Tararua Southern Crossing - Year 10 Camp

There we were, in a gravel car park in the middle of nowhere. Thinking back, I wasn’t even fazed by the gigantic mountain ahead. I should have been. The boys and I picked up our packs and numbered off’ 1’2’3… this would be my last time being a boy, id soon be a man. The first hill we climbed was a shock to the system, we had just climbed out of an air-conditioned comfortable van and were now climbing up an intense piece of terrain. After climbing, for what felt like days, we finally made it to the top. We were all very tired but feeling extremely accomplished. After that it would be a long walk down and next to the river until we got to our first camp site. It was day one and we felt like we were running on empty.  However, soon enough we got food in our bellies, and we were back to running around again. Tomorrow would be the hardest day, so we went to bed as soon as dusk hit. 

We got up reasonably early and headed towards the river.  We got put into pairs to walk across the river because it had a strong current that could easily take you with it. After the chilling cold it was a steady incline up the Omega track. We climbed a total of 1.2kms that day. We got to the top and got our first view, it wasn’t much though, as we could barely see the person in front of us because of the fog.  With the wind and rain settling in we knew we couldn’t stop to observe. We walked for a few hours until we got to Hell’s Gate 300m down, 300m would be seemingly easy compared to what we had just experienced right? However, after completing what we had just climbed it was nothing, but the name "Hell's Gate" was certainly understood by us all when we reached the end. After a rest we were soon back up with a quick walk to Alpha Hut where we would be staying. Time to defrost and refuel the tanks. It was nice staying in a warm hut but as soon as we got news telling us the next day had bad weather and we would have to make up for it with a 10-hour tramp on Thursday, everyone’s morale dropped. 

Day three was just sleeping and the odd giggles from up the top bunks. We woke up early the next day and headed off to Kime Hut, but first we would have to climb Mount Hector and the beehives. The first few hours were easy until we got to three steep hills (The Beehives), this was a treacherous and steep climb of three hills with cliff on either side, we couldn’t stop to break here. We made our way past them and got to the final incline of the day, Mount Hector, it was long and hard but when we got to the top the boys had a newfound motivation to keep going. We paid our respects to the cross monument of the fallen soldiers in World War II, took some photos and we were off again. Kime Hut came quicker than expected so we decided to make the push to our last stop Field Hut. With a bit of radio on the way we made it there in one piece and what was in my opinion the hardest day, was over. The boys set there tents up and the sirs went inside the hut, we were all quick to fall asleep. 

We woke up in the morning and got ready for what would be our last stretch to Otaki Forks, we made it there in record time, but then found out we would have another 5kms to go as there had been a slip on the road and the van couldn’t get in to pick us up. What’s another 5km on top of what we have already done! We took a quick break and followed the road up to the slip, it was flat after that. We were getting close now, I could almost feel myself sitting in the van. As we turned a corner the boys yelled out in glee, we were finally there, the teachers had brought us beverages and chocolates for the ride home. I drank three cokes in the span of 5 minutes - I wanted too throw up. In the van ride we were all extremely happy to have accomplished a great feat like the Tararua Southern Crossing, so as I played the podcast of the week, the boys relaxed. 

Report by Edward Anderson.