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.