Kahurangi Circuit

6-10 February 2020

As I was the only taker for Diane’s Three Tarn Pass trip, we were invited to join Chris, Graham, and Vesna for a circuit in the Kahurangi National Park. We left Christchurch Thursday morning and drove up to Tapawera Settlers Motel and Campground where we had two comfortable units for the night. There was time to explore the town and go for a walk before going to the Tapawera Hotel for a drink and a meal.

Day 1. The drive from Tapawera to the Rolling River car park the next morning took about an hour and although there was water flowing across the Dart River ford we had no trouble driving across. It is 11.4 km to King’s Creek hut where we planned to stay that night so there was no hurry and it was very pleasant walking along beside the Wangapeka River. In places we saw quite large fish swimming. There are trap lines beside the river and whio are now frequently seen on the Wangapeka, as we later read in a hut book, but we didn’t see any. We had morning tea sitting on logs by a “lake” which was formed when debris from a landslip created a dam across the river in October 2012. There were many dead drowned trees. There were also lots of wasps in the bush throughout the trip, and it is surprising that Chris was the only one of us to get stung. We had lunch near the swingbridge that crosses the Wangapeka River. From there it was a further 30 minutes on the true left of the river to the 20 bed hut. Here we had our first encounter with very audacious weka trying to steal food and anything else that looked appealing to them. We quickly made it a rule to keep the hut door closed after one entered the hut and had to be chased out. The afternoon was spent dipping in the river, visiting the nearby Cecil King historic hut, or just lazing about.