View from Te Mata Peak |
Sunrise Hut |
Heading up to Armstrongs Saddle |
Looking through the Beech forest |
We spent a couple of days wandering around Napier and Hastings, taking in the beautiful art deco buildings that were built after the terrible Napier earthquake of 1931. We went up Te Mata Peak, but unfortunately fog hindered the stunning views we should have seen.
It was to good an opportunity not to hike somewhere new while visiting the Hawkes Bay, so we decided to go to the Ruahine Ranges and walk the Sunrise Hut track.
We didn't have a lot of visibility of the surrounding valleys due to low clouds. However about an hour after our arrival at the hut, the cloud lifted and we were able to venture along the ridge to Armstrong Saddle, sight of a plane crash back in 1935.
As usual lots of mosses, lichens and fungi captured my attention.
After a rather rough nights sleep, we were up early to see the sunrise. Not quite as impressive, as we'd hoped, and rather cold but with everyone from the hut up and watching and chatting, it was quite a cheerful start to the day.