Saturday
After a long drive from Wellington, followed by a comfortable night in the North Egmont Visitor Centre night shelter, we awoke to a mix of sunshine and cloud but could still see the top of Mt Taranaki. We met the local DOC worker who recommended that we consider not taking the track past the vistor's centre and around Boomerbang Slip due to icy conditions. As we were not carrying ice axes, our leader made the decision to take an alternative route up the Ram and Kokowhai Tracks, them onto the round the mountain track. We left the WTMC cyclist group who were cycling round the mountain and meeting us back in Stratford on the Sunday.
We were somewhat confused as to the signposting, and took some while to work out which was the correct route to follow. Once we were on the Kokowhai Track it was easy going. We gradually climbed up through montane forest and sub-alpine scrub to the round the mountain track junction, with views of the summit in front of us - it was great! After lunch, the wind started to pick up a little, with some misty weather coming in. We did spare a thought for our cycling friends biking into a headwind around the mountain. Despite the changing weather, we all commented on how nice it was to be tramping in a completely different environment to the Tararuas and Ruahines - the Egmont landscape is truely unique. The mountain was not completely in the mist yet, and the must have been a lot worse in the Tararuas. We met some members of the Hutt Valley Tramping club near the turn-off to Holly Hut - as they were heading for this hut, we decided to continue on to Pouakai Hut.
Crosssing the Ahukakawakawa Swamp was spectacular - interesting mosses, and a well sighted new viewing platform where we could admire the peaks of Hump, Henry and Maude and contemplate the grunt up to Hump. With the climb up the spur being well staircased, it was not long until we reached the top passing through mountain cedar forest and leatherwood scrub. In fact, there were quite a few jokes amongst punters in our group about Hump, Maude and Henry through the rest of the afternoon - as if there was a competition to see who could use the word "hump" the most in a sentence! I think Alistair won on these stakes. At this point is was rather misty and breezy. We were all keen to make the hut, and get that billy on for a nice cup 'o soup. There was only one other couple in Pouakai hut when we arrived, attempting to get the small woodburner fire going to generate some heat. The view from the hut should have been spectacular - but we were greeted by mist. I promised the other punters a photo of the view on on a good day.
We all enjoyed some good grub for dinner, a fantastic rice rissoto with spinach and feta and a whole lot of other goodies.
Sunday
After departing the hut we passed through open tussock land, around Maude Peak and then an ascent to Henry Peak. Again, the landscape was interesting, with tarns and boggy areas under the extensively board walked track. Since my last visit to this area in 2003 there has been extensive tracking up over Henry in the form of boardwalk and steps - this certainloy made the ascent of Henry much more relaxed, and there was again an impressive viewing platform at the top, unfortunately the view was "mist"again. We then descended through some more montane forest towards the Kaiauai Shelter. A number of stream crossings and ladders followed through numerous gully systems - ladders seem to be very common through Egmont N.P. We found a nice clearing with some someshine to enjoy some lunch, continuing on the edge of a pretty stream, over the Waiwhakaiho River Swingbridge and back to the Kaiauai carpark where we had left the mini-van. We met the cyclists back in Stratford - found hanging out in a pub waiting for us, and then we returned to Wellington via Wanganui. This trip is an excellent weekend tramping circuit to do.