With a very heavily loaded pack, the Cape Reinga walkway was a more slog than stroll, but was a great holiday anyway. My legs are still stiff, a sure sign I wasn’t fit enough for the weight of my pack. I shouldn’t have been carrying sandles, a big thick book on the Spanish Revolution, a spare torch, and maybe there were some other things? Or I should buy a lighter tent? or just get fit.

Inspired by Michelle and Brian’s tramp of last year, and with their map, a copy of their blog post, and the DoC brochure, I drove up North on Saturday.

The toll road bypassing Orewa and tunnelled through the Waiwera hills is a fast easy drive, but avoid trying to pay at the service station. The 15minute queue is longer that the time the road saves over going through Orewa. If you’ll be back home within 3 days (not me) you can just pay online when you get back, or you can prepay if you can successfully navigate the website. When I first looked it seemed you had to open an account and pay for at least 10 trips, but now I see if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this pay a toll page and follow Next there you can pay just 1 or two trips in advance.

I organized transport through Waitiki Landing. At Kaitaia I was told that, as there was only me going, it’d be $70 to be dropped off at Spirit’s Bay that day and picked up at Te Paki stream later. Seemed fair enough, but then when I got there I was told there’d also be a parking fee of $15/day (more expensive than parking in Auckland!). Looking confused (as I do), she back-tracked and asked if I could pay the $70 in cash now, that I could sort out EFTPOS for the parking when I came back. So was dropped off, and three days later picked up (early even) by the friendly driver, and his wife and dogs. Back at Waitiki Landing, I asked if I needed to pay for parking, a different person there told me, as long as I’d paid for the transport I didn’t need to worry about parking and looked at me like that was some crazy city idea. Confirmed to me it was a rort. So, something to watch out for.

Was good to spend the first night at the Kapowairua campsite. Not only did I get a chance to have a look at Spirits Bay and make a reasonably early start, but better I was lucky to meet a local couple who I was camping near (there were only 3 vans and my tent overnight in the whole campsite). They gave me loads of good advice: take the track behind Spirits Bay for an easier walk than tramping on the sand, where to camp on Twighlight Beach (in the middle), what route was passable at low tide, that the water wasn’t safe to drink even in the campsite (confirmed this after I’d drank and made dinner with it), where there were mussels (but I really didn’t have time for collecting shellfish), some other stuff which I’ve forgotten.

Clear skies made for hot days, and freezing nights. Woke to a frost on Sunday, but I kept warm enough with all my clothes on and in a 3-season bag. First day is a long one, 8 hours. Definitely it is best to get this day out of the way first. Along the bay, then over the hill to Pandora beach (tide was in), and then up higher along the ridge and a couple of 280m hills with spectacular views of the sea washing the rocks below. Finally I started descending towards Tapotupotu campsite. I was a bit worried when the track forked and the orange marker pointed away from the campsite. ‘were the orange markers really for the full Cape Reinga walkway?’ but they are the track winds down to the estuary upstream from the campsite which I was fortunate to cross at low tide without even getting my boots wet. I just dumped my pack on the first flat bit of ground and set my tent up there, was a nice spot and handy enough to a tap and the toilets.

The few clouds around on the Monday were most welcome for their temporary shade. There is now drinkable water at Cape Reinga (at least it comes out of drinking fountains and peeking in at the plumbing I see it goes through some big filters). It didn’t taste good, some mineral/salt taste, but I filled up my bottle anyhow. There’s not much water at the days destination, Twilight Beach. Just a trickles flowing through the rotting seaweed and flotsam and over the sand. I bought a filter for this trip, used it at the campsites, and was really glad of it here too. Pitched my tent near a stand of pohutukawa as had been suggested. (Tent pegs don’t really work in sandy soil.) Had a pleasant night with the beach to myself, was most comfortable night of the three.

Last day is about 4-5 hours. Up off Twightlight beach, around the headlands and down along Ninety mile beach which had all sorts of interesting shells as well as a lot of rubbish cast up on it, then trudged up Te Paki stream to the road end (although legally the stream is a road too) where I was picked up.

I’d imagined leisurely sitting around outside my tent on the beach on this trip, but although it didn’t require really early starts, each day was mostly tramping. Great scenery though, and getting somewhere while seeing it. Next time I think I’d add a day in somewhere, at a campsite, or another night free camping. Was handy to Auckland and can be done (better to do) outside of summer. See the photo album

Warning: Possum cuteness can impair your judgement in the ongoing struggle to protect native trees from these destructive cute little leaf (and egg) eating marsupials.

Leaving Auckland at about 7.30pm we drove out past Huia to do some Night Tramping. Falling back to the last place I’d tramped, I suggested Goat Hill as I knew there is a carpark we could park in which is not locked up at night there. The tramp was a bit more serious that Michelle and Brian were thinking, but with a Morepork calling in the background, we headed up Karamatura valley, navigated the stream crossing, mostly stayed on track (“is this still the track?”) and climbed the hill for views back at Auckland’s lights (way too late for sunset). We came straight back down the hill, fairly steep that way, but quicker and no stream crossing. Saw glow worms and a couple of possums, one of which (pictured) after startling Michelle just hung around watching us. Came out by the Huia Dam and returned to the car by road. Car hadn’t been stolen or burnt out, so managed to get back to Auckland by 11(?).

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.

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