At this stage we all stayed together to go for a quick and very pleasant stroll in to see the moody and mysterious Waihora Lagoon, which was soon snapped up on everyone’s cameras and other devices. The primeval forest surrounding the lagoon was truly awe-inspiring and enticed us to become further acquainted with the area in the next few days. After this excursion, Big Yellow dropped eight of us off to walk from Waihora to Waihaha hut, ostensibly a tramp of six hours, though it ended up taking us six and a half. Helen, Pat, Les and Ian then took the bus to our end point / their start point and tramped up to the same hut and then on some to camp overnight in a wee clearing not that far on down the Hauhungaroa track. They would have walked further they said, but they didn’t realise they would be spoilt for choice with clearings along the rest of the track.
Day One was definitely the most challenging for the eight of us in the “photographers and botanists” group, with some very steep descents and ascents, but we were also amply rewarded with the proliferation of beautiful mosses of all hues of green and red, majestic forest giants, kidney ferns in abundance, Prince of Wales Feather ferns, and you name it, Pureora Forest provided it! We were often entranced by the sheer beauty of our surroundings despite carrying full packs and not being too sure just how much further our destination for the night was, nor whether we would have to share it with others. Some of us were fortunate enough to get to Waihaha with dry feet, but we were even more delighted when we discovered there were only two hunters also using the hut. They left the following day without any venison to share around and without having spotted anything other than trampers in the bush!
We awoke to sometimes torrential, and always at least drizzly, wet conditions outside, so the group consensus was to while away a few hours playing cards, chatting over teas and reading books till lunchtime, by which time we thought it may well clear up. We were certainly bored by our Spartan shelter by then anyway, so we donned gaiters, boots and coats and took a few snacks and water with us outside once the sky again looked like clearing… only for it to start raining once more as soon as we were ready to go. We were so sick of the wet conditions by this time that we decided to go for a walk anyway and stretch those stiffening limbs and it was a very enjoyable walk too. Vivienne found a bush violet and we tried to guess where our other group may have camped. Arriving back at the hut later to stoke up the fire, we found five young trampers from Wellington who had come up the track we would go down the next day. We managed not to get in each other’s way too much, but of course they were disappointed to find so many of us in the hut after walking in to Waihaha in the wet! Games went on well into the evening, including scrabble and Carcassonne, as well as cards and books and more yarns, and Pierre even shared his hip flask of brandy with some of us. It was a lovely evening.
In the morning we were blessed with a clear, sunny sky, as on the first day, and we didn’t waste time getting onto the track and out within 3 hours 10 mins. Along the way Vivienne and Katy drew our attention to the botanical delights of the trail, such as Drachophyllum sabulatum with its alluring red coat, among others. We found Big Yellow in plenty of time and got on board to head down to Kuratau Junction and then right towards Taumarunui. Turning off near Nga Puke and heading inland on the Ngakonui Ongarue Rd., we ended up on a never-ending road to nowhere that eventually became gravel and petered out at a sign advising us to park due to adverse turning difficulties for large vehicles further up the way, which we did. Pierre walked up the road and left a couple of messages for Helen, Les, Pat and Ian as there was no sign of them yet. We waited for them for an hour and a half as their track sign had indicated a much shorter tramp than anticipated: two hours only, whereas these speedy walkers took a full four hours! Suffice to say, we were relieved when they did turn up. On up the road we took a driver-change and coffee stop at Te Kuiti before heading home. Big Yellow reached Como Street at around 7:45pm and everyone tumbled out and off home to face the dread of work the next day! But oh, what a treat of a trip! Thanks Helen and our two trusty drivers, Bernhard and Ian G..