By Connor Sheppard, 08 January 2025
Myself & Cella did a chill day walk to Waiotauru Hut and back!
There was a little stress driving up about if the path was not blocked from the slips, or the construction at Otaki Forks did not start (which involved us calling a few former chief guides!) but fortunately the path was all clear to walk along the river. The road was really smooth and steady, which quickly turned into uneven path, elevation changes, and slip traversing! But it felt good to be back in typical Tararua terrain! The river looked super cool (and glowing green a little bit!), and we also walked past the unique historic mill, and a flat field with some small pointy plants! We were worried about timewise because we had evening commitments, but are confidence went up after the bridge because we had mostly a downhill 4WD track left, and we couldn't turn back this far in. We made it to the hut after 3.75 hours. It looked pretty average for a basic hut, except it was pretty spacious! We had lunch there and headed off.
We assumed we had enough time, but the walk back was a bit slower. I definitely need to work better on my sleep schedule. My GPS also glitched for over half the walk back, fortunately the path was clear enough back (but a reason why you should bring a map and compass on a harder trip!). But the walk back was still pretty chill. We saw a baby goat that came out to say hi! The weather became more cloudy, which was fine because we were not on the tops covered in cloud (and maybe rain)! We got back at 6:20 ish, so that impacted our evening commitments! But still a satisfying 8 hour day walk!