#IkawateaForksHut

King's Birthday weekend alongside my good friend (...and nephew LOL) Alan Vujcich we went on an overnight hike to Ikawatea Forks Hut in the Ruahines. Starting on Mangleton Road (Masters Shelter) we walked up towards NoMans Hut then carried on to Ikawatea Forks Hut for the night. One thing that caught our attention is what seemed to be a lot of recent/fresh pig rooting once we started coming down to the Ikawatea stream.
On the second day we took the bypass behind Ikawatea to later drop down to the river and make our way to Rockslide Biv, plenty of deer sign all the way, we even saw one trying to walk across a landslide, unfortunately the ground gave way and we saw it tumbling all the way down to the river to immediately get up and run up the hill again. We also saw 2 couples of Whio ducks.
Our measurements on the track vary a bit, we noticed a couple of areas where the track has changed, and the walks on the river will always vary, particularly considering last year's cyclone Gabrielle. We actually encountered a couple of big dams we had to climb and required some tricky maneuvering. Was an amazing couple of days.
Our recorded distances and times are at the end of the video.
Thanks for watching!
Our routes were planned using DOC webtsite:
www.doc.govt.nz/ as well as Routes NZ: www.routeguides.co.nz/routes/2480
==== DAY ONE ====
Masters Shelter / Golden Crown Smt 2.5hrs 5Km
Golden Crown Smt / Herrick Spur Smt 1.5hr 3.1Km
Herrick Spur Smt / No Mans Hut 1.3hr 2.3Km
No Mans Hut / Ikawetea-Taruarau Jnt 1.5hr 2.3km
Ikawetea-Taruarau Jnt / IkaweteaForks Hut 2hrs 4.5Km
9hr 17.2Km
==== DAY TWO =====
IkaweteaForks Hut / Rockslide Hut 3hr 4.8Km
Rockslide Hut / Mistake Biv 2hrs 3.3Km
Mistake Biv / Aranga Hut 2hrs 3.3Km
Aranga Hut / Parks Peak Jnt 0.5hr 1Km
Parks Peak Jnt / Golden Crown Smt 1hr 2.2Km
Golden Crown Smt / Masters Shelter 2.5hrs 5Km
11hr 19.6Km
*NOTE* the above laps/distance/time details are what we based our hiked on but not the exact same of what actually happened once we completed the hike.

[@BruceMackenzie-vu6fo]

Good trip! I am planning to go down from Aranga to Mistake as soon as I get a weather window, will it be easy enough to follow the pink tape. Did you see any sign at Rockslide of a track south to the tops, there is supposed to be one?

[@thisiswhatwecallfun]

great stuff Bruce! not many pink ribbon marks on the tops...once you start heading down to MIstake there is plenty of pink arrows though