Over the Hump - The Hump Ridge Track
- Natty Knees
- May 4
- 9 min read
Updated: May 14
The newest of the Great Walks, the Hump Ridge Track, will test your fitness and knees. For the first time the crew tackles a Great Walk outside of summer, on the first day the track opens in October. We go on a journey around the coast, through magical mossy forests, and descend the infamous Hump Ridge via a gazillion stairs. Definitely not a hike for the faint heart, as we are punished on the climb to Okaka Lodge in our attempt to make it out of the forest by night fall, with one of the crew going missing. Read on to hear about the newest addition to NZ's Great Walks and the hardest ascent of them all.
Track: Hump Ridge Track
Time of year: October 2023
Day 0 - Fly into Invercargill
Everyone has flown into Invercargill the day before the hike and picked up the 3 rental cars from the airport. By the time Julz and I arrive at the hotel in the evening the crew are in good spirits having had a few (aka a lot of) drinks at dinner. It’s about 10pm and I question whether everyone is all packed up for the morning? There is not a lot of head nodding, and I remind them of our 6.30am early start. It’s a 1 hour 15-minute drive to Tuatapere from Invercargill and we need to drop off extra luggage and get the lodge passes at the Hump Ridge Office. It's then another 20-minute drive to the track from the office and we need to begin early, with 21 kms to smash on the first day.
Day 1 - Rarakau car park to Okaka Lodge
The next morning the crew drift into reception and are just about on time. I have learned through the years to build in an extra 30 minutes for departure times as a contingency to accommodate all the buggering around. While we wait for the last of the crew, we start lifting each other’s hiking packs to check who has over packed, hoping it’s not you. Tano, a newcomer, has bought a scale and we are shocked when Dr J comes in with an impressively small 10kg backpack. Because you can hire sleeping bags and purchase food and drinks at the lodges, he has miraculously whittled his pack weight down. On the way out of town we duly stop in at Fat Bastard Pies for our pre-hike breakfast which does not disappoint.
The drive to Tuatapere is quick and easy around the rugged southern coastline and we arrive at the Hump Ridge office an hour later. The staff detail the weather, store our extra bags and advise us if we don’t make it to the ridge and out of the forest by 6pm, to call and provide an update on our progress. A little café is spotted up the road and it’s decided that caffeine is required for the mission, and because we are professional f*$k arounders we are a little later than scheduled to the start the track.
We park the rental cars in the designated car park and head off through the gates just after 10am as the rain starts. Within 15 minutes we reach a stack of stairs which we come to know later are called the ‘stairs of doom’ which descend us to the beach below. We proceed single file along the flat track, over a bridge and past fisherman huts until an old wooden sign directs us onto Bluecliffs Beach.
The beach is wild and windswept, and we comfortably walk along the firm sand for about an hour with darkened skies. Thankfully, the weather does improve by the time we reach the end of the beach for the next section of track, and the rain gear comes off. It's a relaxing meander under canopy around the coastline until we reach a junction with a sign pointing us inland into an enchanted goblin forest.
As you weave your way through the moss covered track you will witness a hundred different shades of green dripping from everything. It’s here that you will navigate the first of many boardwalk sections on the Hump Ridge Track designed to protect the ecosystem beneath.
We don't stop for lunch until we reach Water Bridge shelter which is approximately 15km’s
into the hike. We are famished by this stage, devouring our lunches. There is an unfortunate smell emanating from the shelter we are huddled inside and after further investigation La Laa sheepishly admits to packing canned oysters for a bougie lunch. The canned oysters have created a pungent aroma in such a small space and La Laa considers perhaps they will not make another appearance on a Great Walk. At the bridge you can drop a pale into the rushing stream below and fetch out ice cold water, to re-fill before you start the climb. If you were completing this in the hotter summer months, you will need every last drop for the monstrous climb ahead. Signs indicate we now have 6km of climbing to reach Okaka Hut which sits at nearly 1000m. Once tummies and hydration packs are full, we begin the climb.
Many describe the ascent as relentless and that is probably a fairly adequate summary of events. We hike up and up and up through the forest and at times need to scramble and hoist ourselves over rocks as we follow the little orange triangles.
There are few flat sections which could provide some respite, and each time you take a breath and look skywards, you can’t quite believe there is someone climbing higher still. It is however the most magical forests of all the Great Walks, but you will certainly huff and puff your way through it. It is understandable now why hikers opt to helicopter their pack to Okaka Hut on day one for $150. Just as we thought we were coming to the top, the Hump Ridge has more to give in the form of stairs and lots of them. We push through the punishing stairs and are rewarded with flat track when we finally reach the ridge line.
Unfortunately, the clouds have come in and there is no view over Te Wae Wae Bay for our efforts. From here there is only 2km to go to Okaka Lodge and soon a boardwalk spirals us down to a smiling warden and a warm and inviting lodge.
