Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2005

This was a visit to one of New Zealand’s newest private overnight tramping tracks - the Dundle Hill Walk at Waitomo. This had been open only a couple of years, and is a 2-day one-night trip starting and finishing at Waitomo Village and takes in the Waitomo Walkway, Ruakuri Gorge and private farm land with an overnight stop at one of the country’s largest tramping huts atop Dundle Hill. A pack cartage option was offered, but everyone opted to save $25 and get some practice in for summer tramps and other harder trips. Of the 21 people who came along, 5 (almost one-quarter!) were named John. Perhaps the theme could have been Jonathan Jo has a mouth like an O and a wheelbarrow full of controls, but he never got down to the end of the town because the streets were painted brown - a parody on two of AA Milne’s Christopher Robin poems made up by the brother of one of the Johns when he was a little boy. Friday We left The Bracken pronto on 6:15pm. After munchies at Bombay it was straight through to Waitomo nonstop, bypassing Hamilton by going through Whatawhata. That night we rested our heads on wentilillos in cabins at the holiday park in Waitomo village. Saturday We were packed and ready to leave at 9:15am. The Dundle Hill Walk began with the public Waitomo Walkway, climbing through bush from the village past bedded limestone formations to open farm land - and the morning fog.

The track dropped down to cross the road, then carry on through farm land. Two of the gates we had to negotiate were of unusual design.

Later we climbed through a section of bush. At a possy nicknamed The Chapel, where the Club held devotions on a trip last year, we stopped to listen to Katrina give the first of two talks on the devotional theme for the weekend, Celebrating the Wonder of Creation, being God’s relation to creation. Points she brought out were - God made creation (including the earth and its fullness) and He owns it; He loves it and cares for it; and He reveals Himself through it. Our challenges are - to examine God’s Word and prayerfully consider how we are to occupy His territory and manage His works in a manner glorifying Him; to refrain from abusing what He loves and cares for; and observe creation carefully and reverently to discover the countless ways it reveals God and His attributes to us. We concluded our time by singing the well-known creation worship hymn How Great Thou Art.

We dropped down to follow the stream once more, and just before the Ruakuri carpark we saw a group of blackwater rafters practising for a 2-metre waterfall jump they would be doing once inside Ruakuri Cave. The next section of the Dundle Hill Walk was the spectacular Ruakuri Gorge. We passed the exit of the Ruakuri Cave and saw a group of blackwater rafters floating down the stream from the cave to the carpark. As we climbed up through the gorge along a boardwalk through the rugged limestone terrain, we came to a short natural tunnel. We had to bend low to get through, and each one of our packs came out dirty from the wet muddy inside of the mini-cave. We left the public walkway for a steep climb up a metalled bush track to come out at Ruakuri Road. A two-minute roadbash brought us to the start of the private farm section of the Dundle Hill Walk. We began to climb up through open pasture, with views to the Tumutumu valley below, and were soon in bush again, this time on a wide vehicle track. As we emerged from this section of bush, we could see our destination across the valley - Dundle Hill with the hut on top. We were back in the bush again, and stopped for lunch about 12:30pm at a lovely lookout. The vehicle track gave way to a bush track as we went through one of several areas of native bush on the track covenanted to the Queen Elizabeth II Trust for preservation. The bush then gave way once more to open pasture, then the track continued as a vehicle track in bush. There were occasional views of the Tumutumu valley. The vehicle track was a series of steep uphills and more level stretches as it followed the ridgeline around towards Dundle Hill. At the junction with a more direct, but steeper and tougher, route to the hut, there was a Loo With a View. Further on was a lookout where we could look down the Dundle valley. We arrived at the hut about 3:15pm. It was a large spacious hut, just two years old. The large kitchen/common-room area took up the front half; behind were 4 dorms, then the bathroom area. Several of us enjoyed a cold shower! A Seek Freedom Bible pack, consisting of a New Testament/Psalms and Why Jesus by Nicky Gumbel, was left in the hut for future trampers to pick up and read and maybe get to know the God who gave us His creation and healthy bodies to enjoy it with. A lovely sunset took place at 5:35pm.

An appetising dinner of casserole, vegies and mashed potato reminded those who were on the Mataitai Forest day tramp two weeks before of the thought that Val had shared in lunchtime devotions about how one on a tramping trip looks forward to simple things such as water or plain casserole just as one would relish coffee or chocolate in everyday civilisation.

Phillip led us in a game of Yeah Right in which we got into teams of four. The object was to frame a statement (funny or serious) to which the response may be Yeah Right in each of ten categories ranging from art and music to politics to tramping. Prizes of chocolate bars were given out. We also had a brain-teaser quiz competition based on the Alpha Celebration Dinner Ice Breaker. Katrina won the latest Dave Dobbyn CD for scoring 100%. About five of us put on coats and boots to walk down the track about 200m to see some glow worms, an amazing sight of God’s creation even though there were just a few of them. Those who chose to stay back, perhaps put off by a couple of passing showers of rain during the dinner and the game, got out a book or pack of cards - 500 is always a popular game on tramping trips. Sunday We woke to a lovely sunrise over a sea of fog below us, one of millions of awesome aspects of our Creator and heavenly Dad. After we prepared our lunches and charged our tummies with porridge, we were packed and ready to go - but not before we got together for a group photograph. It was about 9:15am as we left the hut, dropping down a steep track through native bush. Near the bottom of the hill we could see Blind Man's Dam in the mist. Once down at the bottom, in the upper Waitomo valley, we put our packs down and did a side trip to the entrance of the Oslen Wet Cave. A short scramble along the stream bank brought us to a large cave with stalactites with ferns growing on them, and long roots of plants dangling complete with foliage. Isn’t He awesome! Packs on again, we came out to follow the Waitomo stream through open farm land.

Eventually we came to the end of Ruakuri Rd and had a rest stop - and we had to get our raincoats on. We continued along the road a short distance to the start of the track leading to the Waitomo Waterfall and on into the Ruakuri Gorge. Before we began this section Phillip picked up on the theme Celebrating the Wonder of Creation and spoke on our relation to creation. We are totally dependent on the fruitfulness of creation for our health and livelihood; we are stewards of creation; creation provides the opportunity for worship and to witness. The challenges are - to seek to protect and preserve the capacity of creation to be fruitful; we are answerable to God our Master for our choices; to recognise and enjoy our humble position as fellow worshippers in a natural world and join together to give praise to God; to take every opportunity to demonstrate a proper concern for all things that come from the Creator. We finished our time by singing Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee to the tune of Ode to Joy (Beethoven’s 9th).

We went down the steep stepped track through scrub and bush to come to the stream, just to find our leaders decide that the track and the rough stream crossing looked so dangerous that we had to slog our way back up to the road again. There was no option but to carry on roadbashing to where we had emerged from the Ruakuri Gorge the day before. We then decided to drop down into the gorge to rejoin the Dundle Hill Walk route and see some more of the spectacular features of the gorge, starting with the natural tunnel. There was a small cave passage full of stalactites for us to go through. We came out to the Ruakuri carpark and retraced our footsteps along the Waitomo Walkway to the main road just before the Waitomo Village, then followed it for the last 20 minutes of our tramp to our starting point. It was 1:15pm by the time we were all back at our vehicles, and having our lunch. Even the sparrows enjoyed a slice of our bread.

Then into our vehicles for the nonstop drive home to Auckland and we were back at The Bracken by 5pm tired from a good workout and lovely weekend focussed on God’s awesome creation. COST: $100 ($50 Dundle Hill Walk fees; $20 accommodation Friday night; $10 food; $20 travel in vans and cars).