Urewera Tramp - Sandy Bay hut to Lake Waikaremoana

On this second day of the tramp there were two options for the walk back out to Lake Waikaremoana from Sandy Bay hut.

Option one is a four hour walk same as yesterday just in the opposite direction and option two is a longer seven hour walk which stretches further out towards a much smaller Lake Ruapani and then curves back to the road.

The original plan was for everyone to do the longer seven hour walk, but after some consideration on how Robin is still getting used to tramping it was decided that he and Julianne would take the shorter four hour walk and I would take the longer seven hour walk alone. Also as Julianne has the highest level of fitness she is going to carry a lot of the weight on the shorter walk so my pack is not too heavy today.

As Sandy Bay hut is so lovely I was still tempted to just stay here for another day but as that was not going to happen I still wanted to get back into the water for a swim before starting off for the day. Unfortunately the sun took a while to come over the hills and shine onto the water so it was still quite cold.

At 8.15am I finally headed into the water, and it was quite strange as the shallow water near the shore was still quite cold as the sun had only just reached it, but as I went out further into the bay the deeper water was warmer due to the sun; the reverse of what normally happens – strange but true.

I was relaxing in the lovely water about 200 meters out from the shore when Julianne and Robin started out with all of us yelling goodbyes and good luck to each other across the water. And of course my goodbye and ‘do you want a hug’ was echoing throughout the bay.

Once back on shore I was alone at the hut and cold especially as the hut was still in the shade. So I quickly dried myself off and dressed for a day’s tramping.

I loaded up my pack and ate the remains of Robins breakfast muesli which became by morning tea. Just before 9-30am I set off about 50 minutes after Julianne and Robin.

Walking on my own through the bush was quite a strange and wonderful experience; it was so relaxing and very quiet and meant I could go at my own pace.

I motored through the first part of the tramp which was the last half of yesterday’s walk along the edge of Lake Waikareiti before I reached the Y-junction which leads off to the longer Ruapani track after an hour and 45 minutes of walking – right on schedule.

I started to really enjoy the longer Ruapani Track even with my lack of fitness with the lighter pack but I was conscious that I still had at least 4 - 5 hours of walking ahead of me.

The first part of the Ruapani track was nice and level and shortly opened up at Puna Hokoi, a large open area which was quite a surprise to see in the middle of the forest.

I spent a few minutes relaxing and enjoying this surprising open view before heading back into the forest. This track was full of sign posts which was helpful and also quite unexpected. At midday I stopped for 15 minutes for my marmite rolls for lunch and then continued on. At this point my lack of fitness was beginning to show and I was getting quite tired, when I passed a small open area called Hine Waho when I realized I was still making good time.

The next section of the track had these ferns up to my shoulder height which had overgrown the track and were everywhere which I’ve not seen before – good thing Robin and Julianne are not here as the ferns would have been well over their heads! And buried amongst all these ferns was cutty grass which meant I kept getting these small sharp cuts to my legs which I couldn’t see coming through the ferns which was not so much fun. There was about 200 - 300 meters of this close in ferns and cutty grass before the path cleared up.

At this point I knew I was getting close to a sharp 100 m steep rise in the track which I was not looking forward to but I was pleased I managed to get up the slope with only one stop.

From here it was a level walk to the Raupani lake itself. I was now super-hot, sticky and was wondering if I could get down to the lake itself for a swim as the track went near but not to the lake but I was able to bush crash down to water.

The lake itself looked nice and very inviting but on entering the nice fresh cool water my sweaty feet started to sink into the mud. When I was only a meter from the shore I was up to my knees in mud already, so a swim was out of the picture. So instead I went back to the shore and relaxed in the sun for 5 minutes while my feet dried out by letting the fresh air wash over my feet – it felt so good in the sun.

Then back onto the track for the last rise, which on the map took me up another 70 meters taking me up to 1000 meters the highest point on the walk. I plodded on slowly as the ground began to rise thinking I would keep going while it was still gentle before the short sharp climb to the top. At this point I was really tired, hot, sweaty again and looking forward to the end of the tramp and not looking forward to this climb when I suddenly realized I was beginning to head back down and I was at the top of the tramp already – a great sense of achievement.

From here it was a decent down over 400 meters back to the level of Lake Waikaremoana spread out over the next 4 – 5 kilometers. It took a while and I was in the mode of just putting one foot in front of another – it was easy walking it was just that I was simply tired and unfit.

I had planned to meet Julianne at 4pm at the car-park and was not sure if I would be even anywhere near this time but I ended up arriving up at 4.10pm – pretty impressive as I was not walking to a set time at any point and had stopped at Lake Ruapani.

Julianne and Robin also had a great tramp, with Robin going like a train from the beginning and they had made good time to be out at 1.15pm. Being good bird spotters they had seen two Kaka fly by among the many other birds they saw whereas all I had spotted were several tui’s, through I had heard a lot during the day.

Julianne had gone back to the camp site to book us in for the next two night and then returned to pick me up so everything was settled in which was nice and relaxing for me as I slowly began to recover from my tramp.

I was very pleased I had walked the longer tramp even if I was hobbling a bit in the evening.

Blog

Urewera Tramp - Sandy Bay hut to Lake Waikaremoana