The bunk rooms are toasty warm unlike the normal DOC huts and our beds are made up ready with pillows and a warm sleeping bag that we hired for $20. After a much-needed hot shower, we collapse with a gin and tonic from the bar and discuss ‘that climb’ with other tired hikers. The warden approaches and asks us about our last crew member who is yet to arrive. It’s getting dark and she is getting concerned about his whereabouts. We try unsuccessfully to contact him on his mobile and the warden recommends we go back and find him if we don’t hear from him soon. The thought of donning boots and re-doing the track is extremely unappealing as we are spent. On the final attempt before we head back out, Pablo picks up and communicates he has finally reached the ridge line with mobile reception. We all breathe a sigh of relief that he is ok and not far but that we are not heading back out into the cold.
At the lodge you can buy a meal of potato mash, pea and sausages from the lodge to cook. We get to work cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Dinner is ready by the time an exhausted Pablo arrives at the hut. The dinner is delicious and very filling but sends us all directly into a food coma and bed beckons quickly.
Day 2 - Okaka Lodge to Port Craig Lodge
The lodge provides a free porridge breakfast in the morning, so we happily add some fruit and nuts to jazz it up before we head off. The temp is chilly outside, and it had been snowing at this hut only 2 days ago. The crew usually hike in the summer months to chance good weather, but we have decided to complete this walk as soon as it opened in October. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of low-lying cloud making visibility poor. The warden tells us the loop side trip to the Tarns is unmissable. After much discussion we reluctantly skip it, as we wouldn’t see much at all as we climb higher into the clouds.
In typical fashion we are a little late out of the starting block and get hustled on our way by the warden. We have 20km of ground to cover today and the helicopter is about to arrive.
To reach Port Craig Lodge we will walk along an exposed ridge line to Luncheon Rock and then descend back down to sea level. As we progress along the ridge line there are a few more sneaky climbs (and not so sneaky stairs) to warm up any aching legs from yesterday. As we descend a bit more we come out of the clouds and some glorious views over the sea and tussock landscape appear.
We reach Luncheon Rock in a couple of hours and stop for a rest and food before the impending 2-3 hour downhill section. If you love stairs, then you are in for a real treat on day 2. There are plenty of stairs that carve through the native bush and step you down steep muddy sections.
The Hump Ridge was supposed to become a Great Walk this season but due to some weather events and delays, the track was not ready. There are sections where more stairs were still under construction and although it was exceptionally muddy our knees were grateful for the reprieve from potentially even more stairs.
It has become considerably warmer as we finish the downhill descent, and the sun finally makes an appearance. From here the terrain is flat all the way to Port Craig Lodge and our knees breathe a sigh of relief. We cross two enormous historical viaducts, Edwin Burn and Percy Burn, which is the largest wooden viaduct in the southern hemisphere. Built in the 1920’s the viaducts helped transport logs to the sawmill once situated at Port Craig. We stop for lunch at the hut on the other side of Percy Burn bridge and take a break to bathe in the warm sun and refuel.
From here it is approx 2 hours following the tramway to Port Craig Lodge. It is a straight-line flat hike from here and caution is required if you are not wearing boots for this section, as there are metal spikes sticking out of the tramway.
This section is also diabolically muddy with tall trees shadowing the tramway and it’s doubtful the mud could ever really dry out. Plenty of track reviews mentioned the mud party so we are prepared with gaiters and trudge for kilometers through the smelly slippery mess trying not to meet a muddy fate.
We are welcomed to Port Craig Lodge by an eccentric warden who has frightening stories of hikers who have been rescued on the mountain. The bunk rooms and bedding are not quite as organised as Okaka Lodge, but the showers are hot and the bar is open, so no complaints from us. A few meters from the hut you can walk down to Mussel Beach for a swim and hopefully catch a glimpse of hector dolphins, which reside in the cove below.
Day 3 - Port Craig Lodge to Rarakau car park
Packed up and ready to go, Megs indicates that she is feeling iffy today for the final 20km day. Lails also fell ill on day 1 and gallantly struggled through the notorious climb. We joke that our dear friend Covid may have joined us for the hike (turns out it did as some of crew get the Vids a few days later). The final day is a relaxing walk for the most part through forest and around the coastline heading back towards the beginning.
The path is undulating but not strenuous and in a couple of hours the trees part directing us over Breakneck Creek bridge to the first of many beaches. It’s a great spot for lunch so we stop to relax and watch the waves crash onto the beach.
From the beach you can look back and see the ridge line you descended yesterday from Okaka to Port Craig Lodge.
From here we will have some quick and dirty climbs into and out of multiple bays and across sandy beaches, making our way back to the familiar route walked on day 1.
We reach Bluecliffs Beach again and as we near the end Tano and Sassy Mama brave the cold southern waters for a swim while the rest of us decline to participate in the insanity. All that is left is the final climb up the 'stairs of doom,' so we dig deep, understanding now their namesake and are grateful to leave the last of the Hump Ridge stairs behind us.
The newest addition to the Great Walks is epic with goblin forests, ridgelines, mountain views, and beaches. It's also probably (we think) the hardest of the Great Walks due to the climb to Okaka. But as they say 'no pain, no elevation gain.'
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