• HJSSJS Great article HelenC! Tramping with food poisoning, what a nightmare. In March 2009 three of us took the trip from No 1 dam up the Mangahao Valley, over Girdlestone Saddle into the headwaters of the Ohau and out to Poads Road. We spread the trip over three days staying at Mangahao Flats Hut and the new South Ohau Hut. Its a great trip; the Mangahao river is as beautiful as many have described and the bush lush. There are many idyllic stopping spots and the upper valley where the Mangahao is crossed feels surprisingly spacious. The descent into and down the headwaters of the South Ohau river is quite adventuresome - steep to the stream then slow and careful down the streambed sidling the odd little waterfall and leaving the stream altogether a couple of times (large orange triangles mark the spots - also, attractively and nostalgically, some old cairns). For us, walking times (only, add on long breaks like lunch) were 5:45 to Mangahao Flats Hut (1:10 up to swing bridge along the river if you want a benchmark - just fine in low flow but not a great idea in higher flows), 3hrs to Girdlestone Saddle and 3 more down to South Ohau Hut, and 5:30 out to the road on day 3. Great huts - the stove at the Flats is all its cracked up to be, and the new South Ohau Hut is excellent. Our weather was dry and after a dry spell and the mud was just fine. The track up the Mangahao valley was easy to follow but is a rooted sidle type track (ie up and down a bit as it negotiates the valley sides, with some steep drops beside it) not a path. On one forested bench the track bifurcates into a 'wet feet route' and a 'dry feet route' (scratched into the track marker). In the low water conditions we enjoyed, the wet feet route was easy and avoided a slip. In wetter conditions I'd take the alternative and it didn't look too bad. In heavy or prolonged rain I would proceed above Mangahao Flats with caution (actually I probably wouldn't proceed) and would keep out of the Ohau headwaters (and the South Ohau and Ohau for that matter). The route down the Ohau is follow the river to the junction with the North Ohau and on to just before Blackwater stream joins. Leave the river on the true left at a big boulder bank and gain the well worn track. This lifts you up to a grassy patch with a view over the confluence of the Ohau and Blackwater stream. Follow the track above Blackwater stream and over a bridge. A large, well trodden, track then sidles easily above the river for about an hour and a quarter to the farmland. Follow the poles from there to the Poads Road (15 minutes). If the weather is wet or threatening when you reach Girdlestone saddle divert up the spur (good track) to Te Matawai Hut. Then exit via Gable End Ridge. It will add a bit of time into day 3 but better than risking rising waters in the streams and river. Enjoy this tramp, we did!
  31 March 2009
• Haqii I tramped the valley from the dams through to Te Matawai Hut, Feb 2008. It was a fantastic trip. I did this alone, so could not spend any extra time in the valley as I needed to get to Te Matawai Hut to let everyone know via cell that all was ok. But could imagine camping at Avalanche Flats or Harris Creek and taking a week to do this walk. I had perfect weather and the famous Mangahao mud was not too much trouble. I am planning to do this trip again soon with company and not rushing it.
  8 June 2008
• tararua Hi Helen, Loved your coment (article). As noted I did say it will take between 5 and 7 hours to complete depending on the conditions. Hope your knee is better and next time maybe you could carry on and come out at Levin via the Ohau River.
  14 June 2005
• HelenC Tramping in the lovely Mangahao valley. This walk had attracted me for quite some time - it lured me like a siren. On paper it looks great. A beautiful river valley in the Tararua wilderness. No mountains to climb!! The internet article impled a 5 hour saunter alongside a river bed travelling through virgin Beech and Podocarp forest. True, the web site contained a indignantly contrary contribution from a female correspondent,to the effect that the walk was no doddle, and not fit for children. I assumed that she was just an unfit whinger - I have seen plenty of fit little tykes scrambling over the hills in my time. Everyone knows that the Tararuas are wet, wild and windy, and where most tramping fatalities occur - you need to pick your weather carefully. The weather was just right - 4-5 rainless days before we went in, and then a forecast for a fine Saturday, and possibly light rain on the Sunday. We were well prepared, with warm gear, wet weather gear, and an extra day's food. The drive took somewhat longer than expected. Murray clocked up 17 ks over 30 minutes on the so called "12 km" winding dirt road behind Shannon. We arrived at the Mangahao dam, kitted up, and took off along the bush trail that sidles along the dam, ignoring the "wet foot" tracks made across the mud by every other tramper. (first mistake). It was reasonably slow going over slippery rocks and pretty soon I slipped and wound up squatting on one knee - the dodgy one, that I havent been able to flex properly for 6 months. The knee was quite surprised at this turn of events, and so was I - I could still walk on it, but it felt a little unstable and I could foresee a bit of protest swelling in the joint as the day went on. We continued on this medium slow track for about an hour, picking our way through rocks, tree roots, and occasionally, cutty grass. ( sometimes a combination of all three at once) The bush was very beautiful, though to be honest I was