In search of Type II fun
Pohangina River Circuit, Ruahine Forest Park, New Zealand
It was halfway through the week before the King’s Birthday long weekend and I was yet to make any plans. Tess was working and had told me I needed to get out of the house, for the sake of both of our sanities. In this economy one does not simply drive anywhere without someone to split fuel with, so I sent a quick message to fellow tramping club stalwart Ellis. He too was being turfed out for the weekend by a partner studying and had to find something suitably Type II so as to not cause any FOMO. Originally he planned on the Dundas Circuit, but it didn’t take much convincing to get him to look north to the Ruahine.
The Pohangina area stood out to us, not least because we could book a bunk at DOC’s Pohangina Base for Friday night. Research on a loop of Piripiri, Ngamoko and Mid Pohangina huts returned results along the lines of ‘Never again’, ‘Horrendous leatherwood’ and ‘Gave up and turned around’. Another club member had been this way in February and had found a slightly more promising route. We decided that this showed suitable promise of Type II fun and so set about packing our bags ahead of departure on Friday night. Our plan was to head off early on Saturday morning and follow Piripiri Stream up to Piripiri Hut (we have since learned this route crosses private land, woops, get permission before attempting our route). From Piripiri Hut we planned to cross over a small saddle in the Ngamoko Range to Ngamoko Hut for the night. From there we would follow the Pohangina River downstream, past Mid Pohangina Hut to get to the sidle track and eventually, the car.