Distance: 9.7 km (7.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Hard terrain
Altitude: 102m to 887m. Gain: 328m. Loss: 1113m . Gradient: 9 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)

Unmarked route, clear (7/9)
Unmarked route, follows obvious geography (river, spur, trail, etc)

Primary, mapped (1/5)
Formal route, on maps, principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Hard (difficulty: 5/5)
Thick scrub-bash / continuous river boulders, waterfalls, or gorges

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

Streams (difficulty: 2/6)
Small streams, danger only in extreme weather

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

Leaving the Papahathi Crossing at the western summit, the bush is open cloud-forest - spearse beech trees covered in thick moss, a thick carpoet of moss the only thing on the ground of the ridgeline - great going.

For 500. At pt 89 the first band of windfall is encountered - old mature fallen trees - 1-2m high obstacles to be climbed over with pools fo bush lawyer and scrub in between. Fun.

This sets the pattern for the next 5km or ridgeline. Alternating open bush, windfall, with occasion patches of thick, dwarfed scrub on the most exposed peaks. This is slow going- Wharepapa or Papatahi hut to Waiorongamai hut is a good, hard day of tramping via the ridgeline.

The worst of the scrub is encountered around pt860 - thick, regenerating beech spaced inches apart. Beyond that things improve, and by pt720 you are back in tall, open mature forest. I left the ridgeline here, and took the spur into the head of the Oreore. Continuing on the ridgeline to the hut may,or may noit be a better option.

Heading NNW from pt720, the spur is good and open for the first 200m of descent. However, swinging north down the spur into the Oreore things deteriorate. The ridgeline becomes narrow and scrubby - a real scramble such that in the end I abandoned it and forces my way though thick scrub to the valley floor to the east.

Once in the valley things improve - slightly. The riverbed is flattish, but windfall across it .forms obstacles, and the valley sides are so scrubby that leaving the riverbed is not fun. Things do get better over then next 2km. By the forks of the nth and sth Oreore the tangles scrub is gone, replaced by invasive buddleia. However, pushing through it, good, open podocarp forest is present on good flats on the southern bank. Staying 20-50m from the river, these can be followed all the way to Waiorongamai Hut, which sits in mature bush, 20m form the river and 100m downstream of the main forks. Alternatively follow the Oreore riverbed to the main Waiorongomai river, then follow that 100m downriver to where a clear but unmarked track leads west out of the riverbed into the bush to the hut.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From Waiorongomai Hut head briefly north up the riverbed or forested flats to the Oreore Stream, which you must then follow upriver. The valley is open but scrubby for the first 300m to the forks. The northern fork leads to a large waterfall, which many people visit. The ridge in the centre has a good ground trail leading to the Waiorongomai Saddle and on into the upper Orongorongo.

For the main range, I took the southern fork of the Oreore. The valley becomes narrower - but travel is possible, sometimes on scrubby banks and sometimes in the narrow creek. Windfall over the river is the main obstacle. After 2km, the last forks shown on the map are reached. Teh objective from here is to climb the spur in between the 2 forks to pt 720. However, the first 200m of the ridgeline were narrow and scrubby and I ended up heading slightly up the eastern fork before scrambling up onto the spur up what were little more than pig-tunnels through the scrub.

Once on the spur and 100m above the valley floor thing improve greatly. The scrub is left and replaced by open beech forest - a few spots of scrubby young growth, but generally excellent going. A good ground trail runs all the way up the spur to pt720.

Swinging SSW from pt720- onto the Rimutaka main range things start ok - open beech with bands of scrubby young growth, but steadily deteriorate. It appears that the ridgeline cops severe storms, and whole sections of forest have been flattened at times in the past - leading to swathes of windfall or scrubby regen that must be scrambled through. Bush lawyer makes this all the more fun. The worst point is probably around pt860 - the scrubbiest at the least, but even after that there are several more bands of tough going to cross.

The ridgeline is forested, but there are occasional glimpse views down the Orongorongo and to the coast.

Eventually the track enters moss-covered cloud forest for the last 300m to Papatahi highpoint - great going to the summit where you'll find the clear, marked, well-cut Papatahi crossing track.