2025-01-15 < Weekly activities > 2025-01-29
Activity summary: Wednesday 2025 January 22 to Tuesday 2025 January 28
South Coast/Eastern Walkway/Eastern Harbour Hills/Ōrongorongo River, Catchpool to the sea/Mangatarere Valley/Goat Stream Spur, Mt Matthews
Wednesday
Ramble ‘South Coast’, led by Margaret Foden, Wed 22/01 6M
We enjoyed a warm windless day (what a surprise). We walked around the coast, had lunch at the road end before reversing the process. I am think of running a ramble in & around the Zoo before the winter & let the animals gape at a herd of octogenarians!
E Trip ‘Eastern Walkway’, led by Jean Morgan, Wed 22/01 2M
Two members walked most of the Eastern Walkway on a warm still sunny day beginning at the end of the Strathmore bus route to the Ataturk memorial and the Pass of Branda There were many short stops on the way to admire the stunning views.
EM Trip ‘Eastern Harbour Hills’, led by Rob Vanderpoel, Wed 22/01 12M
12 trampers came together to explore the Northern end of the East Harbour Regional Park. We took a figure-of-8 loop from Whiorau Reserve that took us up to Mt Lowry via Cheviot, down into Wainuiomata than back up to Mt Lowry, and back to the cars via Kaitawa. We experienced plenty of variety in track conditions and bush - the day started a bit cloudy but it wasn't long before the sun came out and we were pleased to be in the shade of the bush. About 14km in 5 1/2 to 6 hours.
M Trip ‘Ōrongorongo River, Catchpool to the sea’, led by Jim Gibbons, Wed 22/01 18M
This was a medium trip walking over the Catchpool Stream track to the Ōrongorongo River and then down the river all the way to the sea. It took six hours including lunch stops, swims, and enjoying the scenery. It involved a car shuttle with cars left at both ends. At the far end of the Catchpool track, Mary Kane tripped and had a hard fall, so rather than continuing on Diane Morgan and Sheryl McDonald volunteered to walk back to the cars with her. Morning tea was at the Orongorongo River. Travel down the riverbed is generally easy at the beginning, but gradually gets rougher as the stones get bigger and the river more swift. We stopped for a swim at lunchtime, and then another swim about an hour or so later. It was a nice warm day with little wind.
Jim Gibbons ( leader) Chris Ward, Jane Mautner, Bob Buckle, Peter Morten, John Willet, Alan Knowles, Murray Powell, Colin Hoare, Cheryl McDonald, Mary Perkins, Ann Walker, Leonore Hoke, Paul Bruce, Mary Kane, Diane Morgan, Louise Slocumb, Tim Stone
SF Trip ‘Mangatarere Valley: farm, forest and views’, led by Celia Wade-Brown, Wed 22/01 3M
We enjoyed a slow, steep, Mangatārere Valley walk. David McNabb and Wayne Perkins met me at 9:30 and their first unscheduled job was to help me unstick our ute from a small creek crossing. Their advice and guidance were good but their combined weight on the back was the most helpful!
After that unexpected excitement we headed to the cottage for tea, coffee, gingernuts and tamarillos fresh from the tree. We gazed at the steep bush ridge ahead of us and soon set off past a few varied traps to our “Christmas track”, named after a 2017 Christmas Day excursion, to see if we could connect up with the Tararua Forest Park network. On the way we collected four bat monitors that Alastair and I had put out when we did a reconnoitre, trim, and marking of the track nine days before. Two showed bat passes, with the best one showing 66 passes during that period. Lunch was a brief diversion to the Holdsworth lookout where we could admire views of Taratahi, Jumbo, Powell Hut and even Mitre. The calm and slightly cloudy weather was much better than the earlier forecast. Along the ridge to 670 and then back onto our land for 637 there were even patches of sunshine. We saw some pretty orchids, various fungi, young rata trees, saw bellbirds, tūī, kererū, and pīwakawaka, and heard a group of pōpokotea/whiteheads trilling away while we emptied our thermos flasks. The last part of the downhill was made much easier due to the new Stan’s track, named after the neighbour who drove the digger. According to David, we did about 6.6km, 540m ascent/descent, and took about 6 hours with multiple bird-watching, sandwich-nibbling breaks. Definitely slow, possibly not that fit.
MF Trip ‘Goat Stream Spur, Mt Matthews’, led by Franz Hubmann, Wed 22/01 5M
We set off from Catchpool and up Goat Stream spur to South Saddle. From here 2 peeled off down to Matthews Stream and out while the other 3 continued to the summit of Mt Matthews before returning via Goat Stream spur. We think we saw half a dozen or so wilding pines on hillsides above the TR of Mukamuka Stream.
Total 46 members and 0 non members.