Tramping Adventure
My husband and I took our four eldest children on an overnight hike in the beautiful Karangahake Gorge about a week before Christmas. I was a little unsure about the readiness of our six year old, but she was keen to try! It was the first time for both her and our nine year old. We booked a night in the Waitawheta hut and borrowed some packs from my husband’s dad.
The walk itself is one we are pretty familiar with – in fact my husband reckons he has done it almost 20 times! It’s relatively flat and although 3+ hours is a long time for kids to walk, it is certainly do-able.
The Unexpected
What we hadn’t anticipated was the water. It did look like it might be a bit rainy, but judging by the raging torrent pouring through the Karangahake Gorge, the rainfall had been rather higher than normal in the area! With slight trepidation we continued on to the carpark and ate a hasty lunch in the car while it rained. At least there wouldn’t be too many people in the hut that night, we reassured ourselves.
So we began our tramp. Before we had gone even a few hundred metres we met our first obstacle. The walk begins by crossing some farmland, and right near the beginning is a ford that is normally dry or a slight puddle. On this occasion however, water was rushing across at nearly knee-height. There was no way to keep our boots dry, so – holding tightly to the younger ones – we sloshed straight through, and resigned ourselves to wet feet for the rest of the day. It rained constantly, and soon all of us were wet through – the timing proportional to the quality of each person’s raincoat.
For a large part of the tramp the path follows alongside the Waitawheta river, whose water level we could clearly see was much higher than normal. We were a little concerned about what the path might be like at certain points along the way, where the track lies directly adjacent to the river. About 40 minutes into the walk we came across a group coming back the other way. They had already been further along and, based on the river conditions, decided to change course and visit another hut instead. But as they were less familiar with the track, we decided to check it out for ourselves.
Adventure!
It didn’t take long to see why they had turned back. At several points the river – which looked angry and keen to suck us all in – came up right alongside the path, where in previous trips it had been a good 1-2 metres below the track. While completing this section we were painfully aware that if the river rose much further we could potentially end up stuck between two impassable sections, unable to either move forward or go back! Plus of course there was the potential of being unable to return the following day. The scariest part was a section where the river was actually washing right over the path, but it didn’t seem likely to suck anyone in, as long as no one lost their footing. So we carefully crossed, helping the kids over one at a time, and my husband knew after this point there were unlikely to be further problems.
The Final Hurdle
The multiple river crossings further along all have swing bridges, except the final one where there is (thankfully) a flood route. Even though we knew we were safe high up on the bridges, it was pretty frightening to see the power of the engorged river thundering underneath us! It was incredible to see how many of the usual landmarks such as boulders and old concrete blocks were submerged and hidden from view. Just when we had nearly made it to the hut, we discovered a fresh danger on the flood path of the final river crossing. Where there would usually be a slight trickle of water over the path we were unexpectedly confronted with a rushing waterfall, probably waist-deep and extremely fast flowing. It definitely looked too dangerous to attempt at that point, with a drop just a metre away to our right. So we climbed up the bank a little way and found a less scary part to cross. Scott planted himself firmly in the middle of the current and helped everyone across one at a time. The pull of the water was the strongest we had felt yet, but with careful foot placement and some branches to hang onto we managed a safe crossing.
New Friends
As we made our way over the last wooden bridge and up towards the hut, we were relieved – and surprised – to see smoke coming out of the chimney! A lovely Canadian family had been there overnight and decided to stay an extra day to wait for the river levels to fall before coming out. They welcomed us in and helped us arrange our boots and clothes around the fire to dry out, then gave us some boiled water for our cup-of-soups! Before long we were in our dry clothes and had mopped up the water off our bedroom floor. The kids all played games together and their new friends taught them how to make friendship bracelets. Later that night we visited the glow worms together.
Back Again
In the morning, the Canadians had an update from their friend who has access to info on river levels, and we were relieved to hear they were all falling. This meant we could go out the same way we had come in, rather than having to use the alternative route which would have been twice as long. We decided to stick together for the hike out, in case there were still dangerous parts on the path. It was great to have the company and comradeship on the final stages of our adventure! In just that short time we could observe a dramatic difference in water levels, so the walk out was much less stressful.
Thankfully we all made it out without incident, except for nearly losing our car key! It had dropped out of Scott’s camera bag on our walk back and was seen and picked up by our new friend who was walking behind. What a blessing it was in so many ways to have them there! While it was the most eventful hike we have done, the kids loved it and we look forward to doing more in future. It’s a great family activity!
