This article was first published in Tararua Tramper in February 2025
Wandering up the Waiorongomai
Medium - 18 December 2024
There were 10 of us keen to enjoy a day wandering up the pretty Waiorongomai Stream as far as the hut. We knew the trip would be on the shorter side of Medium, so we could take plenty of time to enjoy the scenery, and to munch Xmas mince pies at morning tea.
The track begins at a somewhat unglorious location: behind the toilet. Over the stile, a couple of minutes in the bush, then drop down into the stream. After that it was wet feet for the whole day. A fair bit of time was spent in the stream itself, though no deeper than our knees, thank goodness. You wouldn't want to be doing this trip after rain, because the river rises very quickly.
For the first half hour or so, we meandered around in the bush on the true right, hoping to find the track. But in hindsight, the best route would have been to walk straight up the riverbed for about 30 minutes, until reaching a big orange track marker on the true left (with a warning about traps for feral cats).
The route then wriggled very gently along river terraces, interspersed with plenty of stream crossings. The track was clearly marked with orange triangles. There were a few ups and downs over bluffs, including one short but particularly steep scramble which required considerable care.
At lunch time we lolled about on the grassy clearing outside the little orange Waiorongomai Hut, chatting to two HVTC members who pottered in. Eventually we hauled ourselves upright and headed back down via the morning's route. Earlier in the day, Mary's glasses had been knocked off her face by a branch, though she hadn't realised until quite some time later. Bah, a lost cause, she thought, I'll never find them. But on the return trip, gleeful shouts from Sue: there in a tangled bush lay the glasses in perfect condition. Talk about a needle in a haystack!
We were back at the cars by quarter to four, after a relaxed six hours with lots of pauses and an elevation gain of a mere 100-200 metres, a lovely way to end our Wednesday tramping year.
Joan Basher (leader and scribe), John Allard, Jim Gibbons, Ant Hill, Jane-Pyar Mautner, Marg Pearce, Mary Perkins, Wayne Perkins, Peter Morten, Sue Scott