After a a long hiatus of over 12 months, Cody and I resumed tramping with a nice, easy tramp up to Herepai.
We cruised lazily up the Mangatainoka Valley, soaking in scenery. The track seems to be perpetually boggy at the start, but is otherwise in a very good condition without the high maintainence levels of some of the popular easy tracks in the Tararua's.
Not far from the first swing bridge, there's now a big slip where there was once a small stream. The slip can be easily walked over (no diverting necessary).
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| The slip |
The uphill slog following the second swing bridge is as annoying as ever, but doable with out too much hassle even for those as unfit as ourselves. About halfway to the track junction the track lessens in steepness.
The track from the junction to Herepai Hut is mostly flat (if a little uneven) most of the way, but climbs a bit before reaching the Hut. Once again the scenery, although generic, is quietly beautiful.
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| View over the Ruapae Stream (and maybe Ruamahanga River) from a look-out just below the hut. |
Once at the hut we milled some dead wood for the woodbox and chopped some of the wood box wood into fire sized chunks. Unlike our
last visit, we managed to light the fire, and eventually had putting out some heat.
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| Drying firewood |
After a night of feasting and inventing a new card came, we settled in for what would become a restless night.
We awoke distressingly early (just before 6), with the wind rumbling and shaking the hut. We stuffed around for a bit, milled a bit more firewood and ate at least two breakfasts.
At about 11:30am we left the hut, moseying our way back down to the junction in about 40 minutes. After a quick break, we resumed walking and head on down the valley, followed by a squeaky fantail some of the way. The weather was surprisingly sunny, which made a nice change from every other time we've been in the area.
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| Ruapae Stream again |
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| Relatively new geocache by the 2nd swingbridge |
At the second swingbridge, we found a geocache we saw marked on the GPS. It wasn't marked last time we were there, so it may be new-ish.
We reached the roadend some time after 2pm, after a thoroughly enjoyable re-introduction to tramping.
Trip Data
Data taken from the GPS on the return journey:
Distance walked: 5.88km
Walking time: 2hr, 38min (3hr, 4min total)
Average walking speed: 3.0km/hr
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GPS Recorded track
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Map
