By Chris Russell, 26 April 2024
Bag all the huts was one of the club events I have been the most excited for because I love hut bagging and doing the entire Tararuas collectively as a club is such a cool idea. I was happy to tramp wherever I could be the most useful and Jack allocated me the Alpha Winchcombe loop as a 3 day trip. This definitely wasn’t my preference as I had bagged everything but Winchcombe biv, however everything else was better suited to other people for various reasons. But I had an idea, what if I stayed at Elder hut and did it as an overnighter which would make each day suitably challenging and I hadn’t been to Elder! The only other condition with this is that I would need to do it solo because of the longer days and all the other fast trampers were already leading trips, Jack was happy with that.
And so Friday morning I drove to the Waiohine gorge road end in my car alone which is a weird vibe, it was also quite overcast. The first 3 huts Cone, Tutuwai, and Alpha went by in a flash as they are all quite close together and I took silly selfies at each one as you should! At Alpha hut I met a group of teenage boys who were staying the night there but they seemed a bit surprised that I was only having a snack break there and continuing as it was quite late in the day already. The tops were extremely windy as forecast but not strong enough to be dangerous so I pushed through. Because of a break in the clouds I was greeted by an awesome sunset on Aston peak. I descended down the Renata ridge into goblin forest. I was not sure if I would get there before dark and it turned out I only put on the head torch for the last 5 minutes. Elder was in a beautiful spot in the small clearing. In the hut book I left a note for the Renata - Kapakapanui group to find (turns out they didn’t even read it in the end). I also remember thinking about how weird it was that a large portion of the club were in the range this weekend but because the range is so large and because we are all on our independent loops, I probably wouldn’t bump into any of them! I also saw in the hut book an entry by ‘Kelly Davenport’ who I wondered if they were related to Teresa Davenport, a past VUWTC member.
Saturday I woke up quite cold as Elder doesn’t seem to be very well insulated. The cold also has this amazing ability to demotivate me, plus the fact that this was a solo tramp and I find motivation harder without other people, maybe it’s because there’s no one to let down if you cancel plans, or the pressure to start packing when everyone else does. I was trying to think of every excuse to just lie there for hours, but I couldn’t think of a good one, and huts needed to be bagged so I managed to leave the hut. And with the now blue skies, a caffeine pill and some good tunes I flipped to being pumped and optimistic! I reached Mt Hector and it was still extremely windy, despite that I was impressed to see how much traffic the Southern Crossing had. I had some nice chats with people and I met two people who were running it in a day too which is cool to see! I headed down to Winchcombe biv and was even more surprised to meet two groups of people there, since this is a less popular place to go. While having my lunch break I got talking to two girls there who were actually just running my loop (minus the elder detour) in a day! We somehow got talking about Ruahine tramps and she was talking about how her sister did this one to Triangle hut and that they crammed like 18 people in the 6 bunk hut. But the more details she gave the more it sounded familiar to me, she mentioned it was an AUTC tramp, and this it clicked that I was on that trip because it was the VUWTC x AUTC Ruahine easter tramp and that her sister was Teresa! So it turns out I was talking to Kelly from the hut book entry from last night! I left Winchcombe and immediately started heading down a false spur but caught on quickly and got back on the Neil ridge. Originally I had considered making a detour to Neil Forks hut for an extra bag but considering I was already not sure if I would get back before dark I decided against that. It ended up getting dark at Cone saddle but it was all well formed tracks from here anyway. Blasting the music into the night was also a vibe. I did lose my roll mat on the track though, but luckily Kelly found it and got it back to me after! After a 10 hour day I made it to my car and I was very keen on some greasy food so I ended the day with some Masterton KFC.
However this is not the end of the trip, since it was only Saturday I could drive somewhere else and do another day trip and bag more huts! The other reason Jack was keen on my changes to the initial route and doing it solo is because Mid King biv was a very tricky one to include on the existing loops, and that can be done as a day trip if you use the unmarked track up the direct spur. I also hadn’t bagged mid king before either. So I parked on the Masterton side roads and slept in my car for the night. Though I didn’t get the best sleep because I forgot about how roads tend to be angled on the side so I was pushed to one side of the car, as well as the street lights would shine in my eyes so I had to find ways to block it out. In hindsight I should have slept at The Pines road end instead. Again I struggled with motivation because I was tired, but I had a V and the drive woke me up. I passed by many groups that had done a Saturday overnighter to Mitre Flats, apparently the hut was full. A lot of them seemed surprised I was going to mid king and back as a day trip. I failed to follow the markers up south mitre stream but just following the stream was fine. I was surprised to find that the middle king spur had a decent track and it was very pleasant. Mid king biv was damp and moldy as I had heard from others that had been there. I also met some trampers there who had come down from Middle King and it turns out they had met Jack’s group at Dorset Ridge hut and that they couldn’t get to Carkeek because of the wind. I actually considered going to Carkeek after that so we could still reach our goal. I didn’t know that mcgregor also didn’t get bagged but by chance that may have been the route I chose to get there. Unfortunately I had only packed for a day trip and I also had an appointment on Monday morning so I just went back to the car and drove home as planned. Still felt very accomplished though, bagged 7 huts, did solid 9-10 hr days and from my Strava apparently I did 71 km and 5 km elevation gain!