New Zealand Great Walk: Lake Waikaremoana

New Zealand has hundreds of walks and tramps to get out and see the countryside. There is also a series of “Great Walks” that usually consist of multi-day tramps ranging in difficulty level. Our first great walk was on Lake Waikaremoana, which is in the eastern central region of the north island. It was definitely a walk to remember. If not for the scenery,we will definitely remember it for the way mother natured tossed us around and treated us like idiots.

We decided to do the tramp on the Thursday before Easter. You have the option of either staying in a hut or a campsite during the tramp. The huts are very basic cabins with water and a stove. The don’t have electricity or anything but you at least get a crappy mattress to sleep on.
We arrived at the Department of Conservation office about 11:00 am on Thursday morning. Since it was Easter most of the huts were filled up for the holiday weekend. Easter here is like Labor Day back in the States. It’s the last real weekend to get out before winter starts to set in. Our only real option to do the tramp was to leave that day and hike up Panikieri Bluff, stay in a hut at the peak of the bluff, and then move on and do campsites the next two nights.

Day one would consist of a 4-5 hour tramp, day two would be 8-10 hours, day three would be 5 hours, and day four would be a 2 hour tramp to the water taxi pickup location.. We booked our hut and campsites and headed out.

We got to the carpark about noon and tried to book our water taxi. The last boat was leaving at 12:30 so we had to be ready on the dock in 20 minutes. So, we immediately raced to the van and started stuffing stuff into our backpacks. We grabbed some clothes, ramen noodles, a small stove and about 187 granola bars.

The water taxi pulled up to a rocky shore on some large boulders and as we were getting out the skipper said, “I hope you guys have some warmer gear. It’s about 4 degrees cooler (Celsius) at the top of the bluff.” As he said that his first mate also said, “I hope you guys are in shape too because you only have about four hours of daylight left.” These were both very comforting departing words to hear on your first real New Zealand tramp. Those would usually be words that should said BEFORE you are dropped off in the middle of nowhere. This is New Zealand though and there is definitely a “do what you want” attitude. As we approached the skies turned from “partly cloudy” to “you guys are screwed gray.” That alone shaved an hour of daylight off our schedule.

As we walk up the shoreline we see a sign signaling the start of the trail. Well, apparently in our rush to beat the clock we missed the trail itself and started up a road directly behind the trail. We start rushing up this hill like no tomorrow- we were determined to beat the four hour time estimate. About 40 seconds into our climb the ominous skies decided to start dumping rain all over us and our 40 lb. packs. This only encouraged us to move faster. Well, we moved fast enough to come to the end of the road and realize that all we had done is walk up to a lookout tower and a small power plant. Not exactly the tramp we were looking for.

After getting back down to the trail start we had now burned one of our four hours of daylight. We are soaking wet at this point and now have to make the climb already tired and a little bit defeated. We had no choice though- we had to go up.

Apparently there was this little footnote on the map that stated this leg of the tramp required “high levels of physical condition.” That was no joke. This was no walk at all. We literally were climbing straight up the side of a mountain. The rocks were wet and slick and the further we climbed the colder it got. Luckily, it only got worse.

About an hour into our climb the rain decided to turn to hail. If climbing a wet mountain wasn’t bad enough we now had to battle icy slopes. This continued on for about an hour and again, the higher we got the colder it got. Being on a bluff the winds also started to pick up and really make life miserable.

As we got about halfway up the mountain the hail turned to heavy snow. It wasn’t like a snow back in Missouri either. These were big, heavy, wet snowflakes. It took only minutes for a layer to form on everything around us. It was at this point when we started to get worried. We were only a short while away from total darkness and we had no idea how much further we would have to go to reach the peak. Every time we’d turn a corner there was another ledge to climb. It was a seemingly impossible battle. The cloud cover was so intense that we couldn’t see anything. That was the biggest shame of our trip. We would come to an opening that you could tell would be an amazing view had it not been awful outside. We never got a good picture the entire way up. Pictures were really that last thing on our mind though at this point. We were at a crossroads to either press on and risk the darkness or pitch the tent. The only problem was there was never a location to pitch the tent. Everything was jagged rock and water was pouring down it all. We would have risked hypothermia and even death had we pitched the tent. We would have no way of drying out or staying warm.

We decided to keep on going and for the first time in my life I can say I was truly in survival mode. We were slipping on tree roots, rocks, mud, and anything else that could get in our way. It was absolutely miserable. We got to the point where we literally couldn’t see our own feet. We are extremely lucky that one of us didn’t break an ankle or fall of a cliff. There are no signs on the way up the bluff to give you any indication about how much further you had to go. There are only orange arrows that follow the trail path. In our pathetic preparation we didn’t have headlamps either. We had to rely on two crappy LED keychain lights to find our way to the arrows. It was bad and only getting scarier.

Then, out of nowhere, there was a set of wooden stairs that led straight up a bluff. There was a pulley system there too. We figured it had to be used to bring supplies up to the hut. Shortly after we climbed the stairs we climbed a few more cliffs and then saw a single light on top of a hill. Sure enough it was someone’s flashlight from inside the hut.

We stormed in the hut an hour after darkness fell defeated and accomplished at the same time. You should have seen the looks on the peoples faces in the hut. There was utter disbelief when we walked in. The hut warden didn’t even know we were coming that night. Nobody would have known if we would have made it or not. We were lucky, to say the least. We sat that night by a tiny stove and tried to dry our clothes as best we could. It was cold. Really cold. We were lucky to have good sleeping bags to get through the night.

The next morning we hiked down the bluff to another hut. We were deciding whether or not to call it quits. We could have arranged a taxi pickup at the bottom. It was a beautiful day though and we decided mother nature could win the battle but we wanted to win the war. We kept pressing on and suffered through the wet clothes and shoes to make it to a campsite that night. We met some hunters who were good to us and gave us some coffee, tea, and eggs. We traded stories and they reassured us they are only as prepared as they are today from learning from there mistakes. The New Zealand bush can be extremely dangerous.

The next two days were pretty uneventful. We tramped around the lake and have a ton of great pictures to show for it. This country can be brutal but it sure is beautiful. It really can’t be described in words. You must experience it for yourself. I’m glad we finished the walk and didn’t call it quits. You can only grow from your experiences. Needless to say, we’ll be better prepared next time.

Ryan