By Jack Huygens, 25 April 2024
Trampers: Jack, Toby, Timoty, Ocean
4 days in the rugged northern valleys and ridges of the Tararuas! My favourite kind of tramping.
For Bag-All-The-Huts, our loop goal was to visit Blue Range, Cow Creek, Arete Forks, Carkeek, Dorset ridge, Tarn ridge, and maybe even Mid-king biv and Mitre Flats. But things don't always quite go to plan, especially when typical Tararua gale-force winds get involved.
Arete Forks bound
Our first day involved crossing over Blue Range and heading into Arete Forks via the infamous Arete Forks sidle track (It's all been cut recently so it wasn't even that bad!). The wind was already throwing us around on the top of Blue Range (below the bushline even) which was a sign of what was to come.
We arrived at Arete Forks after dark, where a welcoming classic orange forest service hut greeted us. Even though the nearby Carkeek hut is known as the most remote hut in the Tararuas, i believe Arete Forks captures the feeling better, since it's deep down the valleys with no "easy" way out in any direction. It's a beautiful reliable shelter tucked away in such a remote corner.
Once at the hut, we got comfortable for the night, with wind howling and rain getting heavier and heavier. With the door blowing open several times in the night, and the sounds of the river getting larger (foreshadowing!) it wasn't the easiest night of sleep.
To Pinnacle spur and back
As morning comes, we find the obvious: the river is much bigger than it should be.
The rain has eased off though, so it's just a matter of waiting a bit for the river flow to drop, which only takes about an hour luckily. After an extended morning at the hut we head off for the second time to actually cross the river, via linked-arms and a big bush-bash to re-connect with the track, since we crossed much further upstream in a safer spot.
Arete Forks is full of extremes, including the "steepest track in the Tararuas" which sounds about right. The track up to Pinnacle Spur is so steep at times it's basically just looping over itself up a root-filled slip face. But things get much more exciting once we reach the open tops!
Up on Pinnacle Spur we meet the full force of the wind. Anyone who's experienced gale winds in the Tararuas will be familiar with the feeling of being tossed off your feet by a single gust, and we got thrown around quite a few times (including my glasses being tossed off my head into the grass). We pushed on for a while, but eventually decided that if it was this crazy on the "easy" part of the ridge, we were never going to be able to do the steeper section of Pinnacle Ridge coming up next, hence the name.
We unanimously decided to turn back and head to Arete Forks for a second night, and we were all quite glad to be back on stable ground. Arete Forks has become our home-base for 2 nights in a row, and I'm getting quite attached to the little orange hut.
Sunny ridgelines from here on out!
Accepting the fact that we weren't able to get Carkeek hut, we instead opted to grab as many of the others as we could. The weather is now ABSOLUTELY CRACKER as we head up an unmarked spur to Table ridge, and then along the open tops to Tarn Ridge hut. The going is so easy that we even do a side trip to go grab Dorset Ridge hut too.
All of our wild rainy & windy travel is rewarded with perfectly calm, sunny and warm ridgelines from here on out.
We spend the night at Tarn Ridge hut, and then head out via another unmarked spur down from Table Ridge to Cow Creek, and back home via Blue Range again.
Despite the lovely weather, it was the first 2 days of classic rough tramping that I loved the most about this trip. Places like Arete Forks really deliver on the vibe of the backcountry remote experience, and dealing with things like flooded rivers and gale-force exposed ridgelines is what it's all about, the clear sunny days are just a bonus!
