Omahuta – wet bypass to Puketi Hut

4 Oct, by pass not included in TAkm, 43km, 16hrs

Light rain

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Walking to find Apple Tree Camp (often called Apple Dam). A pleasant walk expecting an afternoon off. Raining but pleasant until!!!! The camp is all under water, couldn’t find the fresh water or toilet. These are hidden back in the bush a bit so I heard later. I didn’t investigate because of the streams of water laying everywhere. So carried on to check conditions further on.

I reached out to Kris who was ahead of me a few days and she had no problem with rain. But reminded me of the concrete ford overflow. This meant the Puketi Track would be impassable through the stream.

So I doubled back to a timber wayside, too wet to camp, however I finally had a cook up. And there was intermittent internet service to get a reply from Kris. The by pass route was 28km away from Puketi Hut. It was midday so I estimated it would take me 12 hours on the metal road to get there.

I cooked the meals I’d missed in light rain. I ate one for lunch and stored one for later. Made a cuppa tea and curried pumpkin soup. After reassembling my wet pack and contents more evenly I headed out for Puketi Hut without a booking since my data could not process the form online.

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The bush was the best I’ve seen anywhere in NZ. Rich forest with kauri, rimu, Nikau, birds, tea tree, grasses and native flowers, clematis. Just wonderful sight, sound and smell.

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The area changed to farmland and forestry – pine trees.

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Just on dusk, 7:30 looking back across

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Walking on the gravel road was challenging. The gravel went from small marble size to fist size gravel impossible to walk on. The road camber made it slippery and I fell a few times.

A few cars, some with bee hives on back made me suspicious of what night operations were going on. About 9:00 boy racers were screaming through the forest road on some expedition. I made myself known by shinning my torch on myself.

Finally some signposts and internet. I googled the way to the hut that gave me an idea of how far.

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I pulled out my sleeping bag climbed into it fully clothed and slept on the narrow bench.

A long walk that was a test. It was enjoyable but I was tired, hungry and sore.