With only a half day spare the motorbikes trumped walking or mountain bikes for a hut-bagging mission into Renata Hut.
After a quick trip over the Remutaka Hill Road, and meeting Conrad at Upper Hutt service station we were on our way to the Akatarawa Road summit and Waiotauru Road.
Waiotauru Road starts with a steep little rock step which is always fun, and is left there, I assume, to keep the riff-raff from driving the 4x4 road through to the popular (for 4WD's and motorbikes) Waiotauru Hut. As it turns out it doesn't achieve its purpose, with the road and steep banks littered with burnt-out and wrecked cars and 4WDs.
A few hundred metres further on and another technical step proved troublesome for the pair of us - neither having ridden for quite some time. Lifting bikes off the ground in this heat soon had us panting and considering the merits of riding in here on such a hot day!
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| Wellington's coast can be seen left of centre |
Nevertheless within an hour or so we were at Maymorn Junction and swapping out our heavy riding gear for shorts and runners for the 30 minute walk into Renata Hut.
The walk follows a prominent ridge line, dropping from around 820m to 670m and is in the shade of lovely open beech forest.
Renata Hut was originally built by the Wellington Catholic Tramping Club in 1953, however was substantially refurbished in 2020 by the ex NZ Forest Service volunteers, a super active group maintaining and refurbishing huts and tracks in the Tararua FP.
Unfortunately I only got this poor quality picture from the front of the hut.
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| Renata Hut - Jan 2022 |
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| Renata Hut - Jan 2022 |
The walk out took five or ten minutes longer due to the climb, and the ride out was quick and problem free.
Our mornings adventure ended at the Martinborough Brewery around 1:00pm, where every great adventure should end.
POSTSCRIPT: Undertaking this ride - walk with crook AC joints and a dicky knee was unwise!
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