D21 Manganiuohou valley to Te Waiotukapiti hut

I always knew today would be bad. Its an all day bush bash, gaining 500m then loosing 6. An nzfs sign states Te Waiotukapiti hut -8 hours. More of a concern is the 1 graffitied in front of the 8, and the words ' completely blocked '. There's no sighn of the track to start with so I head up the obvious spur. A few markers appear and its reasonably followable to the junction with the North - south Pukekohu track. The junction itself is unusual. There's a sighn, a mailbox containg a pre - doc intentions book, and a neighbourhood support group sighn ( seems unlikely ).
There's an area of scub around the junction marked on the map. It looks like it's been felled at some point in time, but never cleared, and scrub growing back through the old trunks. It's impossible to even follow a compass bearing. I head back the way I came, and siddle around the scrub through slightly more open forest. Once past the scrub i retern to the ridgeline which is now 'passable'
Occasional markers confirm it once contained a track. I've started noticing pumice in the soil- a good sighn im getting closer to Taupo.
The junction with the spur heading west isn't obvious and is easy to miss. Im not sure where the track originally went but I can confirm the spur marked on the map never contained a track. Following it anyway it soon becomes to steep and i forced to siddle to another spur. Snow damage is terrible and my feet barely touch the ground. The painfull process contines for most of the afternoon, slowly loosing altitude. The streams buffed in most of the way so i can't just drop down. Once into the lower altitude bush, at least the vegetation becomes more forgiving.
Its almost 6.00 by the time i reach the stream, theres a potential campspot here, but im keen to get to the hut. The Te Waiotukapiti stream is like any other, tho further down well maintained tracks appear on either side and its reasonable going to the confluence with the Waiau.
The Waiau is comperable to the Waioeka only smaller. Its the main drain of the southern Urewera, flowing out to Wairoa.
Its about 10mins upstream and 1 knee deep crossing to reach the hut. I finally drag myself in by 8pm. All up 12.5 hrs from the campspot and another 3 from the lake. An outdated and inaccurate sighn states lake Waikaramoa- 10 hrs.
Te Waiotukapiti hut is an original Toatoa slab hut, built from materials milled on site. Its had a steel surround added by doc and a recent paint job. Graffiti dates back to the early 60's. 6 bunks, open fire and tank, its also my first orange hut- the couler they should be.