Mole Tops has been one of the more popular extended tramps. This version offers a variation on previous tramps.
Option One: Do the Tops as a walkthru with one group starting at Lake Rotoroa (1.25 hrs) with a water taxi ride ( say 30 minutes to load unload) ($60/person extra cost)&nbs p;t o D'Urville Hut then a 2.5 hour walk to Tiraumea Hut (6 bunks) for the night. The second group would drive 2and a bit hours to the Mata kitaki Farm Car Park via the Mangles and TutakiValley. It is then a 4 .5 - 5 hours climb up Watson Creek to the bushline camping site (old hut si te).
Day 2. Meet on the Tops near the highest tarn to camp for the night. Explore the two basins as time permits.Then the reverse tramp f or each group.
Day 3 Walk back to cars and head home.
Option Two: Complete the smaller loop walking in via Jameson Ridge and up Mole Saddle instead of down. Camp near the high t arn. Day 2 Explore the tops before descending to the campsite at the treeli ne on Watson's Creek. Day 3 walk back to cars and return to Nelson. [There is an alternative track up (or down) Mole Creek that is quite hard wo rk and includes 2-3km of rock hopping and wet feet. Not too bad in ho t weather? Jameson Ridge is a straight-forward shady walk through beech tre es)
PLEASE TELL T HE LEADER YOUR PREFERENCE. The alternative is to go as one goup UP Watsons Creek, across the Tops and OUT Jameson Ridge as per usual.
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This event was imported from: https://live.n elsontrampingclub.org.nz/events/1126/mole-tops-two-options?tmpl=componentDTSTAMP:20260714T134055 DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230128 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230131 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR