By Connor Sheppard, 30 January 2025
Myself, Alan, and Eder did a last-minute overnight trip before New Years! It had 2 chill walks - one in Aorangi Forest, and another in Remutakas (warning: the drive in to Tauanui was the most stressful part!)
We left Hunter Carpark and had a 90 min drive to get to Aorangi Forest. We missed the road to turn into the road end, and it wasn't until the road was narrower and less civilised that we noticed this! My car hit a big rock while turning around (yay), and we located the road to use once we got out the map. The road we turned into was brutal. Potholes, narrow, rocks, uphill & downhill, not suitable for my car I had just bought a month ago! I completely lost my faith in my car's safety 1-2 kms down it and just parked in a grassy patch next to the road (which was uneven but I will get to!). I have no idea how I managed to keep my cool throughout that road!
This meant the trip added an extra 2 hours for the return trip. But definitely not a massive consequence compared to what could have happened if we kept driving! It was a super hot day, so it was super refreshing once we got to the start of the river and just walked through it! The walk was pretty calm and simple, especially with the weather! And the 4WD marks in the mud made navigation easy. It took us 2 hours from the car to get to the hut (as expected) but fortunately we had lots of time that day! The walk back to the car was pretty similar but still pretty nice! We made it back to the car, and some guys we passed weren't confident we could get my car out and may need their help (ah Sh*t, here we go again)!
Alan stood outside to spot the car getting out of the uneven spot along the road. I tried driving forward, but that was too much elevation at once, and the left front wheel got raised off the ground. So I reversed and tried to turn, and the car got almost stuck in a ditch. Alan looked around, and he suggested moving backwards in a straight direction. And that seemed to work! The car got off the road. After many point turns, the car turned back the way we came. Driving back was less stressful because we realised if we stick to the left, rather than straight through, the car won't be scraped through the middle. We exited the road and got back onto a marked road. Feeling very lucky. My car didn't get stuck or broken. But incurred many scratches.
We stopped at a local cafe, then headed to spot on the lake near Waiorongomai station to stop, refresh, and get ready for the overnighter. I chose to swim in Lake Wairarapa because it looked slightly nicer than the description the cafe waitress gave. The context of Lake Wairarapa's nutrience does not need to be given, but I am still healthy as of writing this!
We started walking to Waiorongomai hut at about 5:15, which meant the walk felt much cooler! The path is not well marked and involves some river navigation, so we made some wrong turns, but did ok for timing! There was a steep rocky bit we had to climb up, which concerned us for the wet weather we'd likely have tomorrow, but overall the walk was not too hard. We got to the hut in just over 2 hours! Nobody was there, but Alan was still eager to tent, and Eder & I stayed in the hut. We ate dinners individually, Eder heated up some tea then we all headed to bed. Both Eder & myself struggled to sleep, even if we went to bed at about 10pm to be ready for an early start. The hot was pretty hot, and I have not managed to arrange my home sleeping habits to be healthy on a tramp!
We woke up at 6am, very dazed and tired. Luckily we could get ready quick enough. It was a little drizzly when we woke up and we left, but that's better than the storm coming in the afternoon! We were a bit slower because we were tired, and again, we went the wrong way at the start of the walk back along the river. But we managed to find our way back again. The rock slip was surprisingly pretty easy traversing down. We got back to the car at about 9:40, so pretty good all things considered! We drove to Lower Hutt and I dropped my groupmates at Lower Hutt, and I drove straight to my New Year Holiday. I have no idea how I had energy that evening after that sleep and the walk.