Date: 10th December, 2006
Location: Tararua Forest Park
Huts visited: Parawai Lodge (0 nights), Field Hut (0 nights)
People: Just me
[Photos]
I had a free Sunday, so I decided to drive to Otaki Forks and walk up past Field Hut. I almost got to Kime Hut, at about 1440 metres (1300 metres above the forks), but I ended up turning around and going back before finally getting there, because the snow was a bit slushy on the top and I was getting awkwardly close to risking getting stuck. (Plus it looked as if the weather might get worse for a while.)
Anyway, it turned out that I couldn’t actually get all the way to Otaki Forks, because a recent slip has blocked the road a couple of kilometres from the end. This resulted in a very vacant picnic area on a very nice day, since I guess all the potential picnickers didn’t want to bother walking the rest of the road, which I didn’t mind. As I returned to the car, a helicopter was buzzing around the slip and it landed briefly and dropped something off to a couple of people waiting nearby with trucks, but I didn’t see what.
[…] in some thin clouds before too long. One thing I did discover was that the previous time I’d tried to get to Kime and back again, I was right in thinking that I’d turned around about 5 minutes before reaching it. (Neat, […]