13 October 2009

The Tuesday Trampers have developed a great sense of adventure as 15 of us discovered on a mystery/exploratory trip to Sunset Station, at Port Waikato.  Robin had found a new trip for us so off we went to check it out.

We were armed with written instructions which read: “…….up the hill steepish to the stockyards………. turn left at tree marked with a big white arrow into the bush……… follow yellow dots as the track is marked with other colours ………out onto bulldozed track…..… follow ridge out to a high point above the sea ….…. down sheep track to beach .…… sheep track up the hill around the coast”.

Although some of us were familiar with Sunset Station, we had not entered the farm via this particular route which followed farm tracks before negotiating a lengthy bush track which sidled a valley, in and out of gullies, but with beautiful dense native bush including lots of nikau.  We noticed some prize examples of greenhood orchids.  We were relieved to eventually exit the bush track onto a bulldozed track.  So were we in the right place, we wondered?  We headed west towards the coast and soon realized we were right on target, according to the description.  Here we had good views up and down the coast before descending to a beach.  The end was in sight, but not before one final climb up from the beach.

After more than 6 hours out, we arrived back at the car parked at Sunset Beach and the drivers were ferried back to their cars at the start point a few kilometres away.

It was a good tramp with lots of variety and we were thankful for a fine day and dry tracks.

Marlene