This article was first published in Tararua Tramper, May 2025, pp 12-13, with a map and photos.
Topless Trampers Brave Freezing Water To Visit Remote Hut. Aka Putaputa Stream Explore
Wednesday 2 April 2025
I last did this trip on a beautiful summer’s day in 2022 and remember it being well worth it even though we had to swim across the last pool before the A-frame shelter. This time I hoped to avoid swimming as river levels were very low and although the wind was light it had the potential to be cold when wet.
We started at 8.30 a.m. from the Rivendell car park, with a short detour to inspect the new flume bridge, which we were suitably impressed by, and thus approached the turnoff for our route from the opposite direction to normal. After a short steep scramble uphill, just as the terrain flattens and the bush opens out, a cairn marks the start of the sidle track. We didn’t in fact take the more obvious track right by the cairn as it appeared to head back downhill and, reluctant to lose height, we continued a short distance past the cairn and pushed through some bush to find the track. Once on the sidle track it was, for the first half at least, reasonably straightforward to follow, although steep and narrow in places. It became less clear as we neared the second stream crossing, and we lost it altogether as we approached the final section. However, we ended up entering the stream, after a bash and slide through some kiekie and near-vertical terrain, only a few metres upstream from the markers.
We had a late morning tea on the stream bed at 11 a.m., the first part of the adventure under our belts. The distance upstream to the shelter is short, only about 1.5kms, but with many unders and overs along the way progress was relatively slow. When we arrived at the aforementioned pool, I wasn’t too concerned as I was already wet from an earlier slip into the water - the only injury was to my pride. I thought others would start to question the need to proceed into the ‘at least waist deep water’, as I had given a number of alternatives, but all were eager to reach the shelter rather than turn back, and the simple solution was to go topless.
We reached the shelter at 1 p.m. for lunch. The shelter is in good condition. Franz thought it was better than he remembered from 15 years before. Who makes use ofthe shelter, other than the occasional tramping group? It is certainly a long haul in and out for hunters.
After lunch we tackled the hill behind the shelter, steep to start with and flattening out towards the top, up to a saddle on the ridge and then onto points 641 and 642. Four of our party were stung by wasps on the way up, in two separate incidents, even though wearing clothing and gloves. Autumn is prime time for wasps; this is a reminder for others to carry antihistamine tablets. The ridge track back to our start is obvious in places with the occasional marker, to give some comfort, but it is not infallible, and we still managed to bear too far right at one point and had to scramble across the top of a gully to make it back onto the right track. Towards the bottom the track becomes very indistinct.
I organized this trip but cannot claim to have led it; that accolade must go to Jenny and Franz. Jenny also came up with the headline for this article.
Karen Baker (organizer and scribe), Bill Allcock, John Dement, Marie Henderson, Franz Hubmann, Jenny Mason, David McNabb, Tim Stone.