Roaring Stag Hut

I was planning to go on a major tramp in the Tararuas over Xmas, but for a number of reasons ended up scaling the trip back to just two days, with the intention being to stay the night at Cattle Ridge Hut and then walk back out the next day.

The track to this hut starts from the Putara Roadend (see my Herepai Hut entry) where it heads up along a ridge before dropping down to Roaring Stag Hut. From here the track crosses a river then ascends very steeply up to Cattle Ridge, which is situated someway above the tree line.

In the end I ended up staying the night at Roaring Stag Hut (very nice). About halfway up the main climb to Cattle Ridge I encountered a sizeable slip, which made it difficult to pick up the track. With a small amount of effort and navigation I would have picked up the route again, but this coupled with 100kmhr winds above the treeline, meant a decision to head back down again.

Looking at the swingbridge which leads over the river and up a steep climb to Cattle Ridge Hut.

Roaring Stag Hut.

Xmas - Trial by Water

The weather in the in the weeks running up to Xmas, according to the Metservice anyway, was the best NZ had experienced in about 50years. Unfortunately this fine spell ended with the arrival of a subtropical depression bringing heavy rain and, as usual, coincided with our annual Xmas camping trip. In between the rain we did manage to take a few photo’s as you can see here.

We were away for a week and stayed at Waitomo, Auckland and Rotorua. As with last year we used Waitomo as a base to explore the local countryside. The highlight of this particular leg of the journey was a day at the Beach in the quaint little coastal town of Kawhia. It was a splendid warm day there and we would have loved to have a swim in the sea, but the un-patrolled beach and dangerous rips meant that paddling was the way to go.

We also visited the Pureora Forest Park where we did a short bush walk, which culminated in climbing a 12m observation tower, which allowed us views of the rather lovely forest canopy.

I can’t say the Auckland or Rotorua legs of the journey were up to much on a number of levels, hence the lack of pictures.

Hopefully the tent will be dried out by next Xmas, though, money permitting, we may head of overseas with Argentina or Vietnam being the favoured options.