Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2003 Base map: NZTopoOnline, extracted April 2003, Crown Copyright Reserved When the Club tramped the Mataitai Forest with Peter and Val in Nov 2000, down came the rain and seven people enjoyed a cold wet slush through the muddy forest tracks. When the Club tramped the same forest with the same leaders almost three years later, down came the sunshine and 11 people enjoyed a warm dry romp through the mud-free forest tracks. We left The Bracken soon after 8am and met up with more people at the Clevedon Woolshed carpark at 9am before carrying on to the Mataitai Forest off Ness Valley Rd. From the carpark the track crossed a stream and began to climb into the forest. About half an hour into the tramp, after our initial grunt, we stopped for morning tea in a nice glade on the track. The track continued on a more gentle uphill, following the formation of what was probably an old road, farm track or pack track. Eventually we came out to the eastern edge of the reserve, where we had views out across open farm land to the Hunua Ranges, Firth of Thames and the Coromandel Ranges where we could recognise through binoculars Table Mountain and the Pinnacles. The track became more of a rough cut track as we started our descent down a long spur to the old campsite. The bush included many young kauri trees. A sunny spot with a view out to the Umupuia Peninsula, visited just over a month before by the Club, made an excellent place for lunch at about 12:30pm. We dropped off the ridge to the old camp site beside a stream, then  made up our minds to do the longer and gruntier Orange Loop Track rather than take the shorter Puriri Track. At the junction we met a group of trampers from the Auckland City Elim Church who were doing the tramp in the opposite direction. This track climbed up and over a steep ridge, then up another ridge to continue as a wider track along the top following the formation of another old track. In one place, during a group-up stop, we heard some strains of mouth organ music coming from somewhere? This eventually dropped down to a stream, and we repeatedly had to criss-cross the stream as the track followed up it. One of these crossings was called Kath’s Folly. Eventually the track left the stream for a short stepped climb to rejoin our original track, just a short distance from the carpark. As we had a brief rest stop at the junction, we could hear in the distance strains of How Great Thou Art believed to be coming from a Presidential Mouth Organist. We were out at the carpark about 4:15pm, ready for well-deserved icecreamerology at Clevedon. COST: $6 ($1-20 from Clevedon)