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Reports......Whangarei
Heads
Date: 10-13/04/09
Leader: Judith Walker
Friday, 10th April.
After lunch, we had all arrived at the Blue Heron Holiday Park,
Tamatarau, and ready to go for a short afternoon excursion, a short
drive to Parua Bay and then, with the tide out, a walk across
exposed flats to Motukiore Island. The walk out to the island was
straight forward with little mud. A number of golf balls originating
from an adjacent golf course proved to be a distraction. The island
was not large and was mostly covered in grass for grazing. This
exposed a large pa site on the highest section. The fortifications
were well preserved with several tiers of ramparts and ditches.
Keeping an eye on the incoming tide, we returned to the cars, and
back to the Holiday Park. A pot luck dinner that evening
finished the day.
Richard Woolston
Saturday, 11th April.
At 8.45 am we jumped into the cars to head off for Urquhart’s Bay
where the medium group of 17 were going to start the Te Whara Track.
The drivers unloaded their passengers and did a quick car shuffle
leaving the cars at Ocean Beach.
We finally headed off at 9.50 am, with very little opportunity to
warm-up before we started to climb steadily up Mt Lion. This was a
significant puff for everyone, straight up and no respite, with
Judith out in front. This was the first of the steep challenges,
rising to 395 metres. After about half an hour Maureen was not
feeling well and she retreated back to the cars at Urquhart’s Bay,
where she stayed for the day, meeting some of the locals as she
explored the area.
According to the information Judith had with her, the first
milestone, Mt Lion was supposed to take one hour from the start of
the track. We made it in 50 minutes, and perched ourselves on the
pile of timber which had been dropped off in preparation for
building a lookout at the top, for morning tea.
Next we had a descent for around 200 metres before we had to start
on another up-hill section. Judith was at the back of the group
taking photos, as we started off after morning tea. The others who
had already set off, realised their leader was at the back, and
called out to everyone to wait until she could assume her leadership
position. We all stopped, and gave her a “leki stick salute” as she
passed us all by. We then followed what the DOC information
described as an “undulating and easy going” track along a ridge. I
am not sure this is very accurate, it was pretty hard graft over
parts of the track which were almost non-existence and clambering
over tree roots and quite steep sections.
We found a lunch spot with a lookout about 2.5 hrs into the tramp. A
few of us used this opportunity to have 40 winks; the day had proved
to be quite strenuous for some of us who hadn’t been on this type of
tramp for a while. Shortly after lunch we came across the
intersection where the track to Peach Cove headed way down the hill.
Tony was keen to go down and check out the hut, and Judy volunteered
to accompany him. The sign said a 40 minute return trip. Some of us
started “doing our sums”. We had already climbed 395 metres to Mt
Lion, we had dropped 200 metres since then, and were about to head
up to the Bream Head Summit, and that was 475 metres. The Peach Cove
Hut was back down to sea-level – so that would mean having to climb
another 475 metres. Finally Terry, Doug, Ron and Bevan decided to
join Tony and Judy, while the others kept on going – expecting them
to catch up again pretty quickly.
DOC had been doing a lot of work on this section of the track, and
they had built brand new steps right down to the hut. So those
“devils for punishment” headed down the steps, explored the hut and
beach, and then started back up again, led by Judy who sprinted to
the top, counting 886 steps – no man being able to catch up with
her.
The others found themselves walking on a new track, but it seemed to
be going too far down, we knew we had to start back up again soon.
So we stopped and retraced our steps, looking for the old track that
went to the Bream Head Summit. We found it, but it was not well
marked, so we left a very distinctive pile of rocks and a note for
the group coming behind us. We also met a number of other trampers
going in the opposite direction, and they passed the message on, so
they found the right track very easily.
The main group reached Bream Head Summit, and clambered onto the
jutting out rocks for a great view of the Whangarei Heads area. Just
as we were about to depart again, the second group arrived. We left
them to take in the scenery, after all that was why we had walked
this track, and headed downward towards the Ocean Beach car park. It
was certainly steep. We briefly stopped to investigate the old radar
station site, and take in more views.
We had a 40 minute wait at the cars for the other group to arrive.
The tramp took us 6 hours, an hour more than the DOC website
recommended time. Liz and Bill, had taken a shorter route to Bream
Head Summit from Ocean Beach. We all arrived back at the Blue Heron
Camping Ground looking forward to a shower and cup of tea.
Janet Gibson
Sunday Morning, 12th April.
Mt Manaia [403m] provided a pleasant challenge on Sunday morning – 1
½ hours up to morning tea at the top then down to the car park for
lunch. The track was through regenerating native bush including lots
of kauris. The higher one got – the more spectacular the views. It
was great to encounter lots of families enjoying the challenge.
Elizabeth Thomson
Sunday Afternoon, 12 April 2009.
This was the Easter wind down trip – a stroll around Busby Head from
Urquharts Bay via Smugglers Bay. The “track” was a tourist
highway of groomed scoria more than a metre wide, sidling gently
around a grassy slope with good visibility across the harbour and
out to sea, with easy zigzags on the one steep section. The
only part resembling a tramping track was optional, an offshoot to a
point off Busby Head.
The first part of the loop track passed gun emplacements resulting
from World War II nervousness about foreign invasion via Whangarei
Harbour. From these we enjoyed 270 degree views up and down
the channel and across to Marsden Point without the fear presumably
experienced by the original occupants. We also saw signs of
even earlier occupation, with long stretches of midden and Maori
storage pits.
The short extension to the Busby Head point gave views up and down
the coast, and an overgrown section at the end appeared to continue
down the spur to the sea, possibly a fishing track since we’d seen
several fishermen on the rocks below the track.
The main route dropped to Smugglers Bay, a sandy cove quite
different from the stony shore at Urquharts Bay. Here we
experienced a brief return to childhood with Bevan making a sand
castle and Judith and Tony taking off their shoes and socks to
paddle.
In all, the afternoon made a nice contrast with the morning’s bushy
climb to Mt Manaia, and a satisfying end to the Easter weekend.
Judy Begg
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