Day 36 - pironga
Kaniwhaniwha —-> Pahautea hut 8km
After an accidental morning bath in the stream whilst filling up my water bottle, I packed up and headed into the forest for what I knew would be a pretty tough morning. I was heading up to the top of Mt Pironga and then on a little further where I had a booking at the Pahautea hut. I hoped to be done by lunchtime so I could spend the afternoon basking in what I hoped would be magnificent views at the top.
The forest was dense and almost spooky, the trees covered with dark moss and often mushrooms, the only colour coming from the bright orange markers leading the way up the mountain.
The track was wonderful for the first hour and then it began to steadily get trickier; the incline steepened and the lovely forest floor gave way to tree roots and branches. I clambered up, and up and up, knowing I had over 800m of elevation to climb to each the summit.
Every now and then I’d stop and turn around, convinced I could hear the thud of footsteps behind me. It was a Saturday so there were a few others who were about, but when I looked, nothing. Realising the thuds was actually my heartbeat, i’d pull my chair out and take a pause before carrying on up.
When the blue sky started to peek through the trees I got excited, thinking the end was nearly in sight, but no… somehow, it still kept going up, and up, and up, eventually turning into more of a rock climbing mission than a hike, hauling myself over boulders, up ledges and around trees.
I reached the summit in three and a half hours - the DOC estimate was 4-5 so I felt pretty good. I’d been gifted a wonderful day to hike up here, trying to do this in wet weather or after any sort of rain I can only imagine how long it would take, slipping and sliding up the mud.
The summit views were 360 across the rest of Pironga forest park and beyond. I could see Mt Tongariro which I’d been crossing in hopefully 10 days or so and more impressively Mt Ruapehu, standing magnificently with its snow covered peak.
I had lunch at the summit and then bounced along the ridge for half an hour before reaching my home for the night - Pahautea hut. Although Josh and I had stayed in a hut early on in Puketi, this was my first experience of a proper bush / off grid / in the middle of nowhere / how on earth did they build this type hut. I was beyond excited.
I took my shoes off and sat admiring the view for I have no idea how long.
After a few hours I began to wonder whether anyone else would turn up - I had got there pretty early so there was still plenty of time for others to show… but the hut was supposed to be full (20 pax) and by mid afternoon it was just me! A kiwi guy Jarret showed up a few hours later and then around 7pm a gaggle of twenty something gals all fell into the hut covered in dirt and all extremely relieved to have arrived. They’d taken a different route up to the top which took them 8 hours… and by the looks of them was a mud bath for most of it.
Wrapped up warm, we all stood on the deck, watching the sun go down until the clouds swept in and the view became a wall of fog. With no electricity in the hut, as soon as the sun had disappeared, it was lights out… I was asleep before you could say bedtime.
