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On
29 September 2005 eight members of the Taumarunui Tramping Club went
across to Lake Waikaremoana. Three members Shirley and Hugh Barton and
Don Dawson planned to kayak the lake. The other five members Sharrynne
Cooke, Mark Goodwin, Ken Grantham, Robyn and Graeme Croy planned to do
the “Great Walk”. We traveled in 2 vehicles and met up for lunch at
Murupara and taking a detour around Minginui afterwards. If Murupara was
unimpressive Minginui was even worse. However State Highway 38 was an
interesting if winding drive.
Arriving at Lake Waikaremoana we
sorted ourselves into the fisherman’s cabin accommodation which while
cramped was quite comfortable. The motorcamp was well equipped with
shower/toilet blocks, kitchen/dinning room and a well stocked general
store. (www.lake.co.nz/amenities.html).
Friday morning Hugh took the walkers
around to Onepoto where we started the first day walk up the Panekiri
Bluff to the Panekiri Hut (8.8km). A short distance into the walk we
made a detour to Lake Kiriopukae. The day was clear with quite a strong
wind blowing across the lake and up the bluff. However along most of the
track just a few meters from the edge of the bluff and in the bush the
air was relatively calm. The only people we met coming the other way
were a father and his 2 sons. It was good to see a father encouraging
his sons in such outdoor pursuits in a time of TV and computer games.
The father informed us that we had done the hard graft and after about
another 100m it was relatively easy going. This wasn’t quite true as
we still had some up and down work to do and it reinforced my view that
generally you take what people you meet say about time, distances and
terrain with a “grain of salt”. We obtained some magnificent views
and photographs from various vantage points along the bluff. It was
quite awesome looking over the steep bluff down about 600m to the lake
level at 582m. We wondered how Shirley, Hugh and Don were getting on
kayaking around the Northern shore of the lake in the windy conditions
to their first night stop at Whanganui Hut. It took us about 6 hours to
reach Panekiri Hut and a welcome sight it was to.
A Canadian couple was already in
residence when we arrived. They were living and working in Auckland.
About dark 2 German couples arrived and that was it so there was plenty
of room in the 36 bunk hut. Somebody read a notice in the hut warning
about rats and mice and that started the Canadian guy taking precautions
to safeguard their food supply. It was quite amusing watching him tie
plastic bags full of food etc above the gas heating stove only to have
them fall down again. Before we went to bed the Taumarunui contingent
played “eye spy” in the light of one flickering candle. We got
through the night without any food being attacked although Ken said he
heard a rat in the wall. The wind blew strongly across the roof of the
hut all night.
The next morning we started off for
the Waiopaoa hut a distance of 7.6km. This was mainly downhill dropping
from 1180m to lake level at 582m. The weather had closed in and we got
an occasional shower. The Waiopaoa hut is a nice new one but we only
stopped briefly and continued on another 3.6km to Korokoro Falls shelter
where we had lunch. Don had kayaked around to here and joined Mark, Ken
and Sharrynne for the 30min walk to the falls. Robyn and I decided we
had enough walking to do for the day so we stayed behind and chatted to
a family who had come ashore from their fishing boat for lunch. We
tasted some of their smoked trout before leaving on the 8.5km leg to
Marauiti hut for the night. Before we reached the hut Ken and Mark had
caught us up and Don surprised us by leaping out from behind a rock
claiming to be the “Scarlet Pimpernel”. We forgave him when he
offered to carry Robyn’s pack to the hut up and over Whakaneke Ridge.
Sharrynne had already stopped at the Maraunui campsite for the night.
Hugh and Shirley were already at the Hut when we arrived. Our group was
the only ones at the hut for the night and we sat round and chatted by
candle light over some drinkies.
Next morning after breakfast we saw
the kayakers off on their way taking the mandatory photographs. Included
was a photo of Don demonstrating his “sail” made out of an old
umbrella with a cut out window so he could see where he supposed he was
going. He really earned his new nickname “Mary Popins”.
The last day was mostly cloudy with
some showers and the track (11km) was mainly around the lake shore with
some little climbs to get over arms jutting out into the lake. One of
these was the Puketukutuku Peninsula where DOC have placed an electric
fence on the right of the track. The fence cuts off the peninsula from
the mainland to protect Kiwi from possums and stoats and also keep out
pigs and deer. It is proposed to remove the fence when the Kiwi
population reaches 250 adults. We stopped for lunch at the flash new
Whanganui hut. It was a further 2.7km to Hopuruahine Landing where we
waited for the water taxis to take us back to Aniwaniwa. We called into
the store to pay for the water taxis but one of the ladies serving
seemed keen for us to go straight away and have showers. Worried that
she might have offended us she gave us all a big hug but I suspect
holding her breath. We certainly enjoyed those showers.
On the Monday we walked (1 hour) into
Lake Waikareiti where we had hired some row boats. We rowed out to Rahui
Island where we climbed a metal ladder onto the island and viewed the
small lake situated in the island itself. It was all very picturesque
and unspoilt. Tuesday was going home day and we decided to go the other
way out to Wairoa, then after lunch at Napier across to Taupo and home.
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