A trip to Herepai Hut is a short and sweet out-and-back. It can be done as a day walk or fun overnighter, and boasts a freshly renovated hut high in the Ruamahanga headwaters.
From Putara Road end, cross the swing bridge and amble gently alongside the Mangatainoka River. This lovely section of track affords easy access to beckoning swimming holes. It’s an amicable gateway to the Upper Mangatainoka and northern Tararuas, welcoming trampers to easily accessible huts as well as good backcountry territory. Within an hour you’ll reach a second swing bridge, a dramatic and lengthy span over the river.
Shake out that jelly-like feeling in your knees on crossing the bridge, and puff your way uphill for into red beech forest. The slog ends at the T-junction with the track to Roaring Stag Hut. Turn right for Herepai Hut, less than an hour away.
A broad, flat ridge over Pt770m provides easy strolling after the uphill. The track descends slightly around Bottle Corner, an obvious place for bush-bashers to drop into Ruapae Stream. It’s now just a few minutes blast uphill to the hut. A beautiful lookout over the upper Ruamahanga catchment and merciless Haukura Ridge arrives just before the hut.
Herepai feels fresh… very fresh! The hut was renovated in March 2022 by the Tararua Aorangi Remutaka Huts Committee, who manage the hut under an agreement with the Department of Conservation.
The porch sports plenty of hooks for gear. A new wooden ramp leads to the tank and tap, and a woodshed that appears to be new. The hut door opens to a bright, cosy space, with skylights in the roof and a log burner in the corner.
The track beyond the hut changes gear, heading steeply up Herepai Peak as it leads trampers towards the Dundas Ridge. It’s worth exploring for spectacular views over the Mangatainoka and Mangahao valleys, as well as the awesome summit ridges of the Tararuas. However, from Herepai Hut the way home is to return as you came.
In April 2022, DOC was trialing wi-fi in the hut as part of a pilot to bring the Tararuas online. Happily, I couldn’t connect. It was only on a later trip over the Broken Axe Pinnacles that an identical sign in remote McGregor Bivvy had my tramping partner call my bluff! But perhaps not for long as Mr Musk gets his way….
I really enjoyed my night in Herepai. I met a couple of gentlemen at the hut, who were doing a two-night trip to Roaring Stag and Herepai. Paul had spent a month at Arête Bivouac at a defining moment in his life, reflecting on his time there in Soul Quest: A Spiritual Odyssey through 40 Days and 40 Nights of Mountain Solitude. Gordon had spent plenty of time in the Tararua Ranges in his younger days, including helping construct the swing bridges on the Upper Mangatainoka track.
Need to know
Access: Putara Road end
Grade: Easy
Time: Putara Road end to hut, 2.5 hr
Distance: 5km to hut
Total ascent: 560m
Accommodation: Herepai Hut, $10 for adults, 10 bunks
Map: BN34 Shannon