Nine trampers had a go at the Pirongia Traverse, which is the part of the Te Araroa Trail that crosses Mt Pirongia in southwest Waikato. We left Auckland 7.30am Sat morning with a coffee stop on the way. Six of us started tramping from Limeworks Road on the Nikau then Tahuanui tracks. This traverse of Pirongia Mountain started with DOC’s Nikau Walk - an easy stroll south from the Kaniwhaniwha carpark, following the stream through a forest of plantings. Shortly after leaving the farmland we took the Tahuanui Track leading off to the southeast to a picnic/campsite clearing. The Tahuanui Track then climbed steadily up a ridge through stands of tawa to the summit ridge where several tracks converge on the 959m summit of Pirongia.  30mins beyond the summit in a westerly direction was the Pahautea Hut. The remaining three went on in the van to the other side of the mountain to do the Hihikiwi track and got to the top in time to go on to The Cone and back. Keys were swapped at the top, and everyone stayed in the hut. The Pauhatea hut has been moved 20m to make room for the new hut to be built Feb/March next year. The old hut will be used for the Warden/workers. You can see the old tree stumps that were used for the old hut's foundations. Due to being in fog/cloud the whole weekend we had hardly any views unfortunately. Devotions took the form of an interactive discussion along the way around the theme: With Gods help we can conquer any mountain.