So we thought we'd have a little adventure as kind of an early birthday present for me and decided on a trip to one of the local Department of Conservation (DOC) huts. There are loads of these scattered around NZ and our local ones in the Rimutaka Forest Park are only 45 minutes' drive from Wellington - and bookable online so that you have the place to yourself.
The one we were interested in doesn't have any cooking facilities so we had to take a camping stove. For some reason I sold my trusty Trangia before I left the UK (don't ask me why, I don't know) - so had to buy another one. Turns out they are $200+ in NZ or 40 pounds from amazon.co.uk (i.e. half the price) so I bought one from amazon.co.uk. They wouldn't ship it to NZ for some reason so mum kindly mailed it on to me - and good old Royal Mail, it just arrived in time.
We left it a bit late booking so could only get the hut on the Friday night so we left work early to get there on time. Plans went a bit awry when one of our tame estate agents contacted me with a very interesting house which we arranged to see on Friday afternoon. Turns out it was almost exactly what we were looking for, but had a rival already making an offer on it so before we knew it we were down the estate agents making a competitive bid. We find out on Monday if we've got it.
Anyway that distraction meant we didn't leave Wellington before 4.30 and didn't get to the car park for the Rimutakas until 5.10. Sunset was 7.30 and it's a 2 hour walk to the hut so it was a race against time.
The Orongorongo Track is apparently one of NZ's most popular walks - probably due to the proximity to Wellington. Of itself it's a pleasant bush walk through jungly beech and rimu forest with various bridges to cross. We didn't see anyone along the way until we reached the Orongorongo River which is a wide braided pebbly river bed with several streams running through it. We were running ahead of time and according to the instructions our hut was just across the river.
It turns out there was no bridge across the river - this had not been made clear to us - so we had to wade through the channels to find it. We walked up and down a few times looking for a good place to cross but eventually realised we were going to have to get wet! Not having gaiters we rolled up our trousers and took our boots off. I insisted we had sticks to steady us (I've watched Ray Mears and Bear Grylls enough times) and we made it across ok.
By this time it was about 7pm and we still had to find the hut. The instructions were terrible and we doubled back several times and called for help from one of the neighbouring huts who kindly offered to let us sleep on their floor if necessary. But just as the light was fading I spotted it. It was dark inside so I failed to see the woodpile in the corner and we spent the evening trying to light a fire with damp wood. We finally succeeded then had to endure a smoky night as the damp wood burned and kept setting off the smoke alarm. But toasted marshmallows on an open fire will cure all ills :-)
In the morning we tidied up and headed back the way we came. We met Charlie on the way who walked back with us. He had spent the night in a different hut with his friends who were having a 20th birthday party. He had hiked out to the hut wearing plimsolls and carrying a rucksack full of beer but no food - and hadn't eaten anything for 24 hours so understandably was a bit the worse for wear.
The weather was great, it was a beautiful place even if we didn't spot any kiwi, but it's so close I think we may go back .
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