Kaitoke Track to Tutuwai Hut on the Tauherenikau River in the Tararua Forest Park New Zealand

Train ticket from Featherston to Upper Hut

 Tutuwia Hut Backpack Trip

My trip to New Zealand was more about visiting a friend and just getting away while I could line up care for my kid, dog, chickens and fish.  I did not expect to do any overnight backpacking trips and I was staying on the North Island.

Looking at the map where my friend lives, I looked up a few hiking trails with an eye towards day hiking.  On the map I could see that the trails had huts on them.  Further research indicated that the huts were heated! 

Heated huts in the winter?  This changed all of my plans!  I switched from trying to pack just a carry on bag to packing my largest suitcase, so I could bring my overnight gear. 

I needed boots for the mud, my down quilt, my backpack and some other gear for a comfortable overnighter.  I opted to bring my handmade dayhiking pack since it is smaller and I was only going out for one night.  My dayhiking pack does not have a hip belt but that would be okay since I only had to carry one days worth of food and did not need to carry a shelter.

To start my journey I walked one mile (1.6km) to the Featherston train station and I took the train to the town of Upper Hutt, where my friends parents were waiting to give me a ride to the trailhead. Thanks so much for the ride!

I started my hike at Kaitoke off of Marchant road and highway two at the Kiwi Ranch trailhead.  My goal was to make it to the Tutuwai hut in the 8 hours of daylight that I had.   The track starts out by going up a hill with some views of farmland before it dives into the woods and goes up another hill and then drops down to  Smith Shelter and the  Tauherenikau  river.  Pronounced  (tear a knee cow).     The trail then follows the river upstream to the Tutuwai hut and beyond.

At the halfway point on my hike I experienced my first swing bridge and it was scary, but I was too far in to turn back, so I went for it.

The trail was very well marked with lots of nice new looking metal signs.  After crossing the bridge though the trail turned into a "tramping path" and I had to pay attention to stay on the trail in a few spots.

I made it to the hut at 3pm and the sun set at around 5, so I made it in plenty of time.  The hike was a bit rushed for me because I was racing the sunset and I am a slow hiker.  Even racing the sunset I did not travel anywhere near as fast as the signs indicated.  They like to measure trail length in hours instead of distance.  I guess that is fine if you are a long legged 20 year old and not a short middle aged photographer.    

I'd rather know the distance and the elevation gain thank you very much.

The hut was nice and there was a little bit of wood left, so I did not freeze in the night like I normally do when I go backpacking.  The hut cost me 3 hut tickets  ($15NZ) that I purchased at the DOC office in Wellington.  They were very friendly and helpful in the DOC office but they refused to tell me how many kilometers long any of the trails were.  I was glad that I had downloaded a free NZ topo map for my phone that I could use to measure the distance and elevation gain.

In the morning I packed up and ate breakfast in the dark anticipating my long hike out and another race against the setting sun. I used my Delorme satellite messenger to let my friend keep tabs on where I was and to send messages with my ETA back to the trail head.

On the way out I made a wrong turn that cost me about 400 feet or 120 meters, in elevation gain before I figured it out and turned around.

I had a great hike and I hope to go back and explore New Zealand and spend more time with my friend soon.  

27 Kilometers with 518m total elevation gain round trip

17 miles with 1,700 feet total elevation gain

Train pulled into the Featherston Station

Trail head sign

Trail sign right near the start

Native toe toe grass

Unknown to me fruit

Tree Ferns, so amazing

Mystery Lichen

Mystery Lichen

Mystery Liverwort

Mystery plant, a fern I think

Amazing tree ferns

Cable to help with river crossing was so nice!

Swing bridge over the Tauherenikau River

Tauherenikau River

Mystery lichen

Tea break on the river

Tauherenikau River

Mystery lichen

The trail in an open area

Tutuwai cabin stove and wood

Tutuwai hut sleeping area

Nice toasty fire

Tutuwai Hut

Mystery fungi

Glossy leaved plant

Big lichen

Tauherenikau River in the morning

Fungi on a leaf

Rope to help in steep spot

Liverwort

Amping up before going up the final hill

Slippery track at the end of my hike

Parking area

Seattle to Wellington

The formatting of some of my text is weird and I'm too tried to try to delve into the HTML to fix it.

San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge and Park

My first flight on my epic trip to Wellington New Zealand, was from Seattle to San Francisco.   I had a 3 hour layover in San Francisco so, I caught the sunset in a beautiful outdoor garden at the  airport.

Before boarding my plane in Seattle I was so jittery I nearly called it off. But my friend texted me and calmed me down and distracted me until my flight boarded.  My consolation was that I could still call it off at this point.  It was my choice to travel, so I followed through and got on the plane at the final boarding call.

I checked in my luggage and after I passed through security, I was sad because my late husband was not coming on this flight with me. This was my first international flight  without him. 

Then I looked down at my tattoo with his ashes in it and I knew that he was coming with me and I felt better.  The first trip I ever took with my husband was to San Francisco.  My thought were with him as the plane flew over the Golden Gate Bridge.

My first flight  with United was 2.5 hours nice and short and it boarded and took off on time.  I had a window seat and a skinny family was seated next to me.

Let's back up just a bit to Seattle.

The Puget Sound and Mount Rainier

Leaving Seattle there is *THE* Mountain reminding me that I'm going to a land of many mountains, so I am not sad to leave Western Washington behind for a bit.

I have learned the lay of this land so well that I knew when I was flying over the house where Sage was staying and  I even saw the Banner Forest as we flew directly over my daughter's house.

Flying over these things made me sad, because life can change in the blink of an eye.  My late husband would say that in the space of the time it takes to smoke a cigarette everything can change. Would they all still be alive and well upon my return?

