Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2005

16 people had a wonderful time exploring some of the inner tracks of the Waitakere Ranges on a pleasant winter day, a sharp contrast to the cold wet weather that started the previous weekend. We left The Bracken about 8am and started our tramp on the Huia Ridge Track off the Piha Road just before Lone Kauri Rd.  A sign at the start warned the track was for experienced trampers only - although it was straightforward it was rough in places with muddy sections. The track started with a climb before following the undulating Huia Ridge. We had one or two views out to the Tasman Sea. Our elevenses stop was at the junction with Nuggets Track, where we arrived at 10:30am. We continued along the Huia Ridge Track, with long stretches of boardwalk in places, for another one-and-a-half hours for a welcome lunch stop at Karamatura Forks. The Walker Ridge Track was more well formed than Huia Ridge Track, and at our group-up stop at the Orange Peel Corner Char entertained us to a jig with mouth organ accompaniment. Odlins Timber Track was similarly well formed, following the track of logging gangs in the early days of the Waitakere Ranges when kauri was harvested and milled. The track crossed two tributaries of the Pararaha Stream; we had views out to the Karekare valley and the Tasman Sea in places along the middle section of the track. As we crossed the second tributary of the stream and waited to regroup, two trampers passed us - they had climbed the challenging Pararaha Gorge and were on their way out to their car on Lone Kauri Rd. We climbed up to the Lone Kauri Rd. Some of the less fit people decided to walk the short distance down the road to David’s beach home; the rest of us walked up Zion Ridge Track then bush-bashed our way to come out behind the house. Afternoon tea and a relaxing social time followed before John C was taken to collect his van, and another driver his car, to bring them back to pick the rest of us up and ferry us back to the remaining cars on Piha Rd. We headed back to Auckland in the early winter sunset having enjoyed our bush workout.

COST: $6