Cone hut, Totara flats hut, Tararua forest park

Historic Cone hut. It is made from hand hewn Totara slabs.

The weather had been rainy in Wellington, and didn't show many signs of easing for the weekend, but my friend and I decided that we would still go on an early Spring tramping trip to Cone hut and Totara flats hut. I had received warnings about possible overcrowding at Cone hut, but looking at the weather forecast, that hadn't seemed that likely. We headed out after work on Friday afternoon in the driving rain.

​We were the sole car in the parking lot, so we knew we wouldn't have to worry too much about other visitors to the hut! We crossed the giant swing bridge at the start of the track and headed into Cone hut. It got dark pretty quickly, and kept raining, but we had plenty of warm gear, food and good raincoats to keep the rain out. Still, it was nice to see the hut when we got there, and with the help of a generous amount of fire lighters we got the fire going at the hut.

The next day we headed over Cone Saddle towards Totara flats hut. ​Our trip had been planned for bad weather, so the benefit of our trip is that we avoided potentially flooded river crossings.

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We were rained on (and even hailed on) at some points. We also ran into some very large school groups who were getting credits for their Duke of Edinburgh awards. They did have tents with them, which I think was a good idea, I don't think any hut would have fit them all in! It was great to see so many kids enjoying the outdoors.

We headed through the bush and eventually got to a wide river valley which we could see Mitre peak from. We carried along the valley and got to Totara flats hut.

Mitre peak with a dusting of fresh snow.

Totara flats hut.

The next day we headed back along the river to the carpark. We got rained on (again) but the weather did clear at some points and we got some sunshine. The bush was beautiful, full of big podocarps and spring time clematis in the trees. By the time we got over the swing bridge to the carpark it was full of people out on day walks. Despite the weather, we had a great trip.

View from the swingbridge.