Ten of us left in a mini-van heading towards Levin for dinner. The weather was looking good. We planned to camp at the end of Poads Road near what would be the end of our looped trip on Sunday. However, upon arrival we noticed that there was both loud music and dogs in the adjacent house. We decided to head back to the bridge, and camp in a grassy area adjacent to the Ohau River - this was definately a good plan!
The next morning we started our walk up the Makaretu Stream - a delightful stream with interesting gorges, pools and bush.
Close to the spur that led up to Oriwa Ridge we found a hunters bivvy set up with taupaulin, but no-one was around. After a few moments pondering the best route up the steep spur, we made our way through supplejack and bush - a short bush-bash, before finding our way onto a slightly defined trail that led up to the ridge. The bush was interesting, although the trees in most cases were not mature and all of similar vintage - probably due to the 1936 storm that swept through the area and destroyed a good part of the vegetation.
Once at the top, we located the small Oriwa Bivvy which resembled a "dolls-house" - and has a lot of character (hopefully it will not be removed by DOC in the near future). The Bivvy was located in the middle of a swamp, so we pondered for a moment where we would find room for our flys. However, just over a bit was a tree covered site, perfect for camping - just enough room to set up the flys, dry with leaf litter and overlooking the main Tararua Ranges - the views from our camp-site across the main range were impressive.
We settled in to the evening with crackers, cheese, gherkins and olives for starters followed by a good hearty dinner of kumara and chick pea curry and rice after admiring the views across the Tararua Ranges. We finished our meal with dessert and a cup of billy tea.
Sunday morning (after turning our clocks back) we headed off at a civilised hour in a northerly direction towards Waiopehu Peak. There was some track-finding required at times, but we soon made our back to a marked track after a rest stop. The Waiopehu track led down to the relatively new Waiopehu Hut which has panoramic views of the Horowhena District and Levin. Rumour has it that this track is notoriusly "muddy," but it didn't prove to be too bad on this occasion - except in a few spots. We continued down the track and back to where we had left our van at Poads road.
This was a fantastic medium tramp - a great variety of scenery, marked and un-marked tracks, and a good weekend loop to do. The club should consider going back to this area, as it has much to offer, and is so close to Wellington.