We headed off from Franklin road where we parked our car. It was easy to find as the parking is just at the end of the road (you can’t drive any further). Once here it a short walk down the road, then across farm land just following the orange triangles.
Once through the gate at the end of the farm land, a sign indicates the start of the Kauri loop track. We followed this track and crossed the Waitawheta river. An easy cross but water levels were low. After about 30 min and a steep ascent up we came to a T- section and followed the Waitengaue valley track(via Ananui falls). This bit was real steep and challenging for about 1 and half hours, at which point we came to a cross roads marked on the tree with a red sign. We wanted to walk straight ahead as indicated on the map to get to Ananui falls but this track was unmarked and trees had fallen down around it and the track was very unclear. To our interpretation it seemed unsafe to puruse, as getting lost would be easy. Instead, we stayed to the marked track which took us away from Waitengaue Valley. After a couple hours, we crossed a small stream and decided to set up camp in the middle of the forest happy to be by a steam as day light was fading. We hoped this track woud lead us to Ananui falls as it was the only marked track to follow but alas it didn’t.
The spot we camped was in the middle of nowhere, but very pretty. It was cold at night and got down to 7 degrees.
In the morning I did some yoga in the forest to the sound of the birds. We had a big breakfast and then headed back to the cross roads to see if we would be able to brave the unmarked track. On our second look, we decided no as the track was overgrown and losing the track would have been very easy. So we decided to head back down the mountain. One our way back down we thought we would try staying our second night near the Waitawheta River just off the track. We found an excellent place by the river that we could also do some rock climbing of the nearby cliffs.
We had a fire at night and were happy to be back close to people. The next morning as we were eating our breakfast we were very thankful that we had not stayed in the Waitawheta Hut, as we watched a stream of people hiking back from our secluded vantage point.
After a swim, a climb on the rocks, some drone footage (which unfortunately led to us losing the drone to an unanticipated gust of wind 40m up the cliff) we relaxed in the sun. We then made our way back to the car in about 1 hour 10 min. We had a great time away in the bush, with no cell phone reception and loads of chill time. We had a ball even if we didn’t find Ananui falls.