Tapuae-o-Uenuku. A prestigious peak famed for Sir Ed Hiliary’s solo ascent in 1944. Standing at 2,885 meters above sea level, this peak is the highest peak outside the Mt Cook region. A milestone effort to successfully summit.
Tapuae-o-Uenuku or Tapy for short, was the first mountain on my list of peaks to climb. For some reason, I had a calling to do this peak. I knew nothing about it, but for the fact I wanted to climb a significant peak and get as high as I could without having to dabble in the mountaineering scene. Tapy was that mountain.
Tapy is located in the Inland Kaikoura mountain range and typically is a 3 day trip to summit. Access is via the Molesworth, a high country station spanning from Seddon, a small township south of Blenheim, through to Hanmer Springs.
With this being a rather significant peak, some planning and logistics had to be done.
First off, Crystal and my parents asked that I were to climb it with someone else as a means of being safer together. Finding one or more people crazy enough to tackle Tapy was a hard ask but I managed to find willing bodies through work. Ralph and Ollie. Both good mates with some experience in the New Zealand outdoors.
The next biggest hurdle was the weather window required! We needed good weather and ideally no snow. After some forward forecasting and looking at weather models the weekend we had penciled in was 10 days out.
With the month being March, this was possibly one of the last windows to summit Tapy before the windy season arrived and then winter. Of which would completely rule out any attempt at a summit for me.
To add to the pressure of summiting Tapy, the Thursday before leaving for Blenheim, Crystal and I got the keys to our house!?!
Fortunately I had time of work so it left me with a busy few days moving everything in before heading to Blenheim Saturday night with Ralph.
Saturday came around and I had grabbed Dads truck, packed my bags and picked Ralph up after he finished work. The trip had started.
Unfortunately Ollie had to pull the pin so it was just going to be Ralph and I attempting Tapy.
We stayed with my Aunty and Uncle in Blenheim and after a sleep that could’ve been longer, we were up, fuelled and driving to base of Tapy.
The walk starts at the Hodder Bridge roughly an hours drive from the turn off from State Highway 1. A small car park awaited us with one other car already parked up.
In order to climb Tapy, you need to get permission from the land owners, the Pitts family. During this process I was informed that we will be the only party on the Sunday night and there will be another party of 2 arriving on Monday which was great as it meant we had both huts to choose from!
The route to Tapy takes you from the Hodder Bridge, up the Hodder River to the huts, approx. 19km up river. From the huts you then have a day of steep rocky fields to scramble your way through before a final scramble to the summit.
19 odd kilometers of walking up a river doesn’t sound to enjoyable but Ralph and I made entertainment with ourselves by playing Bingo. The list was highly entertaining with things such as, last to get both feet wet (which lasted all of 10 minutes), first to see a Goat and an array of other things which should stay on tour.
You can essentially break down the walk to the huts into 5 parts. 1st, open river bed still farmland. 2nd, the lower gorge. 3rd, open river valley. 4th, upper gorge and 5th, the final stretch above the gorge and across subalpine terrain.
We made good progress and had our first break about 3 hours in. The sun was out, the river cool and we had plenty of company via means of goats. There were hundreds of goats. On the hillside, in the river, clambering up cliffs. Even dead ones that had fallen off cliffs to their untimely demise.
The upper gorge was just spectacular. Crystal clear blue water finding its way through bedrock and narrow channels. When I say we walked up the river I genuinely mean just that. We probably crossed the river upwards of 70 times.
After 5 and half hours the huts came into view and suddenly our bags weren’t as heavy and our legs not as tired as we did the final push to the huts.
There are 2 huts perched on a plateau high above the river. One was the orginal hut built in the 60’s I believe which can bed 6 and has a cooking bench and table to eat at. The other built a number of years later can bed approx. 12 and has a smaller bench and table to sit at.
We chose the original hut as it had more windows and have us a stunning view looking down the valley.
After unpacking and settling in we started on dinner. A couple of tasty Backcountry Cuisine meals hit the spot. Not long after the sun set, cloud enveloped the valley and our heads hit the hay ending day 1 of our trip.
Summit day dawned as did we. Early alarms and a filling breakfast had us walking away from the huts at 0700.
