Ah, the sounds of tramping on Mt Pirongia. I just got back from a trip up to Pahautea Hut on Pirongia. The weather forecast was for pretty atrocious weather - wind, rain, hail, thunder etc. But hey, it couldn't be that bad, could it? Well, it wasn't - I survived perfectly adequately.
I decided to try going up a way I hadn't been up before - the Tahuanui track. It was a nice enough track - very muddy up the top, but that's kind of expected: this is Pirongia after all, and it has been raining for months now. As we got higher, we got more exposed to the wind - which was pretty ferocious at times. Finally, we made it to the hut to try and warm up. Some chicken biryani was soon bubbling away and warming us up.
After a good night's sleep, the hut was still standing, despite being thoroughly shaken in the wind and massive amount of rain (I'm guessing 200mm of rain fell overnight - there was a sink outside that was filled up that much - and there's no other way for water to get into it... it really was raining!). After some coffee and porridge, we got walking, and the weather got back to raining. By the time we got to the top, it was hailing again, along with wind gusts that must have been getting up around 80km/hr. With the temperature being somewhere well below 10C, it was certainly cold! The track had turned into a stream by this point, so there was plenty of splashing all the way down. I managed to get down only falling over 3 times, which isn't bad considering how wet and slippery it was.
All up, a good trip - it was nice to get out into the bush again! Next time I go there, I think Naomi might be with me for her Dad-and-daughter tramping trip... hopefully the weather's a little better then!
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