Leader: Marlene Lynam
Thursday, 1st
April
Thirty-one members arrived at the
Taumarunui High School Hostel during the course of the
afternoon and evening.
Six members visited
Aramatai
Gardens near Te Kuiti where we
enjoyed a delicious light luncheon and strolled around
their picturesque and tranquil garden created on natural
undulating boulder-strewn farmland.
For us, this was a good introduction to the
weekend. At
the Hostel, a leisurely evening followed with some
members going to the Taumarunui RSA for dinner.
We were pleased to meet Peter and Mark, from the
Taumarunui Tramping Club, who were very kindly helping
us to co-ordinate the weekend’s activities.
Peter gave us a brief outline of the weekend’s
tramps and showed us a video of the Ongarue Tramway in
its heyday.
We were looking forward to our first tramp.
Hauhungaroa
Track, Friday, 2nd April
Twenty MTC members opted for the medium
tramp on the Hauhungaroa Track which is a 3 day 45km
tramping track traversing the
Hauhungaroa
Range within Pureora Forest Park.
After an 8am departure, we drove to the
Mangakahu
Valley entrance to Pureora Forest
Park. From
the road-end gate, we followed old logging roads to the
head of the Mangakahu Valley before a long ascent on a
bush track to the crest of the range and reached the Mt
Motere Trig, although no views from here.
After another 2.5km through spectacular
moss-covered “goblin” forest, we came to a track sign
pointing us in the direction of the Hauhungaroa Hut,
only 75m away to the west.
This 6 bunk hut, at an altitude of 967m, and
built in 2007 is situated in a sunny clearing with good
views towards the Waikato, Mt
Pirongia visible in the distance.
We basked in the sunshine on the hut’s deck and
enjoyed a very welcome lunch break.
Reluctantly, it was time to leave for
the return journey, again admiring the “goblin” forest
with its stunted podocarp trees, mosses and ferns (Carol
pointed out lots of Prince of Wales feather ferns) and
even the blue fungi, entoloma hochstetteri.
We were treated to some birdlife throughout the
day and, at one of the few viewpoints along this track,
a glimpse of Mt Ruapehu in the distance.
We descended into the
Mangakahu
Valley and deviated to the old
sawmill site in a large clearing, now becoming
overgrown.
The old Nuffield Lodge, demolished in 2004, was the last
remaining building on this site.
It was interesting to briefly visit this historic
site, once a thriving sawmill.
We arrived back at the cars after an 8 hour
tramp.
According to the signpost near the Hauhungaroa Hut, it
was a 14km return trip although, I must say, it seemed
further than that.
A big thankyou to Peter (TTC) for
leading us on this tramp, Graeme (TTC) for tail-end-charlie
duties and other TTC members for joining us on the day
which ended with a pot luck dinner back at the Hostel
with our invited guest, Peter, to reminisce the day’s
tramp.
Marlene
Mt Hikurangi,
Saturday,
3rd April
After a brief hunt for a missing
camera, which had sneaked its way out of Lynette’s pack
liner into the bottom of her pack, we set off from the
hostel at 9 am
for the climb up Mt Hikurangi. We were joined by a
number of Taumarunui Tramping Club members, at the
Richardson Farm, through which we accessed the mountain.
This is Michelle Bolstad’s family farm, and she,
her children and extended family were guiding us on this
walk.
Elizabeth Makgill only hesitated for a brief moment,
before accepting the offer of a ride to the bush line on
a quad bike with Dan (Michelle’s brother).
After a group photo, the five children, who
ranged from 5-11 years, quickly scouted on ahead of the
group of 35 who were doing this tramp.
Michelle called out to them to wait for her,
though they didn’t seem to hear.
We all reassured Michelle, that they would slow
down as soon as they got to the hilly bits. However,
they proved us wrong; they led the climb right to the
top of the bush line. They knew the track well, it was
after all their “back yard”. We stopped for a brief
morning tea under the shade of some trees and admired
the view – which was a stunning panorama. We all wished
that the heavy cloud that engulfed the central plateau
would lift so we could see Mt Ruapehu, which was
directly ahead of us.
We soon noticed
Elizabeth
waiting for us to join her at the top of our steep
climb. She later explained that the quad bike ride up
the hill was indeed a challenge, she had held on very,
very tightly all the way. After regaining our breath, we
headed up through the bush, to the summit of Mt
Hikurangi.
