This article was published in Tararua Tramper June 2025, pp.12-13, with a map and photo.
Mt Frith from Bucks Road campsite
SF Wednesday 14 May
We were lucky to get a second chance to do this very satisfying tramp, having had to cancel it a fortnight previously to avoid grim weather. This Wednesday was perfect: cool, calm and dry, just like the trampers!
Thirteen of us got ourselves out of bed early, to ensure we made the most of the daylight. Ugh, those alarm clocks going off in the dark.
The tramp (trace attached) started from the Bucks Road campsite.We climbed up the Tauwharenīkau Gorge Track for 20 minutes before turning SW onto the Mt Frith Track. The route undulates more or less along the top of the spur, including a couple of reasonably steep ups and downs between Finis and Frith.
The track is all in splendid shape, thanks to diligent work by Derrick Field, Gerald Leather and others, unlike the horror stories of gorse which kept trampers from using this route in earlier years.
We had lunch on the top of Mt Frith 645m, admiring misty views of Marchant Ridge and Mt Tauwharenīkau. Then we turned around and headed back the same way, with the addition of an enjoyable short diversion over to Mt Finis 577m, from where there are super views of the Remutaka Hill Road and Lake Wairarapa.
We were pleased to find that the trip took us just seven hours 10 minutes, a bit shorter than we'd expected. The total elevation gain was about 1,000 metres by the time all the undulations were added up.
Joan Basher (leader and scribe), Helen Beaglehole, Bob Buckle, David McNabb, Peter Morten, Diana Munster, Marg Pearce, Mary Perkins, Marilyn Richards, Janette Roberts, Tim Stone, Lynne White, Cathy Wylie