Tag: Mt Humphries

24. Omaru – Ngapurua (TMM 4)

Monday, March 4: Hot & sunny

Tramping: 20.4 km

Ngapurua Hut (Doc, $15)

Couldn’t seem to get much sleep last night, and the sleeping bag was always too warm – even after it got down to about 10° I was still outside the bag and only got in because it was beginning to feel a bit cold. Must have had a lot of heat to dump.

Accordingly I was up a little later @ 7:30, but soon had had breakfast and everything was packed away: The volume is slowly but surely decreasing. I was ready to go by 9:30 and set an aim of 11:30 to do the Mt Humphries summit. There was a further route signposted along the way but it is no longer on any map. Got to the turnoff just a little late, had a break of a single muesli bar and then pushed on to the next hut (Pouri) for a lunch break proper and was rewarded by a spectacular panorama of the central volcanoes which I shot as a fivefold ±⅓ bracketed pan with pol filter. The view of Ruapehu was astonishing. Then it was back on the track. Read more…

23. Puteore – Omaru (TMM 3)

Sunday, March 3: Fine & sunny

Tramping: 19.7 km

Omaru Hut (Doc, $15)

I was feeling better when I woke up @ 7:30, and was able to hold down a breakfast of two eggs, salami, crackers with butter, coffee, and packed up leisurely. The night had not been so cold because this was a modern hut with a door that not only closed but also sealed, and possibly some insulation as well. Before leaving at around 9:30 I checked to see where I had missed the path yesterday: The track (in reverse) goes down to the clearing where someone had tried incinerating a sleeping bag, and where I lost the path yesterday. I would only have had to look up.

Then it was onto the track. Today’s variation was a kind of donkey track along the contour lines and that went well until about the third westward section where the signs were lost for a while. I was not optimistic about proceeding, but eventually found a sign, and the track had surreptitiously changed mountain sides. A little further on I thought I had reached a larger clearing, but the going here was also tough. Came through again, but appear to have lost quite a bit of time finding the track. Read more…

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