A Bonnetful of Bees

This walk appears in the ARC list of tracks published on the back of their Waitakere ranges map, but there are none of the usual ARC signs to indicate its whereabouts, it’s end, or it’s beginning, or point a stranger in its direction. It seems to be a purely local secret – popular but strictly not advertised.

Probably the best place to start is at the junction of Scenic Drive and Woodlands Park Rd, a kilometre or so north of Titirangi township. There’s a large parking area next to the pumping station, albeit one littered with the leftovers of late night car parties.

From here you have a gentle descent over 3 km or a little more, before turning for the return trip. Originally a railway track, the grade is very gentle.

If your group runs to a couple of cars, you can elect to park one at the southern entrance off the Huia Rd, where a solitary street sign is the only marker for this very pleasant walk.

To the left of this building is a closed gate, and a pedestrian access big enough to permit the passage of perambulators but nothing larger. This is the ultimate perambulator-friendly walking track, either tarseal or compact gravel surface all the way. Even this afternoon, midweek, showery, we pass or are passed by about half a dozen mums with prams and about the same number of other walkers.

We head out from the pumping station

past an open gate with a prominent warning notice from Watercare Services

Just in case dog owners, who are notoriously stupid, have not got the message, there is another notice immediately below, specially for them:

All of the dogs we encounter along here are on leashes, but none of the owners is.

The road runs beside the pipeline that brings water up from the Lower Nihotopu Dam.

On the right for the most part is a steep bank, and on the left, a considerable drop-off, with fairly luxuriant bush on either side, frequently meeting overhead.

Here’s a young kohekohe, and below a bank of parataniwha, a fairly reliable pointer to perennially damp conditions.

This is Microsorum scolopendria, fragrant fern, or moki moki (the last of which is applied also to a species of Doodia). Personally, although this fern is in all respects as described I have found no evidence of fragrance whatsoever. The name “scolopendria” translates rather ominously as “centipede-like”. Think about that next time you brush past one in the bush.

Just beside it is an Asplenium polyodon, the sickle spleenwort or petako. This name is a lot easier to live with: “polyodon” translates as “many-toothed”

It is an attractive walk, and at this time of the year its surface makes it especially useful.

Here and there, specimens can be seen of the NZ tree fuchsia, Fuchsia excorticata.

The drop off to the left is steep indeed, almost undermining the road at times, and in some places you can see the concrete buttresses that supported the original rail tracks.

Here and there are huge radiata pine trees. This one is nearly 2m diameter.

Young nikau, as well as mature specimens, are plentiful. The older ones at present sport large clusters of green berries which will later turn a reddy orange.

I think this is probably Metrosideros perforata, the small leaved white rata, covering a rocky bank, though my initial thought was Nertera depressa.

It’s obviously a popular walk locally.

We are passed by or meet quite a number of people mostly in street wear rather than the day tramping gear we are packing.

Here and there along the way are small tunnels through which the pipeline passes. You’d need to send the smaller maintenance staff into these areas.

If this is designed to deter taggers, it’s not been altogether successful.

And here’s a grand old macrocarpa, elsewhere around the countryside the mainstay of the firewood industry and Footrot Flats cartoons. My old landlady reckoned one stick of macrocarpa kept you warm all evening – chasing the embers that exploded from it across the carpet from the fireplace. In our enclosed fireplace, much more acceptable.

I still don’t know my way around the various koromiko species. This one has an intensely white flower, with just the faintest touch of blue – reminds me of the days when we put a blue rinse through the laundry to bring out its whiteness. (Incidentally, I discovered to my surprise that Reckitt’s Blue is still sold in some Indian groceries around Auckland. )

Here is a hangehange with it’s first buds for the new season just starting to appear.

The pipeline emerges from its tunnel and rejoins us. I am a little surprised at the number of tunnels along here. I should have thought it would have been simpler for the pipeline to follow the gentle gradient of the original railway route, albeit around a few gentle bends, than it would have been to build concrete lined tunnels for it to pass through.

A fragile looking but wiry putaputaweta silhouettes its delicate tracery against the darker background.

I can still, without flowers, confuse the five finger and the pate, the Schefflera and the Pseudopanax.

So can you, if you like.

