Man, it was good to get out. I reckon I need an overnight trip once every six weeks (even a short one), and as it had been two months since my last trip, I was getting desperate,.
The weather forecast looked good for the first time in a long time, but as everyone was leaning towards a shorter, easier weekend trip, we decided to lock in the Burn Hut loop, a loop that I've always wanted to do.
Burn Hut is a bit of an anomaly in the Tararuas, in that it doesn't really lead to anywhere and so is more of a destination in itself rather than forming part of a big adventure.
The track starts at the Mangahao dams, about 10km in from Shannon in the Manawatu, on a very rough and windy gravel road. It's perfectly manageable in a 2WD car, though parts of the road could be a bit uncomfortable if your vehicle has low clearance.
The dams themselves are quite interesting, and the hydro scheme is the only one in the lower North Island.
The track to Burn Hut starts at the No. 2 Dam. It sidles along the very picturesque Mangahao river for about an hour, before crossing a wooden bridge. After the bridge, the track climbs relatively steeply to about 800m. From there, the track emerges out into scrub and leatherwood and it's a boggy, but more or less flat hour's walk to the hut. The hut is clearly visible from when you first emerge from the trees.
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| Just after popping above the treeline |
The weather was fantastic - mild and without a puff of wind. The views and the colours were amazing, although after seeing the snow-capped peaks to the South, I couldn't help but wish I was down there, amongst the snow.
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| Beautiful evening colours - the hut is straight ahead in the distance |
It's a cosy, 6 bunker hut that doesn't seem to get a great deal of use, probably due to its off the beaten track location.
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| Almost at the hut |
The evening of a fine day is a great time to be on the tops and we took our time walking to the hut, soaking up the atmosphere. It was very peaceful and relaxing and was probably the highlight of the trip.
Walking along the wide, flat ridge to the hut you can see the East Coast and the upper Wairarapa to one side and the Manawatu plains and the Tasman Sea to the other side.
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| Looking North West from the hut |
We were lucky enough to have the hut to ourselves for the night, and aside from a couple we bumped into, walking down from a day trip, we were the first people to visit the hut in over a month.
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| Hut interior |
Although there's no heating, the hut is very clean and tidy and is a good, compact size, so once dinner's on and there's a few people in there, it warms up quite nicely. It's a fairly modern hut, and would be less than 1 years old. It has a vestibule by the front door (but no deck), which keeps the bags and boots out of the hut and frees up a bit more space.
The long drop, my female flatmate reported, was the best she'd ever experienced - clean and having a pleasant lemongrass and orange aroma!
The hut has a fantastic supply of tea light candles by the way, there's a bag of about 300 sitting in the vestibule!
After a pleasant evening reading and eating, we all retired to bed by 9pm.
From the hut, it's possible to travel further up the hill and then back down to the Mangahao River, which takes around 3hrs. From there, it's a further 4km along the gravel road back to the starting point. As my flatmate needed to be back in Wellington early afternoon, we opted for the easier option of retracing our steps.
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| Heading back down the next morning |
