Round the Mountain - Day 2

Day 2.  A 15km track in a predicted 5 hours.  According to the sign at the start.

I hadn't expected a level path around the mountain, but neither was a anticipating just how much rising and descending would be required.

From Waihohonu Hut there would be almost no defined path.  Instead the route would be identified by wooden or steel marker poles strategically placed in visual sight. 

The initial 25 minutes of walking was through tussock before following a dry riverbed.  The ground was covered with loose very coarse grit.  It was like walking uphill in sand.

Leaving Waihohonu Hut

An easy start. 

Looking back to Ngauruhoe over my right shoulder

After 40 minutes we reached the end of the riverbed and had to cross the ridgeline to the next gully/re-entrant/ravine/gorge.  Yes, as the days passed I started to think the terrain was getting steeper.  They started as gullies and at the end I was thinking gorge! 

I went looking for a map showing the track elevation.  Day 2 and we are walking the yellow line.  This was likely to be our most difficult day for ascending and descending.   The steep drop is down to; and out of; the Whangaehu River.

You can see Day 1 (red line) was relatively easy. 

You may have noticed in the above photo that the pack isn't a good fit on my back.  The pack weight should be on my shoulders and back.  Instead the additional weight in pack is causing it to drag back on my shoulders.  Moreover the pack shoulder straps are too think for the additional weight and cut into my shoulders.  This isn't a design fault but rather my decision to tie additional gear to the back.  I should have purchased a new pack for the walk but as I'm unlikely to ever do anything similar again it would have been an unnecessary expense.  

The walk was a steady succession of climbing up only to have to descend.

It was on our second descent I had my only fall.  It seems that we 'older' people don't lift our feet as high as we used to and my left heel caught a 'apple' sized smooth round rock whilst descending.  It rolled under my left boot and I stood on it losing my balance staggering to the left with the top half of my body falling forward.  I was frantically attempting to get my feet back under my body and gain my balance when I realised a 2 metre cliff and steep slope were rapidly approaching.  Rather than tumble over the cliff I elected an early fall rolling to a stop just above the top of the cliff. 

I was slightly sore and had a cut on my left shin.  A brief stop to apply a plaster and we carried on.  The fall reinforced to me the need for me to be particularly careful when descending and crossing obstacles. 

Taking Jan's hiking stick on the walk was invaluable and greatly assisted my balance.  The bottom section fell off on Day 1 and the top of the rubber handle broke off at the start of Day 2.  Day 3 saw the wrist strap fall off.  I wore a glove from Day 3 to avoid the top of the aluminium tube wearing a hole in my palm.  It wasn't until I returned home that Jan informed me she had noticed I had selected her expensive pole and she had quietly exchanged it for her cheap pole she purchased from Trespass in the UK.       

 

Way in the distance I could see a tiny structure on a ridgeline.  It was very small and I initially thought it might be a tower for the Tukino Ski Field. tow  As we continued on over undulating terrain and got closer I realised it was more likely a mobile phone tower.

Eventually we climbed to the top of that ridge and reached the Tukino Road which runs from the Desert Road in the east up to the Tukino ski field on Ruapehu.

At this point we were more than halfway to our destination for the day, Rangipo Hut.  However, ahead was the steepest gully on the walk.

Looking back to Mt Ngauruhoe

Up and down…. up and down….  Until we reached the northern ridgeline of the ravine containing the Whangaehu River.  This is the hazardous Lahar area. 

A steep descent to a wire suspension bridge across the Whangaehu River

Just as steep an ascent on the other side.  More undulating ground as we traverse the Rangipo Desert

After five hours we reach Rangipo Hut with spectacular views to the east.  Two walkers arrived travelling in the opposite direction.  They only stopped for lunch and then headed towards Waihohonu Hut.  Obviously they are completing the circuit in 3 days.  Oh to be young and fit !!

From the hut front deck I point out to Carlin the various hills and other features in the NZ Army Training Area away to the east.  In 1960 my father took me on my first deerstalking trip out there on the desert.  I remember how excited I was when he shot a deer on our second morning.  I got to carry out the venison back steaks whilst my father walked out with the hind legs.  Six years later I had enlisted and was back in the training area.  

Carlin still has plenty of energy and wandered around the area.  I check the long drop….. No toilet paper!  No trees to find leaves

Dinner was another 'delicious' freeze dried meal.  From memory Lamb and mixed veg with a sachet of instant mashed potato.

There was very little firewood at the hut.  This is probably unsurprising as it's the most exposed hut on the walk and consequentially probably gets very cold inside.  One of the local trampers we met at Waihohonu Hut the previous evening mentioned all the firewood is flown in by helicopter.  That seemed rather expensive.  But then there is no road so everything (including the hut) either gets carried in on a back or flown to the location.