Wangapeka Track

2 - 9 February 2019

We’ve had several attempts to run this trip and this one got quite complicated at one point, but in the end it came together with two groups of four walking from each end. We swapped cars before we left Christchurch so the two groups had the flexibility to adjust their tramps as needed (we were expecting some heavy rain mid tramp).

After a cruisey drive to Tapawera and a meal at the local pub, we retired to our little motel to drink a bottle of wine and finish off the container of ice cream we had started earlier. It was a tough day!

We had heard there could be problems with the Dart ford after rain so we had taken a bike and Kevin was planning to drop us and packs, return the car on the other side of the ford and bike back. However the ford in question was a great concrete construction a good metre or more above the river and crossing would only be an issue after a major storm. After some discussion, (after all it wasn’t our car) we decided biking would just not be sensible and we left the car at the start of the track with all the others. This meant we should get to Stone hut for the night rather than just Kings Creek.

There were several highlights of the day, the first being the massive patch of ripe blackberries at morning tea. We enjoyed them again for pudding that night as I decided that fresh blackberries would go better with chocolate instant pudding that the planned dried cranberries. It was getting really hot by lunchtime so we hunted out a lunch spot where we could get down to the river for a quick dip to cool off. The afternoon continued hot, but occasionally we would cross shaded gulley’s that channelled a cool and welcome breeze. Hilaire had commented that leaving the shade was like an oven door opening so we decided that these cool gullies had to be the fridge. We enjoyed a break at Kings Creek Hut (there’s a picnic table in the shade) then again shortly after at the historic and wonderfully restored Cecil King Hut. That night we were joined at Stone hut by two other trampers, and as it turned out this was the only time we shared a hut (and we only met 5 other trampers in total).

The next day we headed uphill to the Wangapeka saddle for morning tea. Despite the track being in good condition we hadn’t made the stated track times the previous day (even deducting our long stops) so we had decided that the option to continue up over Biggs tops and down to Trevor Carter Hut wouldn’t be best for this group, and continued on to Helicopter hut. If we got there in good time we could still drop down lost valley track to meet the others at Trevor Carter hut.