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Kaweka Hot Pools

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Location: Kaweka Ranges

Author: Teresa Davenport

Participants: Mina, Chris, Teresa, Lucas, Alana

Date: June 2024


Hot pools start, hot pools to end - Kawekas mish

Day 1

I woke up mad that my alarm was on but happy it was a long weekend and I was going tramping.

I got ready and picked everyone up on the way. We then knew we had to suffer around a 6 hour drive. To sum up the highlights and lowlights of this car ride were

Highlights

  • Cheap cheese in Putaruru

  • Not much traffic phew

  • We survived

  • Bangers 

Lowlights

  • It being legit 6 hours

  • Chris losing his doc beanie

  • The cafe that we stopped at for lunch that advertised real fruit ice cream in fact didn’t do ice cream in winter 🥲

  • Nearly getting killed on the southern motorway buy a van that cut us off 

After arriving we immediately got ready for our first dip in the hot pools. It was a leisurely swim that was far too hot for our liking and we were actually suffering towards the end because sweat was pouring out from us.

We then started our 7km walk into the hut a bit late for a winter afternoon…. It was a beautiful walk with not too many hills. Beautiful sunset too! I rate that shit.





We arrived at Te Puia Hut.. It was dark at the time so I couldn’t see what colour it wast, with plenty of firewood. It was the most beautiful hut I have ever seen. Although there were a bunch of children there…... I got ready to be annoyed but honestly they weren’t that bad at all. I’ve come to the conclusion that children are most toxic with their friends.

I strategically placed footprints on the table to both dump some weight but for everyone to read our masterpiece and become inspired.

I enjoyed a nice warm dinner and some of Lucas’s cider. Then we set in for an early night since all the kids went to sleep so early too!


Day 2

We woke up to the joyful sound of children screaming. Honestly not a bad alarm that will get you out of bed. We enjoyed breakfast and got ready for our huge day ahead. Chris found his treasured beanie, which brought joy to all. 

We left and started with a big grunt of a hill. 500 meters of elevation later and a lot of sweat gone we made it to the top of the big hill to the track intersection.

We moved on to Makino hut, our first new hut bagged of the day. It was a bright orange hut, with plenty of firewood. It was the most beautiful hut I have ever seen. It had a wash basin and a book called “Daddy.” Within the book it was quite exciting when Mina opened the book she opened to a page that reckoned a 40 yr old man made love to his lovely lady for 10 hours straight. We couldn’t believe our eyes. We questioned if the female author ever had an intimate experience in their life.





We had a leisurely walk to the next track intersection where we had a short stop before we made our way up the next zinger of a hill. We puffed our way up to right before the top of the hill. Where we enjoyed lunch. Freezing by the end of it since we were close to the tops so we’re getting blasted asf by wind we pushed on to the tops.

Not gonna lie, the tops were a bit dodgy. We were getting blasted by the wind so hard I felt like I might fall over. By the time we reached the very top of our trip “Whetu.” We had about 1500m of elevation under our belts and were slightly rekt. We still had a bit to go so we pressed on.

We got to the intersection of Ballard Hut and the track to Venison tops hut. This was a big decision point for us. We could tap out and go to Ballard Hut, we could continue to Venison tops hut or we could check out Ballard (about a 1km from the track and 100m of elevation back up to the track). Just cause we’re nosey.

We decided to do the latter. It was a bright orange hut, with plenty of fire wood. It was the most beautiful hut I have ever seen. In the hut Lucas and I found two unopened cans of coke which we enjoyed before heading back up. 

Back on the main track to Venison Tops we enjoyed a spectacular sunset. We realised we’d have a lot of walking in the dark. All goodz though we had head torches.

We harrowed our way through the forest in the dark taking a few wrong turns. The last bit of elevation was an appropriate way to end the day.

When we got to Venison tops I couldn’t see the colour of the hut, but with plenty of firewood. It was the most beautiful hut I have ever seen. 

I enjoyed round 2 of tvp spag bol and pretty much went straight to sleep.

