Yau Sing Phun P1020184 [click any pic to enlarge]

This was our third attempt to have a great tramp in the Tararuas, the first in November 1998 was rather wet and lacked any real photo opportunities - see Tararua 1. The second in February 2009 had been planned by Ian as an "old man's tramp" from North to South, but heavy rain resulted in rivers flooding, requiring a diversion back to a higher hut resulting in loss of 2 days (and my glasses), so that tramp was cut a little short - see Tararua 2.

This tramp was to be from west (Otaki Forkes) to east (Holdsworth) but also had a bad weather forcast which made us change our plans at the last moment to avoid the tops. John and Ian came up with "a new and exciting tramp" which meant we walked in to Mitre Flats Hut (day 1), then on to the new Atiwhakatu Hut on day 2 then Totara Flats Hut (day 3), Neill Forks Hut (day 4), Cone Hut (day 5), Tutuwai [spare day](day 6) then Smith Creek shelter and out to road end (day 7).

On this trip I took the Panasonic Lumix rather than a large SLR camera because of the weather warning.

WEATHER Forecast was for Horowhenua was for rain on the evening of the 29th Feb 2012, clearing by the 4th March. In fact a "weather bomb" developed with 122km/hr winds in Hawera in the early hours of March 3 - see The bomb. This caused destruction from Palmerston North to South Taranaki. The maximun recorded wind gust was 142 km/h.
On to the pictures

The trampers on our Tararua III tramp were:

• Ian Bardsley (ex Hawera)
• Phun Yau Sing (Penang, Malaysia)
• Roger Clegg (UK)
• John Barrell (New Plymouth and Hawea [South Island])
• Alan Rogers (Hawera): photo ID=AR
  Camera=Panasonic DMC LC40 digital [3.9MP],
• Graham Thompson (Hawera)
• Keith Blayney [yours truly] (Hawera): photo ID=KB
  Camera=Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1.

All photographs © - media reproduction requires permission