We continued up the valley for 15-20 minutes before crossing the river one last time. From here there was a short steep climb to wake the legs up and warm our core temperatures. We emerged into tussock country with a nice track leading us up to rocky faces. As we crested a small brow I almost stumbled, literally, onto a Chamois! Clearly with this land being private and no hunting, these animals are incredibly tame. After running away 50 meters he stopped and continue to feed! Unheard of anywhere else.
We soon came to the end of the defined trail and all we had now was the odd rock cairn. We climbed up a steep spur and around a small bluff and came out onto a stunning plateau. From here we could somewhat make out our route to the top, although we still had some elevation to cover!
Travel was slow due to the sheer size of the rocks making walking rather difficult with each step having to be calculated so not to roll an ankle. We broke the climb down into sections with land marks as goals to help us stay moving.
We clambered around a incredible rock band and decided some rock scrambling was easier than walking 30 meters to our left on large boulders. It felt good using our arms and having a more full body climb just to break up the climb. It wasn’t long until we crested the main ridge between Tapy and Mt Alarm. The Clarence Valley opened up in front of us and we were greeted with a blanket of cloud enveloping the entire east coast of the South Island and North Island.
We were almost there.
We were over 2,500 meters above the sea and we had the final 300 meters to go.
The last push was steep and a bit of a scramble with huge exposure to our right, with only some rocky pinnacles separating us and a 100+ meter drop.
Ralph and I both started giving each other some stick as we were both breathing very heavily and both said we were starting to develop headaches. It seemed as though we were working a lot harder even though our pace hadn’t changed at all.
Fun fact I learnt after we returned home was:
“At 2500 meters, the atmosphere has 25 percent less oxygen than at sea level.”
For every 4 breaths we took before, we now needed to take 5. No wonder we both felt the effects!
Finally, we crested the last piece and we were standing upon one of New Zealands highest peaks. 2,885 meters above sea level. We had done it.
We were absolutely stoked. Smiles, hugs and high fives we given followed by a plethora of photos.
We were gifted an absolute stunning day. There was next to no wind at the top and spectacular 360 degree views. We found a nice few rocks to sit amongst just off the top and cracked into lunch.
After bathing in the sun for an hour we packed our bags and began our descent.
Our knees were not going to thank us after this descent.
Just after dropping off the top we peeled off the ridge and down a steep gut. Progress was fast but cautious thanks to the size of some of the rocks we had to deal with. Ralph was like a kid in a candy store when we found some nicer rock to scree slide down on. I said to him that I’ll take him out another time and find some real scree runs that will leave him smiling ear to ear.
It wasn’t long until we found ourselves back on the large rocky plateau we crossed a few hours earlier.
Energy levels were good but both of us definitely were looking forward to laying down back at the huts.
It wasn’t long until we had descended back into into river and the end was in sight.
Eight hours after leaving the huts we had made it back, elated.
Boots were removed, sweaty tops hung to dry and a nice cold beer consumed as we lay in the sun enjoying the last of the sun’s rays before it disappeared behind the mountain top.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent tidying a few things, eating whatever food we had (minus breakfast for the morning), and laying down on our beds.
The party of two arrived not long before dinner. We had a good conversation around our successful summit and their intended route for tomorrow.
We slept well that night knowing we had summited Tapuae-o-Uenuku and our bags were to be lighter on the walk out.
Dawn came around all too soon.
We got ourselves up and packed and fuelled for the walk. Knowing we had to be back through Kaikoura before the road shut for night works meant there was no sleep in.
The sun greeted us as we made our way out the upper gorge. The river was cool, our feet wet but we were happy powering through, back to the truck.
There were still plenty of goats around in which Ralph tried to befriend and I trying my stalking skills stalking into a few meters of a couple.
Five hours after leaving the huts we were back at the truck. It felt good to remove our packs for the final time and put on some clean clothes!
During our walk out we decided that fish and chips in Kaikoura sounded perfect as a late lunch.
Damn did it taste good.
#33 Tapuae-o-Uenuku – 2,885m, 40.6km, 19 hours (over 3 days)
Time to recover, settle into our new home and plan the next mission!
Till next time,
Cam.