Egmont National Park: Around the Mountain Circuit (well, almost) - Part 1
There had been an ex-tropical cyclone come through a few days before, so there was pretty good flow at Bells Falls.
How to get to the start of the track
We started the circuit from the North Egmont Visitor Centre - there’s plenty of parking and you can pop into the visitor centre to get the latest weather and track info before you head off. The Pouakai Circuit also starts here. For all the info on Around The Mountain Circuit, visit the Department of Conservation (DoC) website.
My friend, Mark and I planned a six-day tramp around the mountain, staying at: Holly Hut, Kahui Hut, Waiaua Gorge Hut, Syme Hut and Waingongoro Hut. The AMC is a challenging tramp with various terrain and gut-busting elevation gain - please take your fitness into consideration when planning your tramp. There are also private lodges as alternatives if you don’t want to stay in DoC huts. This blog covers days 1-3 of our tramp.
At the back of Tahurangi Lodge is the start of the North summit track.
Day 1: North Egmont Visitor Centre to Holly Hut (Approx. 11km / 5 hours)
We had nothing but clear, blue skies as we sat on Mark’s boot having an early lunch before setting off to Holly Hut. He had made me a beef and egg wrap with Kimchi which was going down a treat - what a good friend he is! After popping into the visitor centre to check the current track and weather conditions, we set off for Holly Hut under the midday sun.
This was our first multi-day tramp together, although we had done a winter Tongariro Alpine Crossing through the Pinoy Adventurers NZ group too. I learned early on that our definition of ‘steep’ is not quite the same. We had the option of taking the usual track or taking a more scenic route via Tahurangi Lodge. I asked if there was much difference in the elevation, especially since we had six days worth of food to carry. “It’s pretty much the same.” No Mark, it really wasn’t, because there was a beast of a gut-buster just before the lodge that he had forgotten about!
I couldn’t really stay mad at him, the views were amazing along the way and at the lodge. There was a woman up on the balcony as we approached the lodge. She asked if we were staying at the lodge too, “No, we’re on our way to Holly Hut,” I called out. The door to the balcony had locked her out when it shut, with no keypad (there’s only one at the main door below) or ladder to get down. Her name was Erica, maybe in her mid-twenties, originally from Canada and spending her last couple of weeks in New Zealand. She was on this trip with her partner, who had gone down to the Visitor Centre to get her medication from the car. It had been a long two hours until we came along.
After a quick donut (Mark brought some Krispy Kremes from Auckland) and chat with Erica, we set off again for Holly Hut.
The undulating traverse to Holly Hut. Photo by Mark Garay
This section also forms part of the Pouakai Circuit (2N/3D) - a popular and shorter alternative to the Around The Mountain Circui (AMC). The track is pretty exposed, with an interesting mix of navigating boulders in an undulating traverse. A lot of the track is narrow, but the views more than make up for it. They’re currently ‘upgrading’ the track by installing wooden steps, which to be honest my knees didn’t appreciate at all.
Estimated tramping time to the hut is about 4 hours, and going via the lodge only added an extra hour. Getting to the hut a bit later meant we got to watch the beautiful sunset, and still make it to the hut before it got dark. The hut was only half full. At dinner, we got chatting to a couple who had walked the track in reverse. They had come from Kahui Hut - with a cheeky grin told us to brace ourselves for the cold and rats on the roof!
Mt. Taranaki at sunset on day one.
Day 2: Kahui Hut (Approx. 9.5km / 5 hours)
Half the trampers at the hut were either walking out or going to Waiaua Gorge Hut, while Mark and I were going to Kahui Hut. We had another short day and decided to have a sleep in and aim to start walking by about 9am. Our first stop was a side trip to Bells Falls, about 30 mins from the hut.
The track was narrow, with some rooty and rocky sections making it slow going with our packs. We didn’t mind as it was going downhill anyway - a nice way to start the day that’s for sure. As you head down to Bells Falls, the forest turns to Beech. Morning light bursting through the canopy gave it an ethereal mood and complimented the beautiful birdsong of the bush.
Bells Falls, a nice side trip from Holly Hut on our way to Kahui Hut.
We pretty much spent most of the morning in the bush, which was good because we weren't in the sun. That didn’t help the humidity though. Holly berries were everywhere in the bush. Be careful with these - even though they are pretty to look at, they can cause vomiting and diarrhoea if you eat them. It was the first time we spotted kererū, well, we heard them more than we saw them. After a couple of hours, we finally popped out into Stony River and greeted with the midday sun.
