Dates: 17th – 19th November, 2006
Location: Ruahine Forest Park
Huts visited: Longview Hut (1 night), Awatere Hut (0 nights)
[Photos]
This was a WTMC easy-medium-rated trip. We were originally supposed to get to Top Gorge hut (via Longview), but the weather caved in too much for us to easily get to Top Gorge. Instead, we stayed overnight at Longview and went for a series of walks.
We arrived at the road end on Friday night expecting to be camping there on a very rainy and windy night, but it ended up being completely calm.
Actually getting to Longview only took a couple of hours or so on Saturday morning, and we would have continued except the weather looked like it was getting a lot worse at the time, and having a nice hut, that was tied securely to the ground (literally), seemed preferable to risking a night under a tent fly. (Top Gorge only has a couple of bunks.)
We did try to get down to Top Gorge via a signposted river route, but got stuck part way along when the route appeared to drop over a cliff. Not sure what was going on there.
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re Top Gorge, for future reference you just sidle that waterfall on the TR, other than that it’s straightforward.
Thanks for the tip. It’s a while ago now and I remember someone (not me) headed around that way for a look, but got stuck and couldn’t see a clear way through. Maybe we didn’t persist enough. Next time I’m in the area I’ll take another look.
Kia ora Mike,
We got hung up by that fall years back for a few minutes until, as Richie writes above, we climbed up the true right side and sidled the face of the water fall. I recall it involving a couple of rather dicey steps. You would not want to fall there.
Cheers,
Robb
Hehe. Maybe another time, then. I remember our original intention had been to come right over the top and get there from behind (I don’t have the map in front of me and don’t recall the details), but the wind on that day made that option very unfavourable.
That track down from the Ngamoko range to Top Gorge is a good way to go. It’s in good condition. It’s a nice walk over from Heritage Lodge, then down river to Leon Kinvig and back to Table Flat rd with a cheeky visit to Toka Biv. That’d be a nice weekend.