Te Toiokawharu is the highest point in the Waitakere Ranges (474m according to the map). Today, being Auckland Anniversary Day, I climbed it as part of a tramp around the ridges surrounding Karamatura valley. The walk took about 5 hours, a days walk not an afternoon stroll. The tracks were pretty well maintained. The ground was dry, but looks like it would be very muddy if wet. There is board walk in places, be careful though it can be slippery. The tracks I followed were: Karamatura, Huia Ridge, Twin Peaks (side trip up Goat Hill), Tom Thumb and back down Karamatura again.

Te Toiokawharu and the Twin Peaks (448m and 443m) are covered in bush, so don’t give any views. There are other places on the track where you can look over the valley and the Manukau Harbour though. And Goat Hill off the Tom Thumb Track has great views all the way back to Auckland and Rangitoto.

This clay figure was lying on a step way up on the Huia Ridge Track. Is he saying stop? Is it like the Gondor statues on the Anduin? I left him lying there.

This walk was well worth doing.

It seems I have managed to buy a house. Hoping I’ve made the right decision. Looking forward to the handover date.

Kirsty, Jess, Brendan, Dave – Karamatura

Brendan suggested a tramp for Saturday. We did the Karamatura Loop Walk at Huia in the Waitakere Ranges. This is an pleasant easy little walk which is easy to get to. The path heads up the bank of Karamatura Stream, there’s a few narrow places due to erosion, but no problem. The loop path returns to the carpark higher up the valley. This section used to just be a track, but has been recently upgraded into a gravel (metalled), bridged and mud-free path with a couple of nice look outs over the valley and Manuaku Harbour. Finished the walk just as the rain started pouring down.

( I’ve explored a lot of the tracks in the Southern part of the Waitaks, but looking up at it on Saturday I realised I’ve never climbed all the way to the top of Te Toiokwharu the highest point in the Ranges. I’ll have to do that this year,)

Returned to Brendan & Jess’s for delicious home-made cake, coffee and beer.

Another year over and a new one just begun… Saw New Years in on top of Rangitoto Island again like last year.

Last year was better. The campsite was packed out. If I’d wanted crowds and sleep deprivation with loud music and vicious arguments I could have just stayed in my apartment. There were 260-something scouts having a jamboree there, though they weren’t a problem. (Even if the ad-hoc Halo or CnC game they played after dark the first night was a bit loud. You can take the children away from the video games, but you can’t stop them playing them.) The main problems was the rowing club with their 5-car-battery-operated sound system and the angry guy and his family problems we camped next to. Also there is only limited toilets for the almost 200 non-scouts, possibly the cause of an unsanitary situation. The less said the better, but Michelle has photos. The scouts were prepared with their own port-a-loos.

We stayed two nights this year. (A result of some grumping about so much walking in such a short time last year. Grumping by people who didn’t go in the end this year.) It meant two nights of little sleep, but we did get to see more of Motutapu Island.

We went for a walk around the coast, which ended up on the hills navigating through thistle patches, and had a swim at Mullet Bay. Then we checked out the old Coastal Defenses at Northern Junction. Explored the tunnels and ammo dumps there. One question I had was what are the narrow tunnels running round the underground rooms for? The answer I’ve discovered is these are Lamp Passages. Before electricity the tunnels were lit by lamps, but it was too dangerous to have lamps in the ammo store rooms. So instead there were thick windows and lamps were hung in the lamp tunnel around the outside of the room. The windows must have been blocked up when electricity was introduced.

Had scorching weather for most of the time (shade was a precious scarce resource at the campsite), but New Year’s Eve itself was a bit wet. Michelle needs to learn not to say things like “it’s not going to rain”, “it’s only going to drizzle”, “we’re almost at the top”. There was a big crowd on the Rangitoto summit, seemingly all from the Rangitoto batches. The Dutch woman with Oliebollen wasn’t there though . This year the only fireworks we saw were the Sky Tower ones. There were glows over Waiheke, but the display must have been on the other side of their island.

Met up with Brian’s sister and bro-in-law who visited for New Year’s Day and caught the ferry back to Auckland with us. I went straight back home and promptly fell asleep.

Photo album