Sometimes grueling but always stunning, the tramp round Mt Ruapehu is certainly worth doing. Just be sure to build up your fitness levels before-hand.
The valley near Rangipo hut
In February 1996 we spent six days tramping the circuit around Mt Ruapehu. We began on the south-west side, on the Ohakune Mountain Road, and walked through beech forest and patches of tussock to the Mangaehuehu Hut, where there was one other tramper and a beautiful view of the sunset. The tramp on to Rangipo Hut on the east side of Ruapehu was a tough day. We crossed over a dozen valleys, most with unstable rocky sides, and when we came to the second-to-last big one (pictured), I was so depressed at having to descend another rocky, shifting valley slope and then climb up the other side that I sat down and fell asleep for 15 minutes. It is scenery of a bleak dry grandeur that is found nowhere else in New Zealand and brought to mind documentaries on the Valley of the Kings in Egypt that I’d seen as a child.
Rangipo hut
The Rangipo Hut was excellent, with expansive views (elevation 1,560 metres), and we had it to ourselves apart from a few giant blowflies. In the tranquility and silence of the morning sun we walked across the desert and down into the valley of the Whangaehu River. This sulphurous river runs between cliffs of hard volcanic rock and usually drains the overflow of Ruapehu’s crater lake. There was a fine strong bridge across it, but apparently this has since been swept away by a lahar during an eruption. Heading north across the access road to Tukino skifield, the moonscape of the desert with its weird, jagged volcanic features slowly gave way to a covering of scrub and short trees.
The next stop was the New Waihohonu Hut, which is also part of the more popular Tongariro circuit. It was full (36 people!) and to our dismay included a group of youths on a Taranaki Young Offenders ‘journey of self-discovery’ programme. Their guide had his own tent and wisely slept outside away from them. At one am they were still sniffing butane from their cigarette lighters and threatening to do obscene things to each other. I’m sure some of them gained a great deal from the experience of tramping there, but none of the rest of us in the hot, crowded hut that night gained much from our experience of them (when we got back to Auckland we went out and bought ourselves a tent).
Whakapapaiti valley
The track from there to Whakapapa Village provided great views of Ngauruhoe quite close and Ruapehu further away (pictured earlier in the article). It’s a long walk through a flattish, semi-arid scrubland of tussock, shrubs and dry stream beds, so in Whakapapa Village we stopped at a cafe for afternoon tea before hitching a ride up the Bruce Road and continuing on down to the Whakapapaiti Hut. There were only two people there and it was surrounded by beautiful beech forest - quite a relief after the overcrowding at the New Waihohonu Hut and the barren lands we’d walked through. The Whakapapaiti valley itself (pictured) is a grand landscape of rugged cliffs rising to the snowfields above.
Lake Surprise
The track from Whakapapaiti to Mangaturuturu Hut stays mostly above the bushline and crosses several valleys before descending past the aptly named Lake Surprise (pictured) into the Mangaturuturu Valley. We met no other people on the track that day. There would have been great views to the west and possibly Mt Taranaki on the coast, but it rained a lot and the track was severely eroded and tricky in places, so we didn’t see much apart from the track and its immediate environs. Mangaturuturu Hut is fairly compact, but happily there were only 3 other trampers in the hut so there was plenty of room for us all. It’s a nice hut, but the toilet was gross. When I sat down on it, what seemed like dozens of giant, furry, black blowflies flew up and out between my legs, brushing against me as they went - yech! It was almost enough to give a bloke a phobia!
Mangaturuturu valley
From the Mangaturuturu Hut to the Ohakune Mountain Road is just a short climb across boardwalked swamps and then up by the beautiful channels and pools that the headwaters of the Mangaturuturu River have carved into the rock. We basked in the sun for a while before the shuttle came to take us back to Ohakune. The solitude we had found on Ruapehu was a wonderful thing in a busy world.
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