We finished the day with 2000m of elevation in just under 25 kms. 

Day 3

We left in the morning keen to get back to the Hot Springs. It was a brisk but beautiful and clear morning at Venison tops hut. It was hard getting out of my warm sleeping bag but I could see an orange glow through the window which peaked my interest.

I went outside and it was the most bright orange sunrise I have ever seen coming through the trees. Although I couldn’t get myself to an exposed area to see the sunrise in all its beauty. After others started arising, we all started to prepare to leave.

We left off on a beautiful clear morning, clearest of the days as we descended closer to sea level. It was beautiful bush.

We descended to Mangaturuturu Hut. It was a bright orange hut, with plenty of firewood. It was the most beautiful hut I have ever seen. When we got there, there was a beautiful view through the trees. It was a lovely blue sky by this point. We stayed at this hut for too long just marvelling at the gorgeous view. 

When we finally could be bothered to keep going, we descended, down and down and down…. It was really unpleasantly steep down. We were losing out views to, nothing really good about this scenario. Our knees ached but we soldiered on down to the lunch spot.





We enjoyed our lunch down by the stream. Having the usual lunch for me being crackers, cheese and tomato relish. After enjoying the stream side we knew we were in for a river bash down. 

First we had to cross the out of order 3 wire bridge across the stream. We hypothesised it was closed because the platform at the other end wasn’t there to dismount. So dismounting was a little dodgy, but all good we all managed to cross safely with dry boots. 





We decided to do the river bash to avoid going up and down another hill. One of the group members wasn’t comfortable with doing the river bash and they found it too cold, fair enough so I went back with them over the hill. A couple of our members continued with the river bash, which I envied as I thought there looked like a track down the side. One of the people going with us actually thought it was the main track lol. 

The hill was shit but it is what it is. We slowly made our way up to the top. Another 500m of elevation. We then had to walk across the tops to make our way back down. We had a stop at Makino Hut in the afternoon for a little break and water. We dreaded our final down hill to Te Puia as it was steep asf going up, so it was gonna be steep asf going down….. 

We made our way down super slowly, I was hating my life at this point. My knees were cooked as. One of our team members decided walking down backwards was the go cause their knees were so sore. 

We enjoyed another gangsta sunset on our decent. When we arrived to Te Puia we saw our other members in the intentions book and went to camp by the hot pools. So we left them a cheeky note in the hut book because we decided fuck that, I wanted to get back to the cars to enjoy the ones by the carpark. 




So we smashed dinner and walked out. The walk out was nice in the moonlight but it was kind of slow cause we were all so tired. When we finally made it out, we had walked 35 kms.


When we arrived at the campsite we walked in and saw not even joking 20 campervans and we were thinking the chances of hot pools for us were pretty slim.

All three of us decided to sleep in my car cause we couldn’t be bothered setting up a tent. So we set up our beds.

When we arrived to the hot pools we were thankful that there was a single guy there, We then enjoyed a warm and pleasant night in the hot pools. Honestly too hot at time. We entered them around 10pm. Enjoyed some cider and just lied back in comfort and enjoyed the stars. We saw loads of shooting stars which was an ewsh. I then rolled over to check my phone and it was somehow 11:30pm. So we all decided to go back to the car to have a sleep. 

Day 4

Not gonna lie, my sleep wasn’t great. My air mattress deflated in my car damn. It does this 25% of the time, I haven’t been able to work out why. I once again rolled over to look what the time was, argh it was 9:20am. Our cheeky note in the hut book told our other members they were to arrive by 9:30am. We were really unprepared to leave if they showed..


I got everyone up and we boosted to get ready. Thankfully the pair were late so we were all pretty ready to go when they got here.


We drove home stuck behind the caravans for a bit but honestly they weren't too slow and pulled over soon enough. We got stuck behind this slow asf truck on state highway 5 though :((.


We had a late lunch in Tokoroa at the kebab shop, the traditional stop after a trip going past this place. We then hooned home.


Cheers everyone for coming on the trip was a good one 🙂


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