Maungahuka at Easter

How in the heck do you loose 2 kg on an Easter trip?? Are you talking about body weight or pack weight. Last time I weighed myself before and after a trip was when I went tramping for 2 weeks in the South Island. For all that effort I didn't loose a gram. Glad you had a great trip by the way, sounds fantastic.

Hi Ron - hope you're enjoying Wellington. My email address is [Email address removed]. I have some nice photos and am looking forward to seeing yours :)

Glad to hear someone gets good weather on that part of the range my past trips have been exciting to say the least. When your not built like a racing greyhound pmcke loosing a couple of kilos despite the volume consumed is disturbingly easy. the other day I drank 3 litres of water from my camel back drank 1.5 litres of coffee from my flask at least a litre of water at crosbies plus handfuls at every stream that looked ok and came out after 9 hours 2.5kilos lighter (not counting a good quantity of food as well).

What low dropped my jaw in this trip was we caught by 3 younsters they started from Otaki Forks carpark, run steeply up to Field Hut, run steeply down to Penn Creek Hut, run steeply up again to junction before Tuiti peak at 11ish and still laughing! How come could they do this even with small day pack? What high raised my eyebrow was a fellow tramper with heavy loaded full pack came accross us the other way before Tunui rock at about 11.30 am told us Maungahuka Hut was 1.5 hour away but he did not stay there last night. He walked out from Anderson Mem Hut that morning, that was 5~7 hours from Maungahuka Hut according to the sign. How many hours needed to get there is a simple calculation but he made me confused! What amazed me the most was Amy told me 2 male kiwi trampers knocked open the Field Hut door at 10.30 pm in the night, shooting the bright headlight beam to astonished Amy. Then one said to her: "Do you speak Chinese?" word by word clearly in Mandarin! She was all alone by herself before their arrival and felt timid to stay over night in that historical hut. She prayed to her mum in heaven for sending someone along. That was realised. What the weird and hard to explain is one of them speaks good Mandarin! What impressed me the deepest was the kindness and hospitality of Wellingtonians, including the family trampers that hosted Amy a night in their place, our thoughtful outstanding leader PhilipW, super-fit heavy pack carrier Erica0960. Thanks for all your helps. Without their assistance my long since dream of cracking the Tararua ladder wouldn't be possible! Look forward to having good companions in future tramps. Ron & Amy

Haha.. what a fluke for Amy running into someone who speaks her language. The mountains are a wonderful place and though sometimes a nightmare, more often it is our dreams that come true.

Thanks Ron - I think you were the super-fit one though....and although I was going to have a go at it alone if I hadn't found companions to go with, I'm not sure I would have carried on under the conditions and you never really hesitated which gave me confidence. If you and Amy want to do some more tramping this side of the Tararua's you would be welcome to use my place as a base. You'd just have to put up with a couple of exuberant dogs. Cheers Erica