The family’s pre-Christmas tramping trip this year was to the Thousand Acre Plateau in Kahurangi National Park. 

Last time we were in Kahurangi National Park was to hike the Kepler, our pre-Christmas tramp a few years ago. On that trip, it poured relentlessly, and we hiked with few breaks, for fear of hypothermia.

This trip was exactly the opposite. With sunshine and temperatures reaching 29℃ (84℉), we took lots of breaks, for fear of heat stroke. 

Our original plan had been to hike an hour to the Lake Matiri Hut on day one. After a leisurely start and five hours driving, it seemed reasonable not to plan too much hiking. But when we reached the first hut, none of us was ready to stop—we’d only just begun, after all.

The DOC time to Poor Pete’s Hut, on the plateau, was listed as 3 hours. It was only four o’clock, and it was the summer solstice—there was plenty of time to push on to Poor Pete’s.

Unfortunately it was straight up to Poor Pete’s, and the temperature remained stubbornly high. By the time we finally crested onto the plateau I was questioning our decision to push on in the heat. But the plateau was painted gold by the evening sun, and our first glimpse of the remarkable limestone landscape was truly spectacular. We reached Poor Pete’s Hut at 8 pm, enjoying the final 20 minutes of flat-ish hiking as the sun set.

Poor Pete’s Hut is a sweet little 2-bunk hut. Unlike last year’s two-bunk huts that our family of four crammed into, Poor Pete’s has a spacious covered porch area that was brilliant for sleeping, so we snoozed in style as the noisy weka and ruru did their best to keep us up all night. And I can’t discuss Poor Pete’s Hut without mentioning the long drop, which isn’t the standard modern DOC vault toilet. Rather it is an old-style wooden box set atop one of the many deep crevices in the Thousand Acre Plateau landscape. And to make a trip to the loo exciting, the path down to the facilities crosses the crevice in an awkward fashion. I nearly slipped in my first time. Classic.

On day two, we hiked across the rolling landscape of the Thousand Acre Plateau to Larrikin Creek Hut. Compared to the first day, it was an easy stroll, but I can imagine in wetter weather it could be an absolute nightmare. The plateau is mostly wetland, with lots of tarns and wet, mossy and muddy ground. Entries in the hut book at Larrikin Creek Hut mentioned ending up waist deep in some of the boggy holes. We managed it with mostly dry feet.

It was only 9.30 am when we reached Larrikin Creek Hut, nestled at the edge of the forest near the base of The Haystack, a gravelly limestone ridge that kept shedding rock, even in the still and sunny weather. We had a brief rest, dropped most of our gear, and headed up to the top of The Needle, which looks like a child’s drawing of a mountain. There is no official, marked route to the top of The Needle, and it’s a bit of a scramble up Spaniard-infested scrub to get there. I decided there is no good way up, only less bad ways. But the view from the top is fabulous.

The limestone of the plateau is fractured and crumbling, and with landslides clattering down The Haystack, it wasn’t hard to imagine how the entire plateau will eventually tumble into the valleys below.

Evening at Larrikin Creek Hut was filled with birdlife—a cheeky weka kept us vigilant as it eyed up our boots and snacks. A kea called from somewhere on The Haystack, but thankfully didn’t descend to plunder our gear. Weka, bellbirds, and tūī kept up a cacophony until dark, when the ruru joined the weka (do those birds ever sleep?) for the night shift. 

On Day three, we took an early morning jaunt down Larrikin Creek to the point where it plunges off the plateau. There were a couple of lovely pools near the edge, which would be fabulous swimming spots on a hot day (day three dawned coolish and drizzly, so no swimming for us, though we did all take a dip the day before in some shallower pools upstream). Walking across water-smoothed slabs of limestone in the creek bed, we saw lots of fossils and some interesting aquatic invertebrates.

After our stream scramble, we hefted our packs and began the return journey. Lunch at Poor Pete’s Hut in the rain was a real treat—that covered porch working its magic again. The descent off the plateau was not quite as bad as the ascent had been, but the earlier rain only served to make the forest hot and humid, so it was almost as sweaty.

The real treat on the descent was a flock of kākā calling in the treetops, keeping pace with us for a while. 

We spent the night at the heavily sandfly-infested Matiri Hut, which we shared with a group of three others who were on their way up. The sandflies drove us out early on day four, and we were back at the car by shortly after 7 am. A nice little tramp in a spectacular landscape!