Holdsworth Lookout Track, Mt Holdsworth, Masterton
21 September 2008
We’d done an overnighter up to Atiwhakatu Hut and a walk the previous day to Mountain Hut and back, and this walk was basically just dotting i’s and crossing t’s before heading off. However, it turned out to be possibly one of the highlights of our week. If you’re among the elderly and stout, a few days’ preparation is probably essential, and you’ll definitely need sticks.
For me it was one of those descents where two legs and a stick provided stability while the other stick located the next anchor point, then two sticks and a leg, etc etc. Not difficult, and you’re not going to fall and break your neck thousands of feet below, but you do have to pay a little attention in the steeper sections. My son, Clifford, would probably jog down.
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Aniwaniwa to Sandy Bay Hut
27-28 September 2008
Lake Waikareiti, Urewera National Park
This is the last route Miranda and I walked together. For some time now her interests have been principally beyond the treeline, and mine have continued comfortably below it. We have decided to go our separate ways after nearly thirty years together, and she is leaving to live with Dan.
Candidates to fill her shorts to provide colour interest in pictures of the bush should queue on the left.
They should present, as Rex Fairburn described our flowering bush clematis, “like laughter in court”.
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There are some tracks that we keep coming back to. They’ve got that something special, and this is one of them. (more…)
Just a brief report as we attempt to get fit for the Tararuas next month. The Waitaks at present are pretty soggy, but there are a few tracks that are still user-friendly despite all the rain, and this has to be one of the best. We went there a week or two back and again today. Last time there were a number of tree-falls creating problems, especially for the elderly and stout, but by today, a team had been through with a chainsaw and it was all cool running. For those who don’t know it, a report, in reverse direction, can be found at http://wudhi.com/mrwalker/montana/montana%2005.htm and the next file, http://wudhi.com/mrwalker/montana/montana%2006.htm There’s a few hundred metres of level streamside track before we head uphill, and about 20 minutes to the Cascade track junction. Then it’s relatively gentle and undulating on it’s way up to the far end. A good chance to stretch out after the initial uphill warm-up. I never completely trust that the board walks are not going to send me for slipsliding gutser, and I still don’t like them after many trips, especially in the wet, but that apart this is an exceptionally rich track for spotting native plants. Today there was an exquisite little green orchid, as far as I can tell, one of the Pterostylis genus, but which I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s early. Salmon lists its flowering period as September to December. Today I did not take the camera. The track is listed at ARC time 1hr 30 min from the carved statue of Tiriwa to the junction with Long Rd. We managed it in 1hr 14 going up and 1hr 3 coming down, from the carpark, including sitdowns along the way. Fatman time is looking better as we approach the Tararua tracks around Mt Holdsworth.
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.
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This is the second of two tracks recommended to us for a brief walk by the staff at DoC Kaueranga Valley. Neither on their map, nor on any signpost did we see a trace of its name, so we have given it one, as a passing botanist provided a name for a small iris that had flourished in the public eye in California for many many years, all the while totally nameless and unknown to science.
It begins just inside the gateway of the Whangaiterenga Campground, and loops around to the left, returning to the road we came in by, about a kilometre back down the road.
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We spent a long weekend at the Coromandel Peninsula, around the middle of June. On the last day, due at Miranda for a visit about 1.30pm or thereabouts, with a couple of hours to fill, we decided to take a quick look at the Kaueranga Valley, a little to the west of Thames. We called at the DoC office and the extremely helpful young lady took a guarded look at my mature figure and pointed us at the Edwards Lookout Track, together with another which we could continue on to afterwards if we still had time in hand.
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Some years ago we went up to Wilson Rd, off the South Head road, to visit Mark and Lesleigh, and we were taken on their John Deere for a ride out to the coast and along the beach. The route started at a gate by the southern end of Lake Kereta and headed along Deacon Rd to the coast.
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I’ve just had an email from Jon Povey telling me about his peakbagging site: From his home page:
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From Muriwai almost to South Head runs Coast Road, for most of it’s distance available only to horses and pedestrians. The short public access section of it that heads up from Motutara Rd in Muriwai, past the golf course takes you to the Okiritoto Stream access to Muriwai Beach, and for the curious, a walking track heads north from here.
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