So, how did the trip go?

Well actually I arrived back to find work comming out of my ears. I will add a report, gpx track etc shortly. In the meantime you can see my photos at http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v424/pmcke/Tramping%20Trips/Kaweka%20trip%20Oct%202009/

Cool pics. Looks like the weather improved after a chilly start.

Right, now for a bit of a report. It was a great trip. We drove down to Kuripapango on Thursday evening. The other car went earlier than us and got caught in a snow flurry on the Gentle Annie, which had them a little worried. By the time we got there it was a beautiful evening. We set off up Kuripapango Hill on Friday morning. Straight up 700m with heavy packs. Got to the hill for lunch and then on to Kiwi Saddle Hut. We had a sleety shower on the way but that was the only time on the trip that we had parkas on. We abandoned the idea of going on further to Castle Camp and settled for the night at the hut. There was a bit of rain and hail in the evening. Saturday we headed on up the ridge. There was a bit of cloud hanging around which we hoped would burn off during the day but it didn’t. It was a cold wind and there is still quite a bit of up as you go along the ridge towards the main Kaweka Range. We had lunch in the Studholm Saddle and decided it was too far to try and get to Ballard or Tira Lodge that day. We got to Kaweka J in fog and snow and then dropped down to Back Ridge Hut, effectively making our trip shorter than planned but no one seemed to mind. Sunday, the cloud did burn off and it was getting quite hot as we went down Back Ridge. We dropped down and had a look at the Back Ridge Bivy, which is about 100m down off the ridge. We dropped down to Kiwi Mouth for the night. Monday we took the high route to Kiwi Saddle. This involves a 600m climb, then a 300m drop, then 250m climb to the hut. However we were fit and our packs lighter so we were at Kiwi Saddle by midday. We blobbed around the hut for the afternoon and chopped up some wood, then had early dinner and carrying enough water for a cup of tea and breaky we left at about 6pm and tramped the 2 hrs to Kuripapango Hill where we camped out looking over the Hawkes Bay. It was a breezy night but we had an excellent sunrise in the morning. Our final day was only 1.5 hours down the hill to the car. We had lunch at Waiouru and were back in town in good time. I have posted a GPX file and route here, will put a description of the route in due course.