Recently I went on my most challenging tramp: the Tararua Southern Crossing, a 35km trek across forest and alpine starting from 200m to 1500m in elevation. But there were some significant challenges in the way of achieving this massive challenge. I went on this trip with two friends, one Newbie, one experienced, and me sort of inbetween newbie and experienced.
We set off from Otaki Forks at around 12pm as we knew it would take 7-8 hours to get to the first hut. We saw some pretty nice sights across the forks, like a big river and a cool bridge. The area clearly looked like it was still regenerating from being previously agricultural farmland or was potentially a bunch of fields for recreation that have become overgrown.
We started climbing upwards and this initial part was difficult as our bodies were still warming up to being in tramping mode, but once we got into the forest section our bodies started to be a bit more active. We came across some people going up towards Field hut and Kime Hut that were able to just zoom right past us as they were clearly much more fitter, some day I hope have the ability to climb mountains that quickly.
The forests on the hill up towards Field hut were covered in low clouds.
By the time were getting close to Field hut (which was our first proper rest stop) the clouds were in the forest, and the area felt like we were in some sort of fantasy novel, it was very surreal. We got to Field hut and had a brief refueling and lunch, there were some people that were staying at Field hut and were incredibly kind. But now it was starting to rain, so we put our jackets on and started going upwards again towards our Hut that we planned on staying at, Kime hut.
Kime Hut surrounded by dense clouds and alpine foilage on the ground.
By the time we got up to Table Top we were fully exposed to the rain and unfortunately my rain jacket that I re-rainproofed failed at doing its job, so I had to climb up the rest of the way with near to no protection from the elements completely soaked. We did eventually get up to the top around at 8pm, There were quite a few people at the Hut we were staying at which was great news because that meant itll be quite warm, and let me tell you it was a very nice warm hut, which is great because Kime hut is known to be very cold as theres no heaters. We were all quite soaked at that point as we were constantly rained on for about 3-4 hours but we got into dry inside clothes and fell asleep.
We stayed for quite a while at Kime hut, everybody else left before we even started getting ready, as they went back down to Otaki Forks we stayed up prepared to continue onwards to Alpha Hut, we had a look at the weather and noticed that while it wont be wet, it will be very windy, so we took that consideration on our hike across the alpine area. There was a lot of ups and downs with plenty of wind, we met two other trampers coming the other way and warned us about Mount Hector of its wind, and as we approached the mountain the clouds cleared up to show the full scale of the mountain.
Mount Hector towering up towards the sky, pushing the clouds above it.
Mt Hector was incredibly difficult to climb, and we wanted to stay up there but the wind was just too strong up there to have a proper rest, so we got down as fast as we could because it was just too dangerous to stay up there. We continued our tramp through the range and it was all fairly hard for the entire duration but it had nice flat points in some points. We started climbing Mount Alpha, I slipped and fell onto a sharp rock and cut my knee bad enough that I needed some minor medical attention on it before continuing, it hurt quite a lot at the time but it didnt interfere the rest of the tramp.
Mount Alpha out in the distance on the left, and the Hutt on the right, with Wellington further out in the haze.
We got to the top of Mt Alpha and had a look at the area around, it was incredibly beautiful as the clouds had fully gone away at the point we could see Upper and Lower Hutt, and even Wellington out in the distance, we saw Somes Island and the harbour. We continued onwards down towards Alpha Hut, we got there and found nobody there, which was quite nice. We had a small fire going and had a great sleep to prepare for the death march of tomorrow.
We got up, prepared our stuff and set out towards Hells Gate saddle, which is probably the coolest name for a place ever. It's called Hells gate because from the direction we were going, it goes down 200m and then goes up 100m, an incredibly difficult saddle to climb. But we got to the other side around 12pm and thankfully past that point Marchant ridge was quite flat with some small hills to get past.
Look kiddos, I'm still hip and cool, look! 67!!!
The only issue with Marchant ridge was that it was long, very long. Day 3 may have been the flattest but it was also the longest walk, compared to day 1, which was 22k steps, and day 2 with 20k steps, this day had 36k steps, It was LONG.
Trees in the foreground, Kaitoke in the background, and the Hutt in the back-background
By the time we finally ended up on Dobson Loop Track we were completely exhausted and out of water but we still had 2 more hours to go, so we continued onwards. At some point during that walk I sprained my ankle, not bad enough that I couldnt walk, but I was in pain when I put pressure on my foot, but we could not slow down, as we had food and drink waiting for us at the car park. So we kept going.
For reference we started our third day at 10:30am, and when we got out and completely finished the southern crossing, it was 8pm. So we did 9.5 hours of just walking and climbing on that day. But finally we got out and had much deserved food and drink. I hadnt had any food for 8 hours at that point, or water for about 2 hours, so this food and drink was absolutely incredible to have.
Me and the Team on top of Mount Alpha.
As much as I wish this was my last trip of the year as a way to end my first year tramping with a bang, It isnt, I have another trip planned before this trip on the 22nd but its purely just a day trip, but still a tramp. But regardless this trip was an incredible achievement and I intend to continue to challenge myself, but more safely next time as I definitely had moments that were completely dangerous and potentially life threatening on this trip.
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