Around The Mountain, Mt Taranaki, New Zealand – Day 2

Stony River to Waiaua Gorge Hut

10.5 km, total 23.5 km, 5h 55m (0950-1545)

It started raining at 0200 and thankfully it woke me so I could close the door of my tent and go back to sleep. I woke up at 0900 and went though my morning routine smoothly except for when I picked up my food bag it was wet on the bottom. I lifted another bag and saw a small puddle of water on the tent floor. Because I was so close to the tree I had not fully stretched out the end of the tent and this must have meant a small part of the tent floor was not protected, letting a small abount of water in. This is the first time I have ever had water get into my tent during rain and it was completely my fault for being lazy with how I put the tent up.

The rain had eased by the time I was ready to take my tent down. I have it a good shake and then wiped off the tent before putting it away in my pack.

The trail continued heading downhill, including down a steep set of stairs, to emerge into the open at a river. The rain started coming down heavier so I put the umbrella up. It was too hot for a raincoat and I was already wet from pushing through the vegetation on the overgrown track.

There was a river crossing that I took my time on, finding the best crossing point. I thought about jumping between two rocks to keep my feet dry but given the rocks were slippery and the landing on an angle I decided to just walk through the river rather than risk injury.

The track then followed beside the main river on a rocky and overgrown path before heading up a steep climb to get back out of the river gorge.

The track then alternated between relatively flat sections and steep drops and climbs in and out of the river gorges. Some of these had stairs which made it easy and some required hauling myself up by roots and rocks.

It was quite tiring and I could now understand how the high route ahead was quicker than the low route, despite being longer and involving a large climb and descent.
At the intersection I turned left and started the 250m climb. This part of the track was in much better condition and I powered up the hill, reaching the top much quicker than I expected.

Rain drops on a spider web

There was a sharp right turn and the track now sidled around the mountain, dropping slightly towards Kahui Hut. It must have been good soil here as the vegetation was really thick on the track, requiring quite a bit of force to push through in many places. It was slow going but I enjoyed the different vegetation and loved how the water droplets on the flowers made them glisten. I imagine on a nice day there would be good views but today it was just grey mist above and below.

At the hut I had a large lunch with 3 tortilla filled with hummus, cheese and salami.

By the time I left the rain had stopped and, after a bit of a search and some mis-starts, I found the right track and was heading downhill. The track was in much better state and had a lot of steps so the travel was easy all the way down to the intersection.
Now I turned left to head around the mountain staying at the same height. On the map this looked like a nice flat and easy section, but it was actually quite tiring with all the deep stream gorges to climb in and out, and the overgrown vegetation to fight through.

Despite this I was really enjoying myself as it was a neat interesting and challenging section.

I stopped for a break as I came into a more open section, enjoying the novelty of being able to see into the distance after the solid green of the last hour.

Just after this was the intersection with Ihaia Track and a sharp turn North. The track was in excellent condition and stayed in the open heading up the valley for nearly a km before turning nearly 180 degrees and back into the bush to the last river crossing of the day.

Now it was a short 500m to the last intersection with the welcome sign indicating only 5 minutes to the Hut.

I arrived at the hut at 1545, tired from a challenging day but happy with my efforts. I headed over to the helipad which had a nice view down to Waiaua Gorge before settling in to the hut.

It was a big hut with two sleeping rooms for 16 people and the main room with kitchen area, fireplace and seating area.
I sat in a corner having several hot soups, a hot chocolate and finishing my supply of scroggin while reading the hut book and my kindle.

Sometime after 6pm I heard someone arrive and sit down on the chair outside the hut and then burst out crying. I was a bit perturbed about what to do so I left them alone for 15 minutes expecting they would come into the hut but they didn’t, though the crying had now stopped. I headed outside with the excuse to bring my shoes in so I could check up on them and it was a young German girl. We started talking and she came into the hut and sorted herself out. We ate our respective dinners together and I found out a bit more about her. She had been in NZ for 6 months and was leaving next week and decided to do a tramp before leaving. She decided to do this hike and had underestimated how hard it would be, and had no experience of hiking or much fitness. She had no tent and had therefore had no choice to keep walking to the hut despite being exhausted. It was sheer relief at arriving, combined with frustration on how hard it had been, that caused her to cry when she got here.

As the evening progressed she became more cheerful and we had a good talk before heading to our rooms at hiker midnight – 9pm.

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