Tararua Hike - Cone-Hector-Alpha Loop 2024 (partial southern crossing)

We thought it was a good weekend to try and squeeze a modified version of the Tararua Southern Crossing into two days - opting to forego the trip to Otaki (from Carterton) and do a loop from Waiohine Gorge instead. That is Waiohine -- Cone Peak -- Winchcombe -- Mt Hector - Alpha Hut -- Cone Hut -- Waiohine. May have bitten off more than we could chew in that amount of time, with a bad sleep - a couple of hunters had choppered in and taken Winchcombe biv (it was during the roar so not unexpected) so we slept with a ground sheet over top of us as we didn't bring the whole tent... everything from Cone to Hector was harder work than expected, and a lot of the rest of it was surprisingly boggy considering the dry summer (lots of obscured mud holes to fall into from Hector to Alpha)... but we made it through and the weather was perfect with a slight breeze at most, and good views. Overall, although there were some slightly concerning moments, that was mostly just not knowing what was ahead - I think we would do it again (without the dog, and with a tent), though we'd probably do a more comfortable, proper 2-night southern crossing first. Route Overview: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1usfO... Elevation Profile: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IEJM... Section Times (21.5h total): Waiohine to Cone Peak 4h Cone Peak to Winchcombe Peak 5h15m Winchcombe Peak to Mt Hector 2h30m Mt Hector to Alpha Hut 3h45m Alpha Hut to Cone Hut 4h Cone Hut to Waiohine Road End 2h30m Chapters: 0:00 Waiohine to Cone 0:47 Reaching Neill 1:43 Under a tarp on Winchcombe 2:37 Morning in the mist 3:40 Sun cheers us up 4:32 Mt Hector 5:30 Bull Mound 6:08 Darkness after Cone