Feeling on top of the world

Geoff Chapple surveys a piece of raw New Zealand from the summit of Mt Pirongia. Picture / Miriam Beatson

Tramping huts are part of Kiwi culture, but they're not common around Auckland. The Gulf islands have a few, and there's the Department of Conservation's Pinnacles Hut in the Coromandel, but it's big, and often crowded. Then there's DoC's Pahautea Hut.

The tramp to Pahautea, a traditional six-bunk, back-country hut, begins just two hours' drive from Auckland.

An important part of hutness - with dead blowflies on the interior windowsills, old novels, and drooping candles - is the isolation. And Pahautea Hut has that.

It also has other other classic hut features: it is painted green and has a red door. The loo is a short boardwalk past mountain cabbage trees, tawari, dracophyllum, and the attractive speckled leaves of the bushy mountain horopito. It is also painted green and has a red door, and overhangs a huge valley.

The only problem with Pahautea Hut is that to get to it, you must climb a steep mountain - Pirongia. It is only 958m, but it's definitely tough.

The Chiefs rugby team did the climb pre-season in 2003. They moaned all the way to the top, where the scrum collapsed. Those boys just didn't have bush feet, one DoC ranger told me.

We parked the car at the top of Corcoran Rd, and set off up the Tirohanga track, the shortest route to the summit.

DoC estimates the walk from here to the summit is between three and five hours, but you would be wise to calculate at the five-hour end, particularly since the hut is a 25-minute tramp beyond the summit.

The steep but beautifully stepped track to the 723m Ruapane trig was easy. After Ruapane, though, the track lived up to its reputation. We hauled up a rock gut using the fixed chain, then we lowered ourselves down again using the chain.

On to Tirohanga. If you're interested in meeting that three-hour summit time, you won't climb this rock stack en route. We did, and looked down on gliding kereru in the valley below, then out to the wide green grasslands beyond. Hamilton glittered 25km northeast, and Te Awamutu baked in the sun, 20km southeast.

Beyond Tirohanga, the track became steeper, slippery and root-ridden. We gained height only to lose it, then clawed our way back up to burst out on to a grassy knoll. Just 600m along a boardwalk on the ridge was DoC's summit viewing platform.

From there, we had 360-degree views, including the western coast from Karioi mountain and Raglan in the north, to Kawhia Harbour and Albatross Point in the south. From here, on a clear day, you see Ruapehu and the tip of Mt Taranaki.

Below were the skeletal remains of old New Zealand cedar, pahautea, sometimes called kaikawaka. Pirongia is the northern-most stronghold of this mountain species, but possums eat the new, fleshy buds, and global warming vagaries may also have helped to create the wave of strangely synchronous death.

Some Hamilton trampers won't climb Pirongia now because the bleached remnants of this once-grand avenue to the summit make them sad. As relative newcomers, we were happy enough, though.

Many cedars do survive - you can see their attractive crowns in the canopy - and we saw a good number of new seedlings.

On to Pahautea Hut. Ah, the glow of arrival that is so special to huts. Boots off, and through the red door ... we'd earned our solitude.

Then a Swiss couple arrived with two girls in tow, followed by two Kiwi couples.

Hut culture demands that you learn to share what may seem at first yours by right, and to smile with it. We smiled our fixed smiles as we vacated to one of the nearby tent sites.

I was grateful then for the two-person tent I'd lugged to the top, the food and cooker, and the bottle of Deutz Methode Champenoise. We ate a two-course meal, the level of the bottle sank, evening arrived, and mist drifted in.

The next day was clear. We trooped along the first 70m of boardwalk that Te Araroa work-teams have been extending west of Pahautea Hut.

The proposed New Zealand-long tramping trail is projected to cross this mountain on the Tahuanui Track, past the hut, and exit westward on a track that is not yet open.

We tramped off Pirongia the next day on the Tahuanui Track, much gentler than the ascent, but longer, taking us nearly six hours, with a good break for lunch.

CASE NOTES

Getting there

From Auckland, take SH1 to Ngaruawahia. Just south of the town turn right past the BP station and head for Whatawhata.

Turn right on to the Raglan Highway at Whatawhata, go over the Waipa River, then turn at the first road left, Te Pahu Rd. Drive 13km, past Te Pahu settlement, then turn right into Corcoran Rd and drive to the end.

Tramping Pirongia is best tramped in summer or autumn. Other times can be extremely muddy. Toilets (but no water) are at the Corcoran Rd, Kaniwhaniwha Reserve, and Grey Rd entrances. Remember, it is a mountain and the weather is changeable and can be frigid.

Track standard is BCA. Reasonable fitness, and some tramping experience is advisable. Time: 3-5 hours.

Gear

Take plenty of water, (the only refilling place is at Pahautea Hut), wet-weather garments, a change of clothes, boots, torches, whistles, and extra food in case of delays. For overnight trips, take cooking equipment, and a sleeping bag. A tent is useful if the hut is full.

Maps

Te Awamutu: 260-S15. For the routes described, and for three alternative tracks to the summit, see the Pirongia Forest Park brochure, available at DoC offices. The DoC website has the various route descriptions.

Weather

For an overnight tramp, 36-hour weather forecast charts are available at Victoria University's site.

Accommodation

Pahautea Hut has water, a toilet, cooking bench, but no cooking facilities, bunks for 6, and a lean-to, which can sleep another two on benches.

If you don't have a $90 annual hut pass, the hut requires a $5 hut ticket, available from any DoC office or paid in cash at the hut. There are four tent sites.

For a local overnight stay before setting out, try Pirongia Forest Park Lodge, 297 Grey Rd, RD5, Hamilton. Phone (07) 871 950, Fax (07) 871 9573. It has a lodge that sleeps 42 and two units that sleep 3 each. See www.geocities.com/pfplodge/?200510

Alternatively, try Pirongia Hideaway Homestay, 950 Franklin St, Pirongia, 2450, Waikato. Phone (07) 872 8001, mobile 027 211 9568, fax (07) 872 8002. Sleeps up to 6 with shared facilities. Lunch or dinner available by prior arrangement, breakfast included in price. Rates: $75 twin share, $55 single. Lunch $15, dinner $25, by prior arrangement. See www.pirongia-hideaway.co.nz

Further information

www.teararoa.org.nz