Kauritatahi Hut - The Ultimate Instagram reels location

Location: Kaimai Ranges

Date: 3rd-4th May 2025

Author: Emily Clark

Participants: Will Griffiths, Ben Dodson, Josefina Barrera, Micah Miner, Emily Clark

Will told us- Emily, Jo, Micah, and Ben- that this was such a serendipitous trip. We had bagged the only two days in the past fortnight that were sunny and cloudless to go on a tramp in the Kaimais. This blissful ignorance maintained throughout the car ride as we played a goofy game of Corners. At least until we parked and walked five meters up Thompson's track to find mud. So, so much mud. 

Because, silly us, as much as we had been blessed with a beautiful rainless weekend, that did not negate the torrential downpour that hit AKL and the Kaimais not a day before. The first one to succumb to the bog’s gooey hands was Will. At about T-10 minutes he was strutting blasély through the waterlogged earth. 

“Just accept you’re going to get wet!” 

“I dunno I think we'll be fine bro”

Fine we were not! The muddy floor soon transformed into a full on swamp in which wading through was the only option. I believe every one of us (minus Will ironically) tripped during this section. It was so deep it felt as if your boots were being suctioned off. 

As maybe non-ideal as that sounds, the swamp part and all the mud to follow was incredibly comical. I don't believe there was any time from Thompson to the unmaintained trail that we did not have a giggle at :). 

“Squish, squish, AGH A HOLE” 

Laughter x 4

At the top of Thompson's, we stopped for a quick lunch break. This is where the first of the many countdown sausages was consumed.Soon after, we navigated the unmaintained DOC trail rather well: no lost AUTC’ers or injured ankles in sight. In our heads this was meant to be the tricky, bush bashing heavy portion of the trip, but since it didn’t turn out to be we craved more adventure. 

Just past the slip we dropped packs and made our way to the peak next to Kauritatahi hut; this was proper bush bashing, with us clambering over cutty grass, falling over roots, and swinging on supplejack. As we neared the top, the vegetation cleared out enough to let in some of the afternoon light, edging the mossy trees in haloes of gold. 

Hurray, there was actually a big triangle to be found! After a brief look around (at the other peaks in the Kaimais, Tauranga, and maybe Hamilton?) it was time to crack open an NZ lager and some Instagram reels. Thank you to Micah, for actually making that bit possible. We ended up filming three stories for the AUTC instagram account. I promise we did genuinely appreciate the splendor of nature for a while. 

clicks on AUTC’s insta: “Chicken, banana, chicken-”

“Will please”

After a few more bogs, we all made it to Kauritatahi hut! It had the most gorgeous view of the coast, and still had OK mattresses even after years of not being maintained. First order of business was de-mudding ourselves in a bucket of rainwater, and then it was time for a few rounds of goon and coup. 

What a tournament it was; Jo and Ben were the ones to beat, constantly trading wins between each other. The goon was being passed around to the miserable lucky victors. Micah- Micah was a little drunk. NZ Lager can do that to a person, but he did snag a win in round 4 simply because he was so locked out he only played his Duke in round five. Clever, although unintentional, subterfuge by him. Will got two wins, but spent most of the tourney haggling with Ben to not get him to coup him. Jo was so good; her experience playing coup with boardgame club people really paid off against us trampers. 

Dinner was a chaotic, butter filled fever dream. Incredible amounts of dairy were consumed but the final product of Chile con carne mash, onion, and sausages was peak. 

1:47 AM

“Do you think anyone's in the hut?”

“Oh hell there are people” 

“Bruhhhhhhh”

A couple of guys did, in fact, arrive at the hut at 2 AM. Very unfortunate timing since the last people to stay at Kauritatahi was 6 weeks ago…

The sunrise in the morning was beautiful. Soggy, cold socks could not take away the majesty of the vibrant, rising sun. At 8 AM we trotted down back to the top of Thompson's track. Making a pretty mean time too. I only tripped about eleven times leading the group down, which was a great improvement. After a snack of even more countdown sausages and an impromptu chat about micro plastics + NIMBYism, we were ready for Eliza's trail. 

What a mish it was, there were massive roots, slips, and puddles everywhere, but we made it through in decent time. We had a small side quest down to Eliza's mine which seemingly continued infinitely into the mountain. Suspiciously, Google was not able to provide any more information about its provenance, so aliens, we decided, formed it.  A final good chat later, this time about linguistics, we were within sight of our savior: Will’s Black Toyota Fielder. 

It was early in the afternoon still, and we had bonded too much over the bog to be content with simply driving home. Our plan instead was to: 

1. Swim at the McClaren waterfall

2. Chip shop!

3. Hopefully arrive home 

I’ve never seen people so happy to jump into freezing cold water before. But the promise of being fresh again was too tempting. Ben and Will even dared to swim under the actual falls! Micah, Jo, and I stayed contentedly shivering near the rocky edge. 

“Oh god it's cold”  + “This is so cool!”  on loop 

We definitely did not drive off from the falls with the boot open. Nope. Not us. We would never do that, certainly not twice in a row. Paeroa was small enough where we could peruse multiple chippies bare foot before making a choice. Paeroa Roast and Bakery ended up being the final contender, and boy was it great. Good service, tasty fish/chicken and chips, and most of all free ketchup. Brilliant. 

Auckland traffic was kind on our way back, and soon we could gleefully wave at the Minecraft-esque LDS church. Once we arrived at the clock tower there were many fond farewells, and with squelching boots we all headed home.