Friday night
Travelling over the hill from Welliington we had some fine takeways at Featherston, before being dropped off near Ocean Beach. We made our way up the Wharepapa River in the knowledge that a number of people had told us that our intended destination Joe's Hut (now known as Wharepapa Hut) can be difficult to find. We meandered our way up the river and required our torches for the last hour or so. We thought we were near the right place and consulted the GPS - which were a mere 15 metres away according to the technology. Sure enough, after passing through a few metres of bush we located the hut. Sadly, some past occupants of the hut had decided to use a few of the bunk slats for firewood so there was not quite as much room as we hoped. We found a great spot under the trees beside the hut and pitched our fly while the rest of party the squeezed into the hut.
Saturday
It wasn't long until we had left the ease of the river flats and we started ascending towards Papatahi. This was rather a steep and continuous upward section. We noted that this area has a distinct lack of mature vegetation, weathered soil, and quite a few slips. Without the safety of the river bank we found ourselves having to carefully navigate our way through Ongaonga (stinging neetle) plants. We continued to ascend for some time, before reaching the top of the ridge and what promised to be view lovely views, however, it was rather claggy and our dream of a view wasn't to be this time. As we descended towards Boulder Creek (a tributary of the Orongorongo River), there was rather slippery loose earth to negotiate. The final drop into the creek required some teamwork, with the lowering down of packs to make it easier to jump into the creek bed. This is where we started to see evidence of the extensive February 2005 floods. The banks of the Upper Orongorongo were deep and gouged. Once we climbed down and then up to the other side of the river we had lunch. This was followed by a nice easy stroll down the river towards Paua Hut. We set up camp with our flys next to Paua Hut so that there was sufficient room in the hut for the easy group who had walked in for an overnight into trip. With an early finish to the day we had the opportunity to relax and enjoy a communal meal together. As it was Guy Fawkes, we had some tramping club friends join us for the evening who were kind enough to bring some fireworks and giant marshmellows. We had a fantastic bonfire in the river bed that was set up by some other fellow clubbies - you can usually find some pyromaniacs among a tramping club! This is a bit of a tradition for the club on Guy Fawkes night. The heat from the bonfire soon warmed everyone up, and we settled in to some fine entertainment which culminated with the fireworks show presented to us by Harry (retired), and yummy toasted marshmellows prepared by Nic.
Sunday
It was a cruisy walk out along the five-mile track. We were pleased to be able to consider ourselves "experienced trampers" because for some reason there were warning signs advising us against the track may be dangerous and was only suitable for "experienced parties". This was surprising, as apart from two slips to negatiote the track was close to being wheelchair friendly.