North Mangahao Biv

Tararua FP ● 11 February 2023

An accidental day trip to North Mangahao Biv – the northern most offical hut in the Tararuas. We managed to find (and lose many times) the superhighway to the biv, which allowed for generally good progress..

Route

The track to Punga hut (a.k.a. Miro hut, at least according to the hut book) is surprisingly straightforward. Park at the locked gate on Scott's road and head along the forestry tracks towards where they run out above the 600m contour. On the way there we followed the TA until it turns into a track, then headed east up the densely overgrown forestry "road" along a fenceline. On the way back we headed down Scrub ridge road. Most other reports online seem to take Loop road. At the end of the forestry roads there is a grassy clearing. Head south towards pt 686 – cross the fence at a white arrow, then push through about 20m of high tussock to find a very well cut track through the bush. Follow this to pt 686, then 500m east along the ridge until and eventually down the hill towards Punga hut. The downhill section of track even has plentiful orange arrows. Punga hut is just on the otherside aof a small creek once you reach flat ground.

From Punga hut to North Mangahao biv is slightly more interesting. We followed directions in the hut book to follow the so-called super highway, which sidles between the 500 and 600m contours. The track begins from behind the hut and follows just above the 500m contour until the spur just before the first stream on the topo map. Follow the spur up until you cross the stream at the 560m contour. As you sidle towards the second stream the track gradually drops to 540m. Sidle along this contour for the next 500m until you reach a section of low, dense, horrible scrub. On the way there we took a direct route through the scrub towards the biv. This was slow, frustrating work, but we eventually reached taller bush on the spur above the biv. On our return we opted to keep to the east of the scrub, and dropped down to almost the 480m contour to cut across it near the bottom where it is narrow. We found a bit of tape along this route, so it is probably the "official" route, but took just about as much time as the direct route.