48-Hour Rogaine!

Location: Kaweka Ranges

Date: 13th - 17th April 2025

Author: Various

After slugging it out for 48 hours, we denied the teams rest for even longer, pressing them with the important questions about their ordeals.

Most interesting animal/hunter encounter?

Colin: Two hunters seemed legitimately concerned about my wellbeing as i was going from dominie hut to studholm hut; just heading up to the ridgeline, and they asked if i knew that the weather was going to come in something fierce the next day. (i was wearing a running vest and an OR helium.)

Lucas and Tom: We had some very positive experiences with hunters, throughout the trip we scored the following:

• Half a kilo of venison

• A bottle of oil to cook said venison

• A pan

• An onion left by some fly-in hunters

• Cups of tea at 6:00pm after walking over cold tops

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Walking in pitch black, and suddenly a pair of orange eyes pierce the night, staring directly at us. Both the deer and we stood frozen, locked in a stare off, before the deer, about 10m ahead of us, bolted into the bush. About half an hour later, we heard deer play in the Donald River while we were fighting for our lives to find the least sketchy route down the ravine.. 

Also spotted a couple of whio (blue ducks)! Majestic, chill, and 1000% more graceful than we were.

Support Crew: We were met by a group of hunters ferociously cleaning the hut as we approached it. they had “heard women coming down the ridge and wanted to look presentable”. They also very graciously shared their slowed cooked venison stew with us, even offering it with some mashed potatoes. More exciting for Janelle however, was the opportunity to have a close up look of the insides of a freshly cut stag’s head.

The hunters of said stag even offered to give us some venison for a post-tramp bbq, however this sadly didn’t come to fruition. This was likely due to the next day’s early morning confuddlement, where the hunters awoke to discover five new trampers (Satyam and Sean’s groups) had materialized overnight. The hut had already been very full - now 18 people in a 8-person hut! - and so the soggy crew were sprawled all over the hut floor and outdoor deck. Janelle woke to a hunter’s bamboozled “there's bodies everywhere!”, and had to fight very hard to not laugh.

When and what broke you? (Lowest moment on the trip)?

Will and James: Will - James forced me to grab a 6 pointer 300 meters bush bashing up a hill in the pouring rain after 75km. At that moment, I was not a fan of James. James - And I was not a fan of Will either bush bashing down that hill. I had to endure him shouting at me to hurry up and “just don’t get stuck” as I frantically tried to unhook bush lawyer from my expensive rain jacket that I can’t afford to replace (it would later fail me anyway).

Colin: The sleep deprivation and fatigue really set in at around the 30h mark. Was running, holding my poles, fell asleep, dropped them and woke up as i tried to fall all over the trail. I tried sleeping at iron whare, but i was too cold to sleep, and too tired to keep moving; just pushed through, micronapped, and got back to studholm at sunset!

Lucas and Tom: Lucas -  After coming down from Manson country in quite marginal weather (we had about 3m of visibility in the fog and had to entirely rely on NZTopo50 for directions), we were got into a particularly overgrown section of the track and I somehow lost the track at 8:30 at night. Only after falling about 2m headfirst into a bush and doing some questionable bush bashing we found the track again. I don’t think either of us had ever been that happy to find a marker before. Tom - After already walking for about 12 hours we pushed on down a ridge to Kiwi Mouth Hut. We were cold, tired, but a nice couple of tea from a friendly bunch of hunters at Manson Hut cheered us up. We trudged down to Kiwi Mouth Hut. Unfortunately,  we could only see about 5 metres in front of us due to the heavy fog. This frustration was then emphasised by Lucas’s expert ability of carefully navigating us OFF the track. It was overgrown. After 15 minutes of concern and pushing through what felt like the wild jungle Lucas righted his wrong and we made it safely to the hut.

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Reaching the final valley traverse, at 10:30, after a 12ish hour day. Pouring rain, dead trees and wet socks for the past 12 hours had accompanied us on the long pilgrimage. To top it all off, the Kawekas decided to bless us with potentially the worst marked trail in all of existence with washing pegs and ribbons - the equivalent of small band-aids - guiding the way. I think we may have stayed OFF the trail longer than we stayed ON the trail. Gotta love the hike to Macintosh hut!

Sean and Caleb: Walking back down the road after bagging black birch biv, the rain jacket was sodden through, temperature dropping and we had many hours to walk ahead with it already being dark. The main issue was the cold. We were both kinda shivering uncontrollably, we had a discussion about putting our last dry thermals on (which we did and was definitely the right choice). Takeaways: even expensive raincoats do not work.

Best hut/point to bag? 

Will and James: The Mangatainoka hotpools! (Worth 8 points). Got there about 1.30 in the morning and made dinner in there under stars!

Colin: The lodge was nice (sweet and condensed milk), iron whare was cool as shit, very historic, and way better condition to makino biv. Studholm was a nice reprieve from the weather, but the trig at the end was a fun way to not freeze to death ;)

Sean and Caleb: A8AB, was very steep, gravelly and windy but the scramble up was kinda fun even though there was 0 view at the top. Also getting Black Birch biv was good cause we proved to Will he wasn’t being special by being the only ones to go out there.

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Castle camp. Would be so epic to run a trip down there with shit ton of food, questionable quantities of booze, and some aggressively off-key singing around a campfire.  Immaculate vibes!!!

What food kept you going?

