| Auckland Baptist Tramping Club |
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LITTLE BARRIER BACHAROLLE Kawau Island Sat 27 March |
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A forecast of unfavourable sea conditions forced a last-minute cancellation of a day trip to the closed
wildlife sanctuary of Little Barrier Island - but not until most of the twenty people booked to go had
got out of bed as early as 4:30am and met at the home of trip organiser Ted at 6:30am! It was a bombshell
for the excited people, given a fine day, but about half the group were happy to explore another island
in the gulf - Kawau. It was only an hour’s drive from chez Ted in Albany to Sandspit and the 8am boat to Kawau Island. We had considered the possibility of exploring part of the back of the island, beyond the boundary of the DOC reserve, but found that permission would not be granted for access over this private land because of high fire risk. So it was visiting the “classic” landmarks of Kawau Island such as the copper mines and Mansion House, rather than seeing the off-beat places like Grey Heights and Boustaquet Bay. First port of call was the historic copper mines, dating back to the 19th century. The tall chimney was virtually all that remains nowadays, along with a few mine tunnels. The green copper ore can be seen in the walls of these tunnels. We then tramped over the hill to Schoolhouse Bay on the Bon Accord Harbour, a delightful place to have lunch - with such an early start in the morning, a 10am lunch went down very well! Afterwards we walked the redwood forest track, looked at the cemetery at the top of the Schoolhouse Bay track and visited Mansion House. Mansion House was the lavish home of Sir George Grey back in the middle of the 19th century. Earlier this century it had become a guest house and even a hotel - the pub was in a separate building alongside on the foreshore. However, in the 1980s, the hotel closed and Mansion House was restored to its original glory as a museum. The modest fee of $4 allowed us to visit most of the rooms of the house to see how they were in Sir George Grey’s day - the lounge, dining room, bedrooms, etc. We felt we really had a good day on the island and felt like going home when we boarded the ferry back to Sandspit - at 1:30pm! |