We carry on  in a kind of watery sunlight that is actually quite pleasant but keeps us looking out for a grey mass of showers that feels inevitable.

Over to the left the gound still drops away impressively. For a while along here, the vegetation becomes somewhat scrubby and raffish. Mahoe often contributes to this, and so does karamu. Vinca major, the blue periwinkle forms mats here and there along the track, and Selaginella, the rather lovely but aggressive South African import also features.

From time to time we can see out to the Manukau Harbour and across to the Awhitu Peninsula.

We continue. We are walking relatively slowly compared to the average speed along here, mainly because I keep stopping to take photographs. On the return journey, with no stops for photos and a dirty great grey cloud mass coming in from the Heads, we make it back in just under ARC time, 45 minutes, quite easily.

Here and there, small tracks head off to either side.

We stay on the main drag.

From up here, the views are spectacular, but hard to do justice to on camera.

In these open areas, the vegetation changes somewhat, with young rewarewa and kanuka

and even an occasional kauri ricker

I think this is a lycopodium of some kind, a common inhabitant of drier banks.

Right in the apparent middle of the bush we are suddenly reminded again of how closely linked the Titirangi area is to its surrounding bush.

Another plant of the more open areas of track is Kohurangi (Brachyglottis kirkii var angustior) listed variously by Salmon as a Senecio and as a Urostemon. It is now seen as a close relation of the Rangiora, though the flower looks at first sight as though it should be one of the Olearias

The only other place I have seen this growing – or, at least, recognised it – is on the Huia Dam Road, about five minutes from the dam on the uphill side of the road

Here a slightly bigger kauri ricker

From time to time along here there are closed gates and pedestrian access to the side.

The pipeline comes and goes as we pass along the track.

Over to the left there has obviously been a residence or at least a garden of some kind in the past. Miranda investigates and says that the pathway peters out before any house or remains become visible.

Here and there are wonderful pieces of Victorian looking plumbing.

Just along here there is a private dwelling with it’s gateway opening onto the drive, but a considerable distance from any other dwellings. Bamboo provides a degree of privacy.

What a wonderful address….

We continue along here. The bush is now beginning to look somewhat scruffier.

From time to time the pipeline disappears down very low tunnels.

The odd piece of ginger can be seen.

About here somewhere Shaw Rd joins Exhibition Drive, and a few more houses become visible. A pleasant environment in which to be a maths coach.

Onward, still through fairly scruffy and scrubby bush.

Coprosma grandifolia takes its place in the scrub, but not as common as it is in some areas around Auckland.

It’s starting to cloud over a bit as we reach this section of track.

Here’s a picture of selaginella, still carpeting considerable areas of trackside.

I’d want to check for cave wetas before sticking my head in here.

Just ahead of us is a rather beautiful conical tree form

and a vigorous specimen of hounds tongue fern (kowaowao) can be seen on the bank

Quite a tall waterfall just here, surrounded by one of the sedges that I cannot at present remember the name of.

There’s a sudden heavy whirr of wings and a native pigeon, kereru, rockets out of the scrub and into a tree nearby.

Some of the tree ferns are huge

These have rata vine (Metrosideros diffusa) covering the trunk

Here’s the first lacebark (Houhere) I’ve seen along the way

To the side of the road, a fallen log hosts a brilliantly coloured colony of fungus.

And here is a tawa, again the first I have noticed.

Here we are at the end of the track proper, but we are here for exercise so we take a studied look at the clouds and decide to continue to the junction of Exhibition Drive and Huia Rd.

We are now on a public road, accessible to motor vehicles.

Houses begin to appear along the way.

and signs warning drivers to look out for people like us. Personally, I think it would make more sense to have a picture of a car to warn pedestrians of their changed circumstances.

Here we are at the Huia Rd end.

From here if you really want to continue walking you can head on down Pipeline Road track and link up with a heap of other routes.

What with photos and rubbernecking, it’s taken us a little over 1hr 15 to do the “45 minute” route, but with ominous grey clouds on our tails we manage the return trip in just over 40 minutes, the last five being rained on. Not to worry. We have dry clothes in the van, and a kettle and gas hob.

Catch you again sometime. Thanks for joining us.