As I type up yet another blog about hiking around Wellington, I am quickly realizing that this has turned into a hiking blog... I guess that you write about what you love though, and Ross and I love to get outdoors. So hopefully you all are enjoying hearing about all of our hiking adventures or are at least enjoying the pictures of backcountry New Zealand - it is a truly remarkable place.
 |
We came across this gem at one point when we were looking for the trail... |
Last weekend we did the
Papatahi Crossing with the tramping club (
WTMC). It crosses the
Rimutaka Range via Papatahi Peak (906 m). We hiked it east to west, starting from close to Lake Wairarapa and ending in the
Orongorongo Valley, at the Catchpool carpark. According to the DOC website, it is a 10 km trail but that is blatantly wrong. All that I can think is that they must have been measuring a shorter route or a partial route because what we did was approximately 25 km with over 800 m of elevation gain and loss.

We started out on Saturday morning, meeting at the train station, and then were driven to the trailhead. The track starts off going across some farmer's fields before you get into the hills. Initially the track was really easy to follow with some minor detours around trees that had blown down but after we crossed Battery Stream, the track disappeared and even following the orange markers became rather challenging. About this time we also started to gain elevation. Until I moved to New Zealand, I don't think that I truly appreciated how steep hills/mountains could be while still having a track going up them, and that's saying a lot because I grew up in Colorado. Kiwi's do not seem to appreciate switchbacks either so the trails, literally, go straight up the side of mountains. On this track we were treated to a couple sections with ropes to help you pull yourself up the hill. I have also grown to truly appreciate the ample vegetation in the New Zealand bush because I regularly use tree trunks, roots, bushes, etc. to help pull myself up the track. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad for me (I do voluntarily go on these trips and love them), I'm just trying to give you a sense of what hiking in New Zealand can be like.
 |
Wharepapa River |
We eventually made it up and over a small saddle and back down to Wharepapa Hut, along the Wharepapa River. At this point it was almost 3 p.m. We discussed our options, neither of which were amazing. We could 1) set up camp and stay where we were, knowing that it would mean an incredibly long hike on Sunday or we could 2) fill up our water and hike partially up Papatahi Peak and hopefully camp at a flat-ish looking spot but then we wouldn't have to start off Sunday with a 700+ meter climb. Eventually we opted to stay at Wharepapa (close to water and known place to camp) and just have a really long Sunday (which it was). We had a tasty dinner and then sat around a campfire on the riverbank, talking, eating spice cake that the trip leader had made, and watching the sunset.
 |
The group (minus the other Ross) at Wharepapa Hut |
We got up at 6 a.m. and were on the trail not too long after 7 a.m. but seeing as we had just gone off summer time, it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Once again we went up and up and up, making it to the top of Papatahi shortly after 11, with many stops to find the track again as we had similar trail conditions to Saturday (i.e. - very, very steep and poorly marked). Unfortunately there were low clouds, so at the top we were treated to high winds and a sea of grey. The forest near the top was incredible though. The trees were carpeted with moss to the point that there was no visible bark from the roots to the leaves.
 |
Wharepapa River |
 |
A glimpse of the ocean through the trees |
 |
Looking back down where we'd come from. |
 |
We are on the trail, believe it or not. |
After a quick group photo and some chocolate, we started down. And down, and down. I had thought that going up Papatahi from the east was steep. Little did I know... There were a couple places where we could see the remnants of rope to assist in the ascent/descent but they had long ago broken, so we were once again relying on trees, roots, vines, etc. to aid in our descent so that we didn't go head over heels down the mountain.
 |
Sea of grey atop Papatahi |
 |
Moss covered trees near the top of Papatahi |
We ended up having a late lunch where the trail first meets the Orongorongo River. From there we followed the river (literally walking along and in and across the river) for about 3 km before rejoining a trail that followed the river from up on the bank, though everyone had wet feet by this point. The rest of the (long) walk back to the carpark was mostly flat (at least compared to what we had just done) and pretty, meandering through the forest with multiple public and private huts off to each side.
 |
Back below the clouds, looking at Orongorongo River |
 |
North Boulder Creek |
 |
Orongorongo River |
 |
Leaving the Orongorongo River behind |
We ended up hiking about 14 miles with about 3,000 feet of elevation gain and loss on Sunday, so needless to say, we were all very happy to reach the van. This was another nice, challenging hike and I'm glad that we were with a group for the route-finding issues. We had a really great time and it was a great group of people that we were hiking with. Hopefully we will run into them again on future club trips. I have to say though, one of the best parts of the weekend was the fact that we didn't get rained on! It was threatening rain most of Sunday but it didn't actually start to rain until we were in the van, driving back to Wellington. I don't even want to think about how much more challenging the ascents and descents would have been if everything had been wet and slippery too!