Will and James: As mentioned I would be powered off M&Ms. Over 48h, 4 large bags of M&M were consumed (~450g of sugar)

Colin: 50g of mre sweet and condenced milk, that a hunter left at the lodge. (plus nougat, nuts, oatmeal, mi gorine, butter, and lao gan ma)

Lucas and Tom: I never thought I would be able to say that I ate a mostly plant based diet, and it wasn’t too bad. The daily menu consisted of Radix meals plus some venison (not plant based). Unfortunately, Lucas came to discover that my stomach did not respond well to the Radix meals and my bowels were frequently active throughout the trip to the detriment of his nostrils.

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Satyam - The thought of devouring a post-hike feed in Napier. 🤤 Tyler - I am a firm believer in the nutritional power of wraps, which were employed to maximum effect for breakfast, lunch and dinner. OSM bars fueled us while moving on the trails. (Please sponsor us)

Sean and Caleb: Well on Tuesday the idea that we could get food once we got back to Makahu Saddle Hut was definitely som motivation, I think might be a little more careful about food next time especially for the ‘small’ side excursions.

What song got stuck in your mind?

Will and James: Fat, juicy and wet by Bruno Mars and sexy red.

Colin: the sleep deprivation has robbed me of any sense of tune in my head. (but usually it is not an issue.)

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks was lowkey my spiritual coach.

Any existential dread questions pondered while walking?

Will and James: Deciphering some Bruno Mars most recent music. The main lyric to his new song is  “pussy like weed, pussy like dough, pussy like cocaine get it up my nose’’’. No elaboration is needed to portray what hes a massive fan of.  We decided it also answers the other question of ‘’why would Bruno catch a grenade??” 

Colin: nah, mostly just sorting out life admin.

How many times did colin get mentioned by random strangers you had just met? 

Will and James: Probably about 4 times. One hunter at a hut we popped into was like ‘oh, your part of the group with no sleep colin!’

Colin: not too many ;)

Sean and Caleb: Only once, the hunter at Middle Hill was very appreciative of the 5:30am wake up.

Any random pains you somehow pushed through? 

Colin: honestly, my body held up admirably; i really expicted the standard ultra fatigue, but i was not moving fast or hard enough to really hit that.

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Pulled both knees in a river-crossing masterpiece I call “Gravity Wins Again.” Spent the rest of the trip limping on hope, mango jerky, and sheer denial.

Silly thing your team-mate did/said?

Colin: bailed; silly chris, going to work?

Lucas and Tom: At one point we had a disagreement about whether a noise coming from the bush was a deer or a bird; this was never settled and still is a point on contention.

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Tyler mistakenly locked Will and James in Makahu saddle hut on 2nd night. It was purely accidental (Perchance. It may or may not have been prompted by the possibility of there being too many people in Mackintosh hut). Having 12 hours to get over it before seeing them at the carpark again, Will recounts having to climb out of the huts roof to escape. Slowed them down by an hour.

Sean and Caleb: Caleb’s care of his sleeping bag, fastened through the main clip of his pack when we stopped for a snack about halfway up The Tits he had to undo this clip to get into the pack and find a snack. However, said sleeping bag was now wild and free so it decided to run away and out of view. Luckily it was found nestled up to a tree trunk about 100m back down the hill (probably about 40m of vertical though). The 2nd dubious call with the sleeping bag was its waterproofing, luckily again a mighty plastic bag wrapped around said bag while it was attached to the outside of the pack fought off many hours of rain and maybe a few wild branches for a mostly dry sleep for Caleb that night.

Support Crew: Expecting Colin to show up during the night, Janelle was awoken to some scuffling. However, as she sleepily uttered a “Kia ora” to the figure in the doorway, she was met by Daphne’s confused stare as she was returning from the longdrop and didn’t expect such a formal welcome back.

Most dubious strategic decision made?  

Will and James: James forced us to grab another 6 pointer at about 11pm when I was fully set on bee lining it for the hot pools. With a lot of grumbling and muttered swears we boosted the 45min excursion to see the most dingy biv site I have ever come across

Colin: sleeping ;) but nah, mostly just a few detours i could have taken for more points that might have been nice.

Lucas and Tom: We decided to push the boundaries and venture into Manson Country. Surprisingly, we were the only ones to venture into this steep and rugged terrain and it would be fair to say Barry Crump would be proud of our efforts. The second day of the trip which took us into the heart of the Manson country saw us walk 32 km and climb over 2000m. The hunters at Manson Hut were shocked to see us arrive in the evening and to see off again shortly after.

Sean and Caleb: Deciding we could run from Makahu Saddle hut to Middle hill hut in a morning with me only having a bag of chips and Caleb had a chocolate bar. 2nd to that was starting the Black Birch Biv track at 4pm with no head torches, another 15mins slower and we would have had to whip the remaining phone out.

Support Crew: Getting distracted by berries 5 meters away from the carpark and then ending up heading up 200 meter vert for the next 30 mins. Only when Nat pointed out the beautiful view of The Tits did we realise that “we’re meant to be over there aren’t we?”

Would you do a rogaine again? 

Colin: defo

Satyam, Tyler and Edward: Absolutely. Give it a few weeks, and I’ll forget the pain, romanticise the trauma, and sign up again like a goldfish with commitment issues.

Sean and Caleb: Yeah but a lot of lessons learn’t for next time. Aka actually use all the food I carried instead of leaving it at a hut, and waterproofing my rain coat before I go. Oh and pay more attention to elevation on topo it really slows you down the route we chose up to The Tits was rather steep, we could have been more affecting going a different route.

Bro why you scrolling so far ya filthy pervert