Not my plane but my first sign of New Zealand

Back to San Francisco: 

Waiting for my second flight from San Francisco, USA to Auckland, New Zealand. The plane pictured above was not my plane, I wish it was, because I would have been in New Zealand much sooner.  As soon as you get on an Air New Zealand plane, you are in New Zealand.  

 I was flying to Auckland on United, it was to be a 13.5 hour flight, my longest flight ever. Next time, I will fly Air New Zealand as much as I can.

I thought my United flight was bad, but I did not not find out what a bad flight was until I flew home with Alaska Airlines.  I'll take United over Alaska.

The sun has set in San Francisco and my plane has not started to board yet

Here is my second flight, the one that took me to New Zealand. The flight left over an hour late, but I had a long layover coming up, so I was not concerned. This was to be a 13.5 hour flight, but the plane sat on the ground for an hour after I got on so I  was on this plane for 14.5 hours.

I don't like flying!  I am very claustrophobic so I always board as late as possible.  

The first people to board this flight may have sat on this plane for 15 hours. All of the luggage had to be unloaded so one bag could be taken off because one passenger did not get on the plane but their luggage did. 

They will not fly with luggage on the plane and no passenger so flights don't leave on time much anymore and if your luggage has gone through, then they will do anything to get you on that plane including delaying the flight for you.

Not getting on this one until the last
possible moment.

This flight finally got underway sometime around midnight.  I got out my neck pillow, put a blanket over my head and took twice my normal dose of xanax.  I wanted to sleep as much as possible on this flight.

When I was all tucked in they served. dinner. at. 1:30 am!  I was not feeling at all hungry, but hey free food that I have already paid for.

I was glad to have the aisle seat for this long, long, long overnight flight.  A woman and her small child had the window and the middle seat, so they invaded each others space and gave me a bit of room.  Still, the seat was insanely small and every time the woman next to me moved, I woke up.  I kept my sanity by getting up and pretending to go to the bathroom several times.  I'll take the aisle seat on all really long flights from now on I think.

Sun set in San Francisco

I don't know when we crossed the equator.    United fed us breakfast as the sun came up over the South Pacific.  I was confused by my booking with Hotwire and thought there would be no food so had packed enough.  The hot meals were very welcome.  I got nice hot food on all my long flights other then the last one with Alaska Airlines.

My final plane waiting to take me from Auckland to Wellington

July 1st, after a long overnight flight I land in Auckland and I am so exhausted and confused.

It is morning now, I've gone over the date line and I've traveled from summer to winter, because for the first time in my life, I have crossed the equator.

I don't know where to go when I get of the plane and I have a short layover, so I really need to know! When I asked them in Seattle they could not tell me if  this leg would be domestic or international.  I had not traveled enough to know.  

I get off the plane and there is my luggage,  we were all corralled to a luggage carousel.  Okay good, at least I knew that I was expected to pick up my luggage . After getting my bag I wander around lost and in a daze and then I go all way through international security before they turn me around at customs and send me to the domestic terminal.

The domestic terminal is a long walk away?   There are signs saying how long the walk will be in minutes.  Am I going the right direction? Do I have time to turn around and go back if I am going the wrong way? I walk as fast as I can. Then I try to cross the street and it happens, here comes a car right next to me but on my right, I'm startled by it!

Oh yeah I have to look right, left, right before I cross the street now, they drive on the left side of the road here. I nearly bump into travelers running for the international terminal.

They apologize to me because Kiwis are generally nice and they were on the wrong side of the walkway for a country that walks and drives on the left. I'm so confused now.

I go through domestic security and then customs where they admire my nice clean hiking boots. After that, I finally find my gate and I sit down and look around me,  I'm in New Zealand now! I hear the first announcements with a New Zealand accent.

The announcement says to get my carry on luggage weighed at the chicken area. The chicken area? I laugh, I'm giddy, I've arrived in a foreign country! The accent foxed me. Ah the check in area! Not the chicken area.

This is the plane that will deliver me to my waiting friend in Wellington?  I don't know that she accidentally left her phone at home and I have not heard from her all day. I know she is looking forward to seeing me, I think she will be there.  I have not heard from here since right before I went through security in Seattle nearly 20 hours and two days earlier. Two days because I had crossed the date line.

I text Karen and we have a good laugh about the chicken area. I'm too exhausted to take a pretty photo at this point but I'm not an nervous wreck anymore.  

My next flight is a short one, described as: You go up, you have a snack and you go down.  Sounds good.

The final push: Auckland to Wellington 

My first flight with Air New Zealand was a real treat.  On take off the flight attendants hand out "sweets".  Hard candies to suck on to help your ears.  At altitude they handed out drinks and a snack. 

I was hoping the snack would be some new food I had never tried, but it was Mexican corn chips.  I had traveled so far away from Mexico and they gave me "Mexican" corn chips.  Ah but they were grown in New Zealand so there is that. 

Mt. Taranaki

I was on the wrong side of the plane to see most of the land,  but I did get to see one beautiful mountain.  I asked the kiwi man in the seat next to me what the name of the mountain was.  

 I was drooling so hard at the sight of that mountain that I almost missed getting my second hard candy or sweets to help my ears with the landing.

Before I knew it, my plane had landed.  I  no longer had cell service on my phone since I was not in America, but the airport had free WiFi so I logged on.  My phone lit up, my friend on the other end was waiting for me by a door.  I looked up and saw a door then looked through it and saw my friend waiting on the other side.

Whew, I had arrived. We still had an hour car ride to my friend's house, but I had made it.  First stop was for lunch in the town of Lower Hutt and then to The ANZ bank to get some Kiwi dollars for my US Dollars, ANZ charged me a fee and gave me a bad exchange rate but I was too tired to care.  I found better ways to exchange my money later in the trip.