Nostalgia in the Ruahine Range

 Overview: an overnight tramp up to the ever-popular Sunrise Hut on the eastern side of the Ruahine Forest Park, retracing the steps of my first overnight tramp way back in 2005. 23rd-24th August 2026.

I'd been to Sunrise Hut three times before this current trip: first in 2005 with Scouts as a 10 year old, not much bigger than the pack I was carrying; again with Scouts in 2008; and lastly in 2010 with a Duke of Edinburgh group in college. I've considered on several occasions that this tramp trilogy were the formative experiences that created the nascent love of tramping that developed over the following years. Certainly, the latter of those three trips in particular seemed to make a lasting impression at an age that I seemed to be able to properly appreciate the experience.

So with that exposition espoused, it shouldn't be surprising that Sunrise Hut has pretty much always been on my go-back-to-someday list. And now, some 16 years since the last visit, I was finally on my way back.

North Block Road, from which the track starts, turns into a glorified farm track several kilometres from the parking area. Three gates must be opened (and closed) along the way. Sheep disperse in a panic as my car crunches over the gravel. I contemplate my very different experience of accessing the Ruahines - mostly sealed roads followed by a short but tedious section of gravel farm track over private land with many gates - to the Tararuas - long stretches of winding and often narrow gravel roads that go on seemingly forever, often through landslide-prone gorges. Kind of interesting, at least to me.

The track itself begins from a gravelled parking are with a toilet and information sign. Private farmland is crossed for a short distance until the Forest Park proper is reached, sheep watch me warily while lambs bleat and hop around showing me no interest. A few minutes after entering the park, two signposted junctions pass in quick succession, diverting off to the Swamp Track loop and Triple X Hut respectively. I continue straight on the Sunrise Track, which is well graded and formed. Shortly a junction with the other end of the Swamp Track is reached, about 1 km from the start. From here, the track begins the constant ascent to the hut.

The track zig-zags up the end of steep spur, typical of the Ruahine Range. The switchbacks ease the grade considerably. In fact, when the the NZFS built (or rather, re-built) this track in the 80s, the vast improvement over the old track alignment (which blasted more or less straight up the spur) dramatically increased the popularity of the then much smaller hut. It is never steep, is well benched, well formed, and relatively wide. Curious round holes in the ground dot the track at semi-regular intervals. I imagine these are related to the construction of the track - maybe rocky soil was dug out and used to create the level track surface? Either that, or they're the nests of some hitherto unknown bush beast/s (a la Beryl of the Roaring Stag Hut area).

Mysterious

After about 2.5 kilometres, the track levels out somewhat and sidles along the ridge before reaching a junction where a track down to the Waipawa River and Waipawa Forks Hut diverges. A memorial bench seat provides a good place to take a break, if you're so inclined. I continue on. The gradient almost immediately steepens from this point as the ascent resumes in earnest. More switchbacks await, followed by straighter section along a shallower section of spur.

 

Soon enough there's a final push, involving yet more zigging and zagging to gain the remaining 300-ish metres of altitude to reach the hut. From about ~1100 m, the forest changes abruptly to the wind-shaped stunted mountain beach that heralds the high altitude and impending bushline.

The track swings around  almost directly below the but (not that you'd know it without checking a GPS) in a way that made me lose all sense of direction, before eventually emerging above the treeline into a small tussock basin and approaching the hut from the north.

 

I'd reached the hut after a hair under 2.5 hours, a far cry from the roughly 5 hours I seem to remember that first Scouts tramp back in 2005 taking. 
Out of the trees, the icy wind howled and tore across the mountain tops. It had been raining on and off for most of the walk, and continued to do so while I cut kindling and shuttled arm-loads of firewood from woodshed to hut. Chores done, fire lit, and warm, dry clothes donned I sat down with a hot drink and a copy of the latest Wilderness magazine. I ventured outside to take some photos once the rain had well and truly quit for the day and just about got blown back down to the hut from a nearby outcrop that offers excellent views. The wind scuppered my plans to head beyond the hut to nearby Armstrong Saddle, so I retreated back to the hut.

 

 

Once the sun was setting I felt pretty sure that I had the hut to myself so dragged a mattress out in front of the fire and settled in for a cosy evening, well insulated from the wind raging outside. In the darkness, the lights of Waipukurau and Waipawa can be seen far below.

The next morning brought a sunrise, the likes of which the hut is famous (and indeed named) for.

The wind had not abated, and given that meant I could barely stand upright at the start of the exposed ridgeline track to Armstrong Saddle, I once again abandoned plans for a brief side trip in the name of not being blown down a sheer mountainside. I was disappointed, the walk over to the saddle had been a highlight of past tramps here, but erring on the side of caution - especially when tramping solo - is always the better choice.

Despite the early wake-up, it was still a sedate morning, sipping coffee in the morning sun streaming in the hut window.

Despite still being windy as hell on the tops, the sun was out and it was beauty of a day for tramping. And of course, being all down hill (but crucially not the steep, knee-crunching kind) it was an easy stroll. I remember there being at least a couple of information panels along the track on previous visits - one by a native mistletoe and another at the site of the old Shut-Eye Shack (an area I had though was called buttercup hollow, which I learned on this trip is actually the name of the site of Sunrise Hut, courtesy of an information panel in the hut). These signs are gone now, which is a shame but I guess after this long they were probably illegible and due for replacement, which I hope happens.

 

After a cheery 1 hr 40 I was at the turn off to Triplex hut so I decided to check in for a visit. I found the hut with a brand new verandah and an extension to the central common area to enclose the old porch and create internal access to the bunkrooms (which used to be accessed through exterior doors on the old porch). Looked like the hut is being repainted as well, should be pretty nice once it's done. 