mainly looking at the ground and cutty grass in front of me. We came to the first big swing bridge, where one crosses from the true left bank to the true right, and where the "wet feet" route rejoins the "all weather track", and our first real look at the Mangahao river, which was startling. Most North Island rivers are brown, or at least cloudy. This is a transparent turquoise, more reminiscent of a Fiordland river. Deep blue green pools alternate with clear shallow water babbling over stones. By this time it was midday, and we decided to break for about a quarter of an hour for lunch, as we knew we were approaching the toughest part of the track. Mindful of the potential knee damage and the rigours ahead , I popped a prophylactic Voltaren, plus a Losec (for the stomach's sake). My tasty egg and ham sandwiches didn’t taste that great - just a bit blah. Never mind, we pressed on up the river. At this point the river emerges from a small gorge, which is not really trampable, so the track "sidles along" parallel to the river, but often above the cliffs which loom over the gorge. When you see a track described as "sidling" , it's not doing it in the same way that a person does. And it's at this point that we were made aware that we were on a tramp, not a walk. Some of the climbing was very steep indeed - four points of contact required. On the whole, there wasn’t too much vertigo, because even though the track cut across cliffs at times, there were always a few trees to grab between us and the river ( by now, just a distant roar directly below.) Every time we went up, we came down, as one does. We climbed up and down again, quite a few times, and in the process, used muscles that had been on holiday since I was sixteen. Murray commented on the beauty of the bush a few times. I weasnt into beauty at this point. Even though I was pretty fit for hill walking - we had been galloping over the Rimutaka hills during the previous three weekends - this was something else. So by the time we arrived at Harris Creek, three and a half hours after we started, I was little jaded. There was another complicating factor. I had made a couple of trips into the side of the bush, armed with loo paper already. After the first, I congratulated myself on shedding all that extra weight. After the second, I was lighter still, and becoming paler to boot. In the next couple of hours I would make a couple more side trips, with increasing urgency. By this time I was nauseous and "off my food"… certainly not into snacking, though I kept up the drinking. Still, the section after Harris creek started off well enough - nice flat walking among the tree roots. Pretty quickly, though, we struck the mud in earnest. What can I say about the Tararua mud? It is wet. It can be deep. It is heavy when it sticks to your boot. It sucks - that is, it sucks at your boot, and sometimes your leg up to the knee. It is also very sticky : mud that has dried on your leg or pack, refuses to be washed off. At least it wasn’t foul smelling. Even though there had been no rain for several days, there didn’t seem to have been any drainage since the storms before christmas, or even since last February's floods. Is water retention a feature of the beech forest litter, I wonder? Could we market this and sell it to people who live by the seaside, or to florists - never mind sphagnum moss. What would it have been like if it had been raining? It's at times like this that the walking pole comes into its own, as a depth sounder. ( I'ts also good for pole vaulting yourself over the big mud pools). Even so, and in spite of my increasingly advanced mud dancing skills, there were times when the boots disappeared entirely. Mud dancing is slower than tramping, and by the time we reached Barra creek, two thirds of the way to the hut, 5 hours had elapsed from when we started. I was also starting to weary - no food for 4 hours, in spite of some pretty physical work, and there wasn’t much of a spring in my step. I nauseously forced down half a muesli bar, nibble by nibble. After Barra creek, the track seems to get more uneven again - there were a couple more climbs, which I was taking more slowly by now. While I was off in the bush with the loo paper for the nth time, Murray took everything out of my pack except the sleeping bag and warm clothes. This helped me, but didn’t speed him up any. Finally we came to a decision point - we had a choice between wet feet (ie finishing off the tramp to the hut along the river bed) or climbing over a ginormous cliff. We chose wet feet. Ah, the bliss of the cold water on the tired feet. The river travel was surprisingly easy, boulder hopping alternating with river crossing, and sometimes just splashing our way down the middle of the river - never higher than our knees. Finally, about an hour later, the GPS said that the hut was within just a few feet. We rounded the corner, and there it was, mounted a little way above the river, basking in the late afternoon sun. It was 6 pm and the "5 hour" tramp had taken us just over 7 hours. The only other inhabitants of the hut were a host of dead flies. We brushed them aside and made a cup of tea - wrung out our socks, and settled down to enjoy the evening. The hut visitor book reveals that this hut doesn’t get a huge amount of use. Other visitors included one Rosie and friend, and then Levin SAR (Search and Rescue) looking for said Rosie and friend, and a humorous group who gave their main activity on their trip as "mudwrestling". Most people seemed to have enjoyed their trip ( or at least said they did) and were well pleased with