Once again the children seemed to effortlessly scramble
up along this steep track, leaving the adults to huff
and puff their way behind them.
At the top, the track flattened out. We were
rewarded with 360°
views seen from three vantage points.
Peter guided us to the best spot for our lunch
stop which had great views out to the north east.
We lingered for some time there just taking it
all in. The
cloud didn’t lift over Mt Ruapehu, but it didn’t seem to
matter.
We took an alternate route down, after
leaving the bush, and arrived back at the cars just
before 3 pm.
The early finish gave us all time to have a
shower and a relaxed cup of tea before Peter joined us
for an early pot luck dinner. The Taumarunui Tramping
Club members who had climbed Mt Hikurangi with us, as
well as Michelle and the children, joined us for an
evening trip to see some glow worms in Kakahi, a 15
minute drive from Taumarunui. We arrived at Kakahi, and
in a convoy of nine cars, drove through a narrow railway
cutting and parked at the bottom of the hill. We then
walked back up through the cutting and to the delight of
everyone the glow worms turned on a show for us.
As we left to return to the hostel, Michelle
announced that she would be bringing her family on the
tramp the next day. Janet
SECOND REPORT
- light walks on the weekend
Friday 2 April
Six members left the main party to their 8 hour tramp
and went
out to the Te Maire Bush Reserve a few kilometres along
the Taumarunui to Stratford road. This well preserved
bit of bush had impressive stands of rimu, totara and
matai with dense undergrowth. Guided by local tramping
club member Mark we climbed for about an hour up a very
well maintained track to the highest point, followed by
a slight diversion off the main track to get vast views
of the surrounding countryside, before returning to the
cars.
Then it was off to the Te Peko Lookout on the outskirts
of town for lunch and the vista of Taumarunui laid out
before us. This was followed by a drive south to the
village of Owhango on SH 1 and the Ohinetonga Scenic
Reserve, again an area of dense bush set aside by
far-sighted pioneers when the area was first extensively
milled. A
gentle stroll along the Whakapapa river rounded out a
pleasant day in perfect, calm weather.
Saturday 3 April
A party of one, namely the writer,
continued to relax in anticipation
of the 6 hour tramp up the tramway the next day.
Only walk attempted was the Sunshine track named after a
settlement of the same name on the edge of town,
comprising mainly old railway houses for the 100 – odd
loco drivers and other staff that were employed by NZ
Railways when rail transport was king.
The name refers
to the fact that it is above the morning fog line that
often settles in the Taumarunui basin.
The track was again a great example of rain forest
climbing up to a plantation of Californian Redwoods
planted by a local landowner many years ago, and now
flourishing in the benign New Zealand climate.
Total walk took about an hour.
Bill Jamieson
Sunday 4 April
Our final tramp
for the weekend and the one many had been waiting for –
56 people, including 29 MTC members, turned up to walk
the historic Ongarue Bush Tramway, the event having been
advertised locally. This historic 37 km tramway was
built by the sawmillers, Ellis & Burnand and completed
in 1925. It was a major
Central
North
Island
timber industry operation. The tramway was closed in
1958 after a big flood caused too much damage to repair
it.
Our walk took us along the old
tramway route joining it at the spiral section and then
continuing to the Mangatututuku Viaduct through
picturesque natural bush. There were numerous cuttings -
some quite deep, embankments and stream crossings. Parts
of the tramway are becoming overgrown and one section in
particular had to be cleared of blackberry so that we
could proceed.
Of huge interest
was our destination – the Mangatukutuku Viaduct site in
the
Mangatukutuku
Valley.
The viaduct itself was dismantled long ago but the
anchor posts and buttress bases still stand. One can
still imagine how the curved wooden viaduct once looked,
standing 28 metres high and 104 metres long – a
magnificent structure. Most of us scrambled down
the steep bank to view the remnants in the riverbed.
After lunch here, we returned along the tramway and some
of the group explored the tunnel and spiral section. The
curved tunnel is 50 metres long and worth the
interesting walk through it.
It was a very interesting and
enjoyable day’s tramping in good weather, taking approx.
6 leisurely hours. The tramway will become more
accessible as DOC is working to develop the full length
of the tramway into a Central North Island Rail Trail
which visitors can walk or bike. Eventually this
will be over 65 km long.
Once again, a big thank you to Peter
and Mark of Taumarunui Tramping Club for making the trip
happen, leading us, organising the necessary forestry
permit, and track clearing on the day.
Marlene Lynam
