Papatahi Summit (Wellington) Rimutaka Forest Park, North Island, New Zealand
By agcnz on 12-Mar-11. Waypoint GC2PM5C

Found 29 August 2029. Day trip from Papatahi Hut, ascending the ridge to the north of Papatahi, bush-bash the saddle across to Papatahi Peak and the down the marked track to the hut again. Cache in excellent order. Great way to celebrate getting to the top. TFTC

While undertaking research for another cache, I note the “New Zealand Geodetic Datum 1949” (NZGD49) was established with the initial station of origin being 1206: Papatahi Trig Station. I thought that was interesting.

We headed out from Catchpool late Friday night, stopping to camp on the riverbed just North of Paptahi Hut. After an early morning start up to the start of the trail, we slogged our way up the first half of the climb (which is just as hard as everyone says it is!)

We made it to the summit not long after 10am and the cache was a quick find once there. It is in great condition thanks mostly to the sturdy case. We signed the log, took some pictures then headed back down towards the valley and onto Mt Matthews. TFTC!

Destination summit on my hike today. Great view up there but quite a steep and sharp ascent good fun and good exercise. Greta box, perfect condition. Was a good workout, took me 9 h return form catchpoool car park. TFTC. Sherlock Hood.

An awesome cache! Great march in with Mark R - track a bit dodgy at the start, but good from there. Now to drag my tired legs back down! TFTC

After two previous thwarted attempts to climb Mt Matthews from the normal direction, I thought I would avoid the high-river scenario again by doing the Papatahi Crossing in and out. My eyes were certainly bigger than my conditioning, and three hours in from the Wairarapa side I knew it wasn't happening, so retreated for plan B - go in the Catchpool entrance the following morning and hope the river wasn't high (it wasn't, thank goodness). However, the change in plan meant giving up on getting to the Papatahi summit, leaving this as my only unfound cache in the Orongorongos at the moment.

However, to assist others either going in via Wairarapa, or exiting that way, here are some useful bits of information (that perhaps the CO wants to add to the description?).

The car park for the Onoke entrance is almost invisible - took three passes to locate it. You can find it at S 41 19.914 E 175 08.405
The first 1.5-2 kilometres is along the canal/stream that runs between farms. There are few good places to cross, and cross you must. I mistook a patch of weeds for solid ground and ended up thigh high in the water. To make matters (probably) worse, as I was leaving they had a digger clearing the canal and deepening it.

Once past the first section, you then have to negotiate the stream twice more and/or climb over fences, some of which are electrified. Easy to see why there are few travelers here.

Battery Stream is 2 hours in from the Wairarapa side, and those who look closely at the signs with hiking times might notice they say "12 hours from Catchpool to Battery Stream", meaning closer to 14 hours straight through if one tried to do it all in a day. Doing it in more than a day, however, involves carrying a trampers pack.

A long entry for a "did not attempt", but thought this information could be useful for the next few people going here. I'll make plans to tackle the Papatahi Summit after I see someone else has found it.

Look everywhere but couldn't find it, even with hint.

Out for a labour day tramp with Greenslime. Made the summit at 0930 and hope to complete Mt Matthews cache in the same day (the start of the twin peak challenge?). Bonus to Grrenslime for the find.

#477 Out for a Labour Weekend tramp with JimmyNZ. TFTC! 0930 Papatahi then 1600 Mt Mathews
Quite a day. Good to see the cache is attached to the nearby tree, the gale force winds arent moving that puppy. Nice and dry inside.

Hey Kiwiarthur,
Do cameras in New Zealand take photos upside down because you guys are down on the bottom side of the planet?

Camped down the bottom on a small river terrace and tried out the new tent. Rained a bit in the night, but this morning a strong NW and mist on the tops. Very steep uphill indeed, and extremely windy near the top, but on we went and got to the cache in fine time (about 3 1/2 hrs for the round trip from the campsite). Unfortunately couldn't see anything at the top, in fact could hardly stand up!

Found the cache - great to use an ammo can in this location, but didn't take any photos! Scuttled off downhill quite quickly to the warmth of our camp and a nice hot lunch! Great trip and really enjoyed exploring the valley. TFTC

Wow, that sure is a good climb for the final hour or so, but worth every drop of sweat for the 3rd to find. It had been nearly another year since the 2nd to find, so thought I'd go get the 3rd to find.

Decided on a different approach on this one as the Wellington summer has been so nice and hot, with none of the normal winds, that I didn't feel like climbing in the heat. Decided instead to start this trek at 4:30 am and use the cool morning to do all the climbing, then hit the top in the sun and enjoy the view on the way down. This meant an extra 4km of walking, as the gates are not open to Catchpool Valley until 8am, and I had to walk in from the main road. Spent the first 2 hours in the dark, with a nice moonlit night making for a great walk up the riverbed with my light off.

Plan worked well and I was up on top at 8:40, walking via the Orongorongo river bed, and the hard earned views on the way up were worth the walk. Found the cache, with everything inside still looking like new. That box certainly seals everything out nicely. Signed the book, took some photos and had some food, and headed down and was back at the road at 12:40pm for a total time of 8hours 10mins from the Catchpool valley entrance.

Thanks for putting this cache up here, as I needed an incentive to come this far up the valley, and am glad I made the trp.

This entry was edited by Kiwiarthur on Saturday, 02 March 2013 at 07:56:00 UTC.

2nd to find almost a year since it was first found.Parked at Sunny Grove in Wainuiomata and Hiked into the Orongorongos on the Whakanui Track,Started at 7am and ended up getting to the summit and finding the cache at 1pm,was back at the car at sunny grove at 6pm just as the sun was setting,That Papatahi track was a real gut buster,glad to finally knock this one off the list ,Thanks for bring me up here agcnz

FTF @ 11:45 AM . Going on 2 months unfound I couldn't resist this one any longer! The weather was looking good for today so off I went for my first wander up the valley. I left the carpark at about 7:30am (gates were open early today!) and managed to reach the top in just over 4 hours including some cache hunting on the way. The climb up from the Papatahi cache is certainly a goody! The fist 500m or so are pretty much straight up but it eases up a little for the remainder and there are some great views on the way. It looks like there has been some very recent maintenance on the track - was actually pretty well formed and clearly marked on the way up.

After some lunch at the top it was back out to the carpark and ended up arriving back at the car by 3:35pm, making it an 8 hr 5 mins return journey of about 28km. I have attached a terrain profile from the summit back - so mirror for a return journey.

Thanks agcnz for a great excuse for a Sunday stroll and the FTF prize! One for the favourites, TFTC!

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