Crossing the Mohaka River at 10 o’clock at night in June isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but that is exactly what we found ourselves doing on the night of Friday 3 June.

We had just walked in over Poronui Station after leaving the cars at Sika Lodge. The three-hour walk to the Oamaru Hut over forest roads is considered a bit of a boring grunt so a night tramp is ideal.

However, in the past when doing this the Mohaka had been split into two smaller channels which made easy crossing. Tonight the flow was concentrated into one. The dim light of our headlamps didn’t show an easier crossing so we plunged in. Waist deep it was. Once across we all charged the last few hundred metres towards the hut, wet long johns brushing on the white hoarfrost on the grass.

Luckily a party of hunters was at the hut and the fire was going. Wet clothes were hung up and warm sleeping bags were entered into.

Saturday morning was still cold but much of our clothes had dried off in the warm hut. We made a hasty trip up the Oamaru Valley, only stopping briefly to admire the view, getting to the head of the valley by lunchtime.

It was here that we left the track. First clambering up onto a terrace in the bush and then picking up the line of pink ribbon markers that mark the ridge top route to Waiotupurutia Saddle.

This was my first trip out and first meaningful exercise since spraining my ankle in March, so it was with considerable lack of fitness and anxiety about my ankle’s ability to perform off track that led to some slowness getting up the hill.

We pitched camp in a little saddle just north of point 1254 on the map. My hope of finding water somewhere near the ridge tops did not seem to meet with much enthusiasm. The nature of the country is that is seems to dry out very quickly after rain. Water would probably only be found well below the ridges. We had all carried a couple of litres up the hill and we supplemented this with melt from snow patches that we found from time to time.

We were in bed by 5:30pm to avoid a cold wind. Everyone had a good long sleep that night.

Sunday and we continued along the ridge tops, stopping for photographs and cell phone calls on point 1365 and then on Maungaorangi. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the pink ribbon track were replaced by substantial DOC orange markers on poles shortly before Maungaorangi and continued to Waiotupuritia Saddle.

Thirst displaced hunger at lunch time so much that we decided to delay eating until we got down to good water. This we found at the head of the Cascade Stream. We stopped for multiple brews of hot tea and a good lunch.

Cascade Hut was reached soon after and much to our surprise, it was empty. The six bunks inside matching our party exactly. So we had a warm evening beside a hot stove and candlelight, allowing us to stay up a bit longer than the previous night.

6:30am the next morning and with a clatter and thump on the verandah outside, Bruce Thompson, employee of Air Charter Taupo arrived. It was a good two hours later before we managed to get a word in edgeways and finally depart the hut. Bruce is sure to be one of the characters of the area but he really is in need of more frequent social contact.

The last leg of the trip involved crossing over to the end of Clements Mill Rd. This was uneventful except for the arrival of a group from the Auckland Tramping Club who had been doing the same trip as us. They were a bit delayed by being unable to find the ridge out of the Oamaru Valley.

The caretaker at Sika Lodge met us with our car and we were soon on our way home.

Thanks to Chris Ecroyd, Paul Ecroyd, Bill Wheeler, Chris White & Mike Gray.