Wharawhara - Pahiko Loop
9 July, 2023
Day 1
On Wednesday our group of 5 guys aged 14-16 went out on an awesome mission to conquer a circuit I'd eyed up a couple weeks before while just casually staring at the topo. (something I'm known for...) The 2 day loop was pretty beefy at 28km made up of a 1km bushwhack and 10km of track we had no idea what the condition was going to be like.
On Wednesday we started at Wharawhara Rd just before 8.30 am. We crossed the weir and made the leg-burning grind to Te Rereatukahia Hut in just over 1hr 30min. (1hr faster than the sign) At the hut, we had a brief snack and sheltered from the wind before heading up to Mt Baldy where the wind was gusting somewhere around 100km/h. After messing around in the gale, we passed through the saddle and sidled east below Tangitu. Soon after, we were pleasantly surprised by how sheltered it was on the ridgeline behind the thin layer of beech trees.
We stopped for lunch just before Wahine Rock on a sheltered mossy flat. Skeptical of the track condition ahead, we had a meeting to discuss whether we would turn back and chill out at the hut for the night or push on for another 5hrs to try to reach our intended campsite nearly 8 km away. We pushed on at a solid pace through the mud, wind, and sometimes overgrown track. This was still a night and day difference from my previous trip across Te Hanga Ridge. We arrived at the campsite just before sunset. After setting up the tarps, we cooked up a feed and went off to sleep.
Day 2
We woke to alarms at 6 am. A fairly speedy breakfast and pack-up meant we were moving by 7.30 am. We took a 30min detour down a slip to refill water bottles before continuing along past Pahiko and into the small saddle just west of the peak. Here, we traveled downhill to the north down a prominent spur on a bearing of 7 degrees. We decided pretty fast that we didn't need to use a bearing and that as long as we were walking downhill, we'd hit the Waipapa track at some point. We ended up east of the spur making good time down a stream gully until we came across a 30m+ waterfall. We had to backtrack east and make the near-vertical descent down the side of the waterfall to the bottom of the valley below. Shortly after this, we met the Waipapa track and then Waitawheta Hut where we had lunch.
After lunch, we swiftly traveled upstream towards Wharawhara Saddle. We had a picturesque swim in the blue pool before making the steep ascent over the saddle. The bog on the saddle soon gave way to a well-maintained track down into the Wharawhara Valley. Endless switchbacks make the spur I would have never even attempted to descend a breeze. The track then crosses the stream something like 5 times before giving way to some speedy track which we walked at 5km/h before finishing at 3.15pm.
Difficulty: 7/10 - solid 14km days, moderate terrain, off-track navigation
Track condition: 7/10 - Old NS is boggy and a little slow
Walking time: 16hrs - Day 1 (9hrs), Day 2 (7hrs)
Overall a great trip that I would thoroughly recommend to the experienced tramper.