From my research on the AMC, I knew that Stony River wouldn’t be that well marked. I wasn’t too worried, as long as we were going in the right direction, a marker would pop up sooner or later. It took us about five minutes to spot the first marker - just a small one across the river, slightly obscured by trees. After finding a safe place to cross, we slowly made our way along the riverbed.
Holly berries are beautiful to look at, but beware, consuming them can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.
Even though it’s technically a river, as the name suggests, there are more rocks than water. That said, there’s still plenty of fresh flowing water, so it’s a great place to top up your water supply. We didn’t see another tramper on this section, and along with the rugged vastness of the dry riverbed, it felt like we were in a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. Now and then we’d spot a lonely marker, sometimes upright, but a lot had fallen over. We eventually spotted the large orange marker that would take us to the Puniho Track junction that leads to the hut.
Mark walking along Stony River.
From Stony River, the track climbs steadily until you reach the Puniho Track junction. This is the high track, while the Kapoaiaia Track is the low track that takes you to Waiaua Gorge Hut. We did come across a couple of trampers before the junction - they had come from North Egmont (bypassing Holly Hut as it was full over Easter weekend) and were on their way to Waiaua Gorge Hut. Knowing now what the terrain is like and how big day four turned out to be, I’m happy with our decision to stay at Kahui Hut.
We thought we would have the hut to ourselves, but as we were having dinner, I could hear footsteps outside. It was Maureen, a New Plymouth local with some epic tramping stories to share. She must have been in her 70s, with curly light brown hair and thoughtful eyes. I liked the way she talked to herself when she was doing something - it was as if she had a list in her head that she was ticking off.
Kahui on paper is a six-bunk hut, unfortunately the mattresses don’t fit some of the bunks as they’re too long (it’s about 1.5 mattresses to the width of a double bunk). Don’t worry, there’s more than enough room to put the mattresses on the floor, and plenty of room for tents outside too. As for the rats? There were a few entries in the hut book about them, but we didn’t see or hear any when we were there.
Plenty of ladders on the steepest sections. Photo by Mark Garay.
Mark at Kahui Hut.
Day 3: Waiaua Gorge Hut (Approx. 8.6km, 4-5 hours)
Maureen set off just after breakfast, she was planning on putting some pink markers along the section of Stony River that Mark and I walked the day before. She was coming back to the hut for another night, changing her plan of joining us at Waiaua Hut. That was a good move since the 16-bunk hut was chocka that night.
We headed back into the bush, with the track starting off as a steady downhill, and eventually turning into a much steeper, rooty footing as we saw more regular stream crossings. If you’re like me and tend to consume a lot of water, make sure to have at least a 2L water bladder or similar. I’m used to tracks where I can regularly refill my 1.5L bladder, but the AMC will have large stretches without fresh surface water.
My face says it all - I was tired of the multiple river crossings.
This ladder is close to the hut, and we actually came across it on day four on our way to Braemes Fall Track.
There is intermittent mobile coverage along the track, but I definitely wouldn’t rely on it. It did come in handy to check in now and then and share some photos with people back home. Apart from that, my phone pretty much stayed on aeroplane mode and I only needed to charge it a couple of times over the five days.
A few months back, there was a washout near the Ihaia/Brames Falls junction that was a more direct route to the hut. The diversion takes you about 500m along the Waiaua River, followed by a boggy spur up to the hut.
Mark walking along the lava flow riverbed, which is a diversion on the track because of a massive slip.
The diversion, including a steep, muddy spur to the hut added about an extra hour. Mark did his best to get around the mud in the first fifteen minutes, but I think we both gave up after that. As I was busting my gut to get past a rooty, scrambling section, we met a group of three heading down. They said we were about 15 mins from the hut, but it was all uphill!
We were the first trampers at the hut, although we did have a quick chat to a trail runner on a day trip from Ihaia Road. It was nice to get to the hut early enough to dry our clothes, not to mention wash off the mud from our boots. Being a serviced hut, there was plenty of chopped firewood, so Mark got the fire going before it got cold outside. The other trampers came in trickles - a couple, a group of four, and after sunset the group of eight came along. Mark and I decided to have an early night as we knew day four would be our biggest - taking the Brames Falls track on our way to Syme Hut.
Prepare yourself for the bog that leads up to Waiaua Gorge Hut.
Ronna Grace Funtelar is a 40-something desk-fit creative, weekend explorer and cheese enthusiast in Whakatāne, New Zealand. She has a big butt, chunky thighs and shakin’ more jelly than Destiny’s Child. Her creaky knees discovered an appreciation for Type 2 adventures in the bush and mountains in her thirties, and she’s been hiking ever since.
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