Twenty-four hours later

Turere Lodge under the southern skies (photo cred: Matt)

Last weekend, the usual post-work Friday dash took us into the Rimutaka range. We’d convinced Matt and Phoebe to join us in our ascent of Mt Matthews.

This is a challenging walk/tramp, which can be squeezed into a long summer’s day, but not a short winter sun-glimpse. We therefore did the sensible thing, and spent two hours walking in the dark to a hut, Turere Lodge, along the river valley and nearer the base of the mountain. This was less treacherous than it seems, since the track to the hut was well formed and our head torches were the finest a Kathmandu sale had to offer.

Encouraging the wet log to catch

The remainder of the evening was spent exploring the 32-bed hut, in which we were the only occupants (a source of great excitement), and its surroundings, including a flame-retardant log in the fireplace, a nearby possum and an audible but invisible kiwi during our amateur kiwi spotting walk, and a big dark drop to the Orongorongo River in the valley below. Dinner consisted of pre-prepared chilli con carne and carbon zero wine from Yealands, and post-dinner entertainment consisted of cards, waiting for the timer lights to go off so we could use candlelight, and doomed attempts to set fire to the aforementioned unburnable log.

Orongorongo river valley in the morning light

Morning dawned bright and early, but we opted to rise a bit later. By 9.30am we were well on our way, fording the Orongorongo several times and pumping our legs up through bush and native beech forest to the South Saddle. A picture stop to appreciate views back to Wellington was followed by another slog through mossy goblin forest to the summit.

Appreciating the views back to Wellington (Dora can see Mt Matthews from her desk)

At the summit with views to the Wairarapa

Our lie-in meant we couldn’t dally too long if we wanted to spend the night in a proper bed (the car park gate is locked at 6pm) so we headed downhill then downstream then down-path to arrive back at Matt's warm car exactly 24hrs after we'd set off.

Mossy goblin forest

The steep descent

That evening we dined at the General Practitioner, where you can quaff and scoff while admiring medical implements from the 19^th century. We watched the Lions convincingly shut down the Maori All Blacks, then retired, our drowsiness enhanced by mulled wine.

Sunday was much more relaxed. Odd jobs consumed the morning, while the library consumed my afternoon. We Skyped and Netflixed the rest of the day away.