the hut, which was clean, spacious, had plenty of light, and had a sweeping view of the river and bush. Even the loo was a cut above the average. When we cooked dinner, it was all a bit sad - instead of the rapacious appetite that one usually works up, I could only pick at the very fine curry we had carried in, though I had better luck with the rice. The apricots stuffed with almonds and ginger were just altogether too much for the delicate state of my insides. Dinner and dishes done, we retired to the sleeping platform at the witching hour of 8.30 pm. The numbness had worn off, and everything hurt: feet, thighs, bum, arms. But it was quiet and comfortable. Sleep was fitful. I was worried about whether there would be rain, and if the river rose and we couldn’t go out down-river, how I would manage the trip out over those high bluffs in my enfeebled state? At what point did one call in SAR? ( Helicopter seemed a good option…) I finally dreamed that my sister and family drove up river in a 4WD to rescue me, but while we were getting ready to go, the river rose to the level of the hut, so we were forced to go out over the tops. Thus refreshed, we woke to a balmy, fine day. The river remained obligingly low, and we heated up the commercially dehydrated "bacon and egg" breakfast, which the nice chap at the tramping store had assured me tasted just like the real thing. I feel sorry for the poor chap - obviously doesn’t get exposed to much decent home cooking. The stuff looked like bacon and scrambled eggs that had been masticated together, and then spat out into a slurry. I've never tasted the same, but that's how I'd imagine it tastes as well. Murray manfully worked his way through a portion, and I pushed down some vogels toast and a nice cup of tea or two. We set off down river, and in half an hour retraced the distance it had taken us an hour to cover the previous evening. We took a chance and continued easily down river till we got to Barra Creek. By now, the river crossings were at the "wet your shorts" level, and after another cup of tea, we decided prudentially to head back inland through the mud. As it happened we could have continued down river to Harris Creek. The climb (s) over the gorge seemed easier too - tummy settling down - and we took the wet track option out toward the dam. In all, we were out in just over 5 hours, and even managed to enjoy the day.
  13 June 2005
• nzpilgrim Definitely not a track to walk when there is rain forecast - the river and streams rise rapidly and the track descends into a boggy morass (then a stream, once the rain settles in consistently). The track itself needs a bit of work in areas, especially where the river is eroding the track away or where the track cut into the hill is a tad precarious. A good gust of wind can make the swingbridge crossing of the river in the gorge quite dodgy, as the gusts do their best to sling you over the side and into the drink. The slip (~30mins from the hut) seems to have settled enough to allow the more fleet-footed to scramble across safely - when the river is up, you have no choice anyway. Otherwise this conceivably could be a good walk of about 6 hours each way. A-star hut as well, with an excellent woodburner.
  9 May 2005
• Warapong Hi, I have been into the hut very recently. I found no problem with the track with all the briges cross on all major creek. However, the track is very boggy when wet. Expect to spend at least 5-6 hrs to the hut or more when the water level is high as there is a section on Dick creek which can become quite dangerous to cross after heavy rain.
  24 October 2004
• tararua Hi Penny, Sorry to hear that you had a difficult time during your tramp to Mangahao Flats Hut recently. I have done this trip many times over the years and at no stage did I indicate during the article that this was a walk in the park.As with any tramping in the Tararuas the tracks can change due to weather and the extreme weather patterns over February certainly showed that.I last did this trip over Labour weekend last year with my family of which my youngest daughter had just turned 9 and we had no problems reaching the hut on the first day.We actually carried on to Te Matawai and then down the Ohau River over the next 2 days .Many side creeks in the Tararuas can become impassable after heavy rain so caution should always be noted. As you stated it does pay to contact DOC for up to date track conditions,but they also need input from the public as they don't always have that info on hand unless we imform them. TARARUA 10-04-2004
  11 April 2004
• richmond Great article.Must do this trip sometime
  10 February 2004
• KatieK footnote: If the South Ohau river was in flood (and you still managed to cross the side streams to get to it in the first place) the track out of the river you would need is called the Yeats 500 (shown on the map leading up from the Ohau to Te Matawai Hut) - Gable End Ridge track is one of the options back down into the valley at the far end, the other being via Waiopehu Hut.
  5 January 2004
• Mike B six golden oldies will try the valley in acouple of weeks and will report back
  30 December 2003
• nzpilgrim This sounds like a good little tramp to do sometime. Perhaps in the winter months when I tend to stay away from the tops and the snow. Thanks, I'll keep it in mind.
  23 November 2003
• Taranaki I have only tramped in the Tararua in the MtBruce area, this is an excellent article and I will suggest it to my tramping friends as another trip we could do. Thanks
  20 November 2003

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