundas, or make the detour to Arete Hut to resupply - this was made easier by the noticeable increase in thirst as we crossed the Twins. We reached the hut via a cool sidle track just before the main range, and then discussed what to do next - the heat combined with the later-than-intended time of day didn't make another 5 hours of tops to Dundas seem super appealing. So we decided to change route completely, and turn our trip into a river bash back to Roaring Stag via Arete Forks Hut, then the Waignawa and Ruamahanga rivers.
Travel to the top of Pinnacle Spur was smooth, and luckily some high cloud had arrived reducing the intensity of the sun a bit, now we had just a 30 minute near-vertical descent down to Arete Forks to negotiate before day's end. Couldn't go too wrong from here, all we had to do was carefully step down the scree using tussock for support, and not accidentally put all our bodyweight onto one knee if we did slip "OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"
Oops.
Felt alright after a 5 minute rest, bit sore but ok to keep going, reached the bush edge, just had to not let it happen again "FUUUUUUCCCCCCC**************"
Guess we're not walking down the river tomorrow. Or well, anywhere really. Stumbled to the hut with Chris's help, decided we should probably wait until morning to push the red button. Well this sucks, but at least I've got my beer to look forward to that I'd been saving for dinner tonight.
Hmm why does my pack smell like beer...
Couldn't have anything to do with very wisely storing the can right next to the dinner ingredients...and my lighter...and my cooker...inside the pack liner and then using the pack as a seat throughout the day...Cold instant mash has never quite been as sad as it was that night.
Woke up early next day and pulled the PLB; it's a pretty weird feeling to do that first the first time ever, especially as my knee wasn't even that sore anymore and this was more a case of preventing likely inevitable further injury in a much worse location if we kept walking. The heli crew were extremely professional and caring when they arrived an hour later, and put to rest any fears of embarrassment over unnecessary activation - it's really incredible that we have such a world class rescue service in NZ that is fully funded.
Sunday continued: Chris
It was nice that we were a group of two as the helicopter can't fit that many people, with a bigger group they probably would have only taken the injured person, but since it probably isn't safe to make me go back solo, I got a ride in the helicopter too! And since the medic was assessing Patrick in the back, I got to sit in the front seat with the pilot! For whatever reason the helicopters seem to prefer flying low in the valleys and I must say it is an amazing experience flying through the Tararua valleys - mountains either side. Search and rescue are pretty chill with just dropping you off wherever you want, and since Patrick did not require urgent hospital care we just got them to drop us off at the Putara road end. I also got to put on the comms headset so I could communicate with the crew. It was very interesting hearing the pilot read out all the safety checks and the pilot lingo that I did not understand. I pointed out to the pilot Patrick's car so he knew where to land. It took them a while to find a spot to land, not because there wasn't a flat clearing but because they were trying to avoid landing too close to the cattle and scaring them.
Once we landed they directed us off in a path that is safe from the helicopter propellers and flew away. It felt so weird being back at the car, without having walked there and also so early in the morning. And then I remembered! The favourites! So I checked the crack in the tree and they were still there and they had not melted! And so we headed home. We made some calls to our parents to assure them we were fine. And then stopped by Clareville bakery for a pie since we were back early enough in the day for them to be open for once!
Written on a rainy hut day in Mungo hut. A trip with more helicopters than this one...