Tararua Forest Park

The Tararuas run about eighty kilometres between the Manawatu and the Wairarapa, and they sit directly across the path of the westerlies funnelling through Cook Strait - which is why they are drenched, why the tops are stripped to tussock and leatherwood, and why they have a reputation out of proportion to their modest height. Weather here changes in minutes and the ranges have a long list of fatalities among people who treated them as a small hill. That said, they are also the training ground for generations of Wellington trampers, with more than fifty huts, well-marked routes and river valleys that are straightforward in settled weather. Popular objectives include Mount Holdsworth and the Jumbo circuit from Masterton, Field Hut and Kime from Otaki Forks, and the Southern Crossing for the experienced. Day walks from the road ends - Atiwhakatu, Otaki Forks flats - need none of the alpine skills the tops do.

What you actually see

• The stripped tops - tussock and leatherwood above the bushline.
• The hut network - over fifty, from basic to serviced.
• The river valleys - the easy walking, from every road end.
• The weather - the defining feature, straight off the Tasman.

When to go

December to March for the tops; valley walks work year round. Check the forecast obsessively - conditions at the road end say nothing about the ridge.

Honest expectations

The tops are genuinely dangerous in bad weather and people have died there in every season. River crossings rise fast after rain. Carry a locator beacon for anything above the bushline. Day valley walks are a different, much gentler proposition.

Nearby

Otaki and the Kapiti Coast are west; Masterton and the Wairarapa are east.