Hi there!

The weather is pretty much undecided, so I thought of something "valley, 1/2 standard, 1/2 off the beaten track":

Let's go to Sayer Hut (DOC page, NZ topomap and a nice description here).

Here is a no car-version of the over-night tramp:

Saturday: We catch the Wairarapa service (9:55 AM from Wellington Station) to Woodside, walk north from there, ford the Waiohine river or go via Coal Stream track and pick up the traditional freshers walk to Totara Flats. Finding the right spot, we get to Sayer Hut by crossing the Waiohine river again.

Sunday: We walk out to Mangaterere Road and see that we get to the Matarawa train station not too late, not too early (5:11PM train to Wellington).

Fitness Rating: medium, we might do more or less off-track-stuff, depending on the group.

With a car available, we do something similar. :-)

Contact: Achim <dot> Gaedke <at> gmail <dot> com or o2Io4994o2

Sweet!

Weather?! We will go into the field and take samples of fresh air, sun, clouds and maybe some rain?!

Who ever wants to show up spontaneously, welcome!

Please be there at 9:30 AM, so we can sort out the group dinner.
The fare is 15 NZD one way. The night in Sayer Hut is one ticket, if we choose to stay in Totara Flats it is 3 tickets.

It was just Ivan and me.

Never again shopping for dinner in the station New World - limited and expensive!

We got to Devil Creek (that is the ford on the road on the road to the Waiohine shelter) and decided to follow it for a while. It was beautiful but very slow. Finally we gave up after 2.5 hours, bashed up to 632 on the ridge east of Waiohine River.

Here we picked up a track, marked by red ribbons knotted on branches till we got stuck in dracophyllum around 700m. Later we found a pest control line till Waiohine. From there we used another track to the DOC track to Sayer Hut.

Finally we stayed in Totara Flats hut, having a good sleep!

Sunday we walked over Cone Ridge - sadly a bit in a hurry to get a lift to the train station.

The weekend was not too wet (except for the feet) - luckily the rain confined itself to the night.