Leon Kinvig Hut and beyond the Weekend 11th 12th November 2010
Leader Neville Grubner
For some time I had been keen to get back to Leon Kinvig hut in the Pohangina river and my planned trip
was to head up Knights track down to Leon Kinvig for the night and then back up, along the Ngamoko
tops and down Shorts track. A few days before hand though Tony predicted a very windy Saturday and
suggested the Ngamoko tops would not be a good place to be that weekend. What’s the alternative?
After a bit of discussion and tossing around a few ideas, we decided to do it from the other site of the
range going in via Apiti track and back out through Apiti saddle.
Saturday
was
a
bit
showery, but very windy as
7 Parawais headed off from
the Ngamoko road end and
up the easy gradient of Apiti
track. Headed towards
Leon Kinvig hut the short
crossing of the Ruahine
tops was enough of the
wind and we reached the
hut late afternoon just as
the rain started to set in.
We planned to go all the
way down to Ngamoko hut
that day and it was quite
hard to get going on the last
leg of the day down the
Pohangina River. As we
progressed
the
rain
stopped and the wind died
down. The river travel
wasn’t
as
easy
as
I
remembered and we were all
glad to see the warm comfortable hut after a 9 – 10 hour day. Being at the end of the group and arriving
wet and cold with the fire already going was most welcoming. Ngamoko is a very comfortable hut.
We were all glad to see the warm, comfortable hut after a 10 hour day
On Sunday it looked as we were in for a good day as we headed up the Ngamoko stream destined for
Apiti Saddle. The lower reaches of this stream has a couple of waterfalls to navigate your way around
but after that it opens out to a very pleasant stream to travel all the way up to the swampy area (lake)
just below Apiti saddle. There are reports of a hut in this area but we never found any sign of it. Cutting
across from Apiti Saddle to the track along the tops proved to be quite tough going and seemed to take
forever even though it wasn’t really that far.
We decided on a late lunch in the Mangatewainui steam before tackling the last big climb back up to the
Apiti track. By this stage it was quite hot and it was looking to be a longer day than we first thought. By
the time we got to the cars we had been going a good 11 hours and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one feeling
a bit stuffed to say the least.
A great alternative trip all round and for most of us it was unexplored territory. It wasn’t all easy going to
the extent Tony had to take photos of the various scratches we obtained along the way.
Those on the trip were
Owen, Michael, Tony, David, Sue, Elisabeth, Neville (scribe and leader)