A sunny summer's day brought out a total of 39 people to explore the Karangahake area, a place that has
terrific scenery and is steeped in gold mining history. We left The Bracken soon after 8am, travelling
in seven car loads. After a group-up stop at the L&P Cafe on the northern end of Paeroa, we carried on
to the Karangahake Hall carpark to rendezvous with some people who had come across from Waihi, including
leader Nelson who had been staying with his mother there.
Nelson recalled a devotion he had taken
on a weekend trip to the Waihi area back in 1999 where he shared, as we were atop Mt Karangahake, about
the importance of laying up treasures in heaven rather than storing up gold on earth, before committing
the day to God in prayer.
We drove on to the start of the track up Mt Karangahake, and began our
hour-long climb. The track up the mountain was a vehicle track on a steady gradient, with a few more
level stretches, climbing up to a saddle. Once at the saddle we took a short side track to a viewpoint
where we were able to look out to Paeroa and the Hauraki Plains with the Firth of Thames and Hunua Ranges
in the distance.
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The track went over the saddle then followed the ridge of the mountain through bush, with the final
few hundred metres being a track through scrub and bush with views of the summit ahead and the northern
Bay of Plenty and Mayor Island in the distance.
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It was after midday when we reached the summit, and we sat down for lunch at the trig. There was
a panoramic view all around, to the Bay of Plenty and to the Hauraki Plains, with the Karangahake and
Waitawheta Gorges below us. We could also look across to Mt Te Aroha, the highest part of the Kaimai
Ranges.
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We heard the strains of music, and looked around to find our Club president playing his mouth organ.
How Great Thou Art is always a fitting tune for being amongst God's creation, and the Londonderry
Air, also used as a hymn tune, was also a nice piece of music.
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Our way down Mt Karangahake was a more direct bush track down the side of the mountain, a steeper
drop to come out to more open scrub where we had views of the Karangahake area below us. This eventually
joined back on to the main track not far from the car park.
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From the car park we drove back out to the main highway and on to the new Karangahake Reserve carpark
for our afternoon walks. It was now after 2pm.
We crossed the new footbridge, replacing the original
pipeline bridge that was closed to pedestrians, over the Ohinemuri River and on to the newly upgraded
Crown Tramline track. This track would eventually lead through to Dickey's Flat when the upgrading would
be completed later that month, in fact a DOC officer whom we saw on the track told us that the track
already went through to Dickey's Flat but there was a little upgrading to be completed.
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The track went right into the Waitawheta Gorge, a spectacular gorge with bush and sheer rock walls,
following an old mining railway. Up till recently it was a rough track following an old pipeline, but
now the pipe had been taken away and a well formed track now exists.
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It was cut into the rocky cliffs in places, and before it crossed the Waitawheta River, a side track
went through an old mining tunnel.
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Once on the other side of the river, we followed the track to just past where it climbed up, at the
site of the old Crown Stope. A mine cave was closed off by a grille over its entrance, but it was interesting
to look into it. We continued on a short way to where the upgrading had finished and the track got a
little rougher, before turning back to explore the Windows track.
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The Windows Track was more of a rough track climbing up through bush from the Karangahake Gorge walkway,
just past the swingbridge over Waitawheta River at the start of the Crown Tramline Track. This led to
a couple of old mine tunnel built into the cliff face high above the Waitawheta River in the gorge section.
The second of these tunnels had holes providing lookouts down into the gorge and the Crown Tramline Track
below - hence the name Windows Track, no doubt named no earlier than the 1990s when a certain software
dominated the office and home environment!
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There were a couple of short side tunnels that were worth an explore with torches - we saw one lone
glow worm in one of them.
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We were out about by about 4:30pm ready to go our various ways homeward having had a very lovely
and interesting day.
COST: $15
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