 A quick 10 minute walk and I was back at the parking area, feeling suitably nostalgic and already thinking I need to come back again - a bit sooner than 16 years this time though.

 Map:

Elevation Profile:

Times and Distances:

Inbound:
Carpark to Triple X turn-off: 670 m, 12 min; to Swamp Track: 1.04 km, 18 min; to Waipawa Forks track junction: 3.21 km, 1 hr 7 min. Waipawa Forks junction to Sunrise Hut: 3.02 km, 1 hr 21 min.
Total: 6.23 km, 2 hr 28 min.

Outbound:
Sunrise Hut to Waipawa Forks track junction: 3.02 km, 55 min. Waipawa Forks Junction to Triple X Hut: 2.68 km, 48 mins. Triple X Hut to Carpark: 0.81 km, 11 min (+ 5 mins looking around the hut).
Total: 6.51 km, 1 hr 59 min. 

Rangiwahia Hut

Overview: a quick tramp in to one of Ruahine Forest Park's most popular huts for a night on the snowy open tops. 25th-26th July 2026.

The sky was grey, the air misty, and sporadically heavy rain was falling as I trundled may way along the road of rural Rangitikei. Turning on to the gravel of Renfrew Road, the thick cloud obscured any view of the Ruahine Range. 
A couple of gates block the last section of the access road where it crossed farm land - leaved them as you find them (i.e., closed).
The carpark sits at an altitude just over 800 m - a pleasing fact considering that the hut is sited at a grand 1310 m, leaving an accessible climb of around 500 m spread out kindly over the 4.3 km track. For comparison, the tramp to Powell Hut involves an elevation gain of ~900 m. Even Herepai Hut requires an almost 500 m gain to reach the modest final altitude of 800 m.

The track starts climbing immediately, albeit gently. It's well graded and well maintained. A short distance in, the Deadmans Track branches off for a steep march directly up the ridge. I remain on the Rangiwahia Track, which winds sedately along the hillside, gradually gaining altitude. Switchbacks ease the gradient. At times I found the track reminiscent of the 5-mile loop track in the Remutaka Forest Park's Catchpool Valley area.

 

Above 1000 m there were occasional patches of snow, sleet began to mix with the rain, the forest became more stunted and shaped by the prevailing winds. The skeletons of dead pāhautea/mountain cedar loom in the mist. Gaps in the forest give glimpses of a steep neighbouring ridge, scarred by slips. In places, the forest is dominated by the distinctive horopito tree - the landscape here is prone to landslides, which take out much of the shallowly rooted red beech that make up much of the forest. Horopito readily repopulates such areas before any other species, so these patches of horopito-dominated forest tell a story of movement of the land in days gone by.

The track gets close to 1100 m, and diverts steeply over the top of an unstable slip before descending to a dramatic bridge over a gorge of an unnamed tributary of the Mangawharariki River. This bridge is a highlight of the track - an almost delicate-looking wooden arch spanning a gap between a pair of rocky promontories that form a natural gateway, towering over the river far below.

After the bridge and a brief section of incongruous concrete path, the climb begins again with a series of stairs made of timber, gravel, concrete and natural slabs of rock. As I wend my way further up the hillside, the trees eventually thin and transition to tussock and alpine scrub. At times the track is cut deeply into the hill and the scrub branching overhead provides welcome shelter. The rain was now falling as snow, and where previously the exertion of the tramp kept the chill at bay, I was now starting to feel it.

A small waterfall is passed about 300 m from the hut, but the first sign I was almost there was the sight of what I would later find out was the woodshed appearing on the horizon. Shortly afterward the hut came into view, and there was much rejoicing. 

I could not, however, immediately relax. First I had to make several trips in the increasing voluminous snow to the oddly distant woodshed, which included unearthing the axe from under to snow in order to chop kindling while gradually losing feeling in the gloved fingers. Soon enough though, I was in the hut, firewood piled up and the fire started, drying off and changing into warm, dry clothes while some water was on the boil for a hot drink.
Rangiwahia is a bookable hut, and last I checked it was fully booked. I was the first to arrive and was alone for about an hour before a grand total of three other people arrived - a far cry from the full hut I had expected, but a pleasant surprise.

The icing on the cake of a pleasant evening was a couple if ice cold beers out of the mountain fridge:

The next morning, the skies had cleared and a thick coating of fresh snow covered the hut and its surrounds. After a modest sleep-in and a couple of coffees it was time to head out. I had toyed with the idea returning via a loop over the tops and down the Deadmans Track. I decided I couldn't be bothered slogging through several kilometres of potentially deep snow and the sogginess that would entail. Instead, it would be a quick return back down the Rangiwahia Track.

 

It was a pleasant walk out in the much improved weather, although once the trees became taller and the track more covered by the forest canopy, lumps of snow mobilised by the morning sun began to drop, hitting the ground with heavy slaps. At times, the snow melt from the canopy was like walking in the rain.

Back across the bridge, the snow is soon left behind on the descent. Plenty of day hikers were making the most of the good weather to get out into the hills and see the snow.
The end of track appeared unexpectedly quickly and it was time for the drive home.

It's easy to see why this hut is as popular as it is, the reward-to-effort ratio is pretty hard to beat. A great little getaway from reality for the weekend.

Map:

Elevation Profile:

Times and Distance:

Car park to bridge: 2.60 km, 1 hr; bridge to hut: 1.72 km, 52 min. Total 4.32 km, 1 hr 52 min.
Return time 1 hr 31 min. Elevation difference: +/- 482 .