It was another of those wintery, will we or won’t we, kind of days, but we went. Five of us set out for Atiwhakatu Hut. It was damp and the track had lots of puddles and mud to jump over, or stride through (depending on your footwear). The Atiwhakatu river was in full flow, dramatic and very noisy, and some of the side streams had turned into spectacular waterfalls.
It was a straightforward two hours walk to the hut, lunch inside while we warmed up a bit and two hours back to the car park. However, two members of our group had never walked this track before and enjoyed the newness of it. One of them had an issue with heights and was congratulated for getting calmly across the swing bridge – twice!
We couldn’t take the low track at ‘the slip’ because it was submerged in the river, so we took the upper track. This was interesting to negotiate because another small part of the bank had slipped away and a new (or old) stream had sprung to life, so a bit of tree swinging was needed.
Other than that, it was a nice muddy walk and good to be out in the forest.
Trampers – Chris (trip leader), Anita, Nigina, Laura, Mike
