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Halfway up Mt Kuripapango, Kaweka Range

Mark Eaglesfield

Mt Kuripapango (1250m) is a prominent point at the end of a ridge in the southern Kaweka Range, Hawke’s Bay, South Island. About 60 minutes inland from Hastings (Heretaunga), it is supposedly beside the locality also called Kuripapango (though I don’t recall seeing any buildings or people). During my hike, I lightly injured myself around half-way up the slope, so I turned back. That made it a short hike. The full hike is what I would call medium-length.

Cameron parking lot was my starting point. There is an alternative trailhead at Lakes parking lot, which should not be confused with the nearby Mackintosh parking lot. This track reaches the peak by a different route, on the far side of the mountain.

Time

The purple dot is Lakes parking lot, the alternative trailhead.

Screenshots of the NZ topographic map are licensed as CC BY 4.0 by Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).

DOC estimates 3-4 hours return from Cameron parking lot to the summit and back, or 2-3 hours return from Lakes parking lot. AllTrails users report an average of 4 hours 8 minutes.

My partial hike took around 3 hours return.

Route

AllTrails reports 776 meters of elevation gained over 8 kilometers round-trip.

Cameron parking lot is on the right side of Taihape Road, coming from Napier, or the left side, coming from Tongariro. It is near a campsite. After a narrow bridge, the ascent through forest begins. This was a mixture of easy track and narrow, rough track.

There are several places where forest on one or both sides of the track gives way to tussock and bare ground. Near one of these, I climbed over a rock outcropping the size of an SUV, and slipped on the descent, because the rock was still wet from rain earlier. It’s the 6th photo in the gallery.

As I continued hiking uphill, it began to rain again. Putting my coat on required stretching my shoulders, and in doing so, I realized that I had injured my shoulder when I slipped. So I turned back. I didn’t want to stress the shoulder in advance of a more ambitious hike on Te Atuaoparapara, in the Ruahine Range, a few days later.

As I came back to the rock outcropping on which I had slipped, I decided to clamber around its base on the right. There was an uncomfortably narrow ledge, not visible in photo #6 below. I think climbing back over the outcrop would have been better.

The best part of this disappointing hike was the view of Te Manihi, the small mountain across the Ngaruroro River. The view reminded me of Japanese mountains.

If 1 is an easy track, and 4 is using hands and feet on exposed rocks, I give this track a 3 on the rock outcrop and a 2 in most other places.

I hiked on a cool winter day. It was much colder at least once: Kuripapango is where the lowest temperature in the Hawke’s Bay region was recorded.

Some very green pasture that I passed on Napier-Taihape road, also known as the Gentle Annie, is shown in the Hawke’s Bay section of Scenery of North Island. The Motor Caravan Association calls the road “one of the North Island’s best-kept secrets”. One driver reports “no traffic at all going my way in over 130km”.

Circuit with Mt Kaiarahi

If it were summer rather than winter, I might try hiking the very long circuit which traverses Mt Kaiarahi and Mt Kuripapango. Going counter-clockwise would get the Tutaekiri River crossing out of the way long before it gets dark, so I would probably do that. Have you done the circuit? Let me know below.

Other pages about Mt Kuripapango from Cameron parking lot

Before the 14 trampers left Church Road [Napier], Kelvin informed everyone that Metro [Insurance] had increased the insurance if travelling on unsealed roads, and that there could be a future increase of $5 in the travel cost [for club trips]. After noting a general air of resignation, he added that the date was April 1. Nice one, Kelvin!

-Keith James, 2015

Pages about Kuripapango campsite near Cameron parking lot

Pages about Mt Kuripapango from Lakes parking lot

Pages about the Kuripapango-Kaiarahi circuit