Auckland Baptist Tramping Club 2005 Ten people took the opportunity of exploring a section of the Te Araroa Trail in the King Country, the 15km Mangaokewa Trail southeast of Te Kuiti - complete with all its challenges thanks to recent wet weather, landslides, double bookings, etc. Friday Two car loads left The Bracken at 6:15pm headed for Greenplan’s Arapito Lodge in the Mapara reserve 30 minutes south of Te Kuiti. Nelson and Alasdair had gone on ahead, and on arrival found that the lodge had been mistakenly double-booked. There was no option but to return to Te Kuiti and try to find alternative accommodation, and to phone the two car loads who by that time had almost reached Otorohanga. Praise God we were able to get into the Casara Mesa BBH backpacker hostel 3km east of Te Kuiti perched on the hilltops with a commanding view of the town below. We were able to book a 4-bed and a 5-bed dorm, plus the double for the married couple - and found we didn’t need to use sleeping bags after all! Saturday Thanks to the time of year, the sun was up before we were, but nevertheless heads were off the wentilillos by 7am, and a yummy Goldilocks breakfast was soon inside our tummies.

The three cars travelled to the downstream end of the Mangaokewa Trail. One car was left and we all piled into the other two cars to go to the upstream end of the track. We set out at 9:15am, following a marked route through farm paddocks.

Soon we entered an area of plantation - and our raincoats as well. It was a changeable showery day typical of this time of the year. We came out into open pasture once more, along with the sun. At a suitable possy we stopped to reflect on the significance of the day - it was election day, the triennial event when the people of New Zealand choose who will run their country for the next three years. Nelson went back to the previous election day, July 2001, and assisted by Bev shared the devotions Laurie led on our pack-carrying trip over the Coromandel Range from Rangihau to The Pinnacles, where two large cardboard ticks were used to illustrate the points in the talk. The two ticks we make at the polling booth represent democracy, as with the children of Israel in Joshua 24:15 ... choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve ........ but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.  Bev arranged the two ticks as an arrow pointing upwards, representing there is only one way to God being through Jesus Christ. The ticks were then made into a W representing the voter’s will, and M representing myself. As a voter must personally vote and not get anyone else to do this in the privacy of the polling booth, so must we make our own decision ourselves to serve God. Bev then arranged the ticks to look somewhat like a cross to illustrate 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, then like L meaning we must be prepared to lose our worldly life as in Matthew 16:25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. So why not give God two ticks today? Onward we went, following the true left of the Mangaokewa Stream through pasture. In places leader Alasdair, a farmer himself, ordered our exact footsteps to ensure minimum disturbance to newborn lambs; in one place we were able to rescue a lamb that had fallen down a one-metre-deep hole. Further on we saw some large fungus growing on a fallen tree trunk. The open pasture sections were interspersed with areas of bush. We had a quick break about 11:30am for elevenses at a lovely riverside spot. We found a lovely place for lunch about an hour further on. Back into bush once more, and our first challenge - a one-metre section of track, which was cuddling the sheer bank of the river, was all but completely washed away in a recent landslip. One of the group was frightened of the sheer drop below and didn’t want to cross - but there was no choice but to accept the challenge given the surrounding blackberry scrub, and within ten seconds he was across the gap safely thanks to the teamwork of the group. The track then followed a vehicle track climbing steadily to come out at a quarry. But then we realised we had gone off the track and had to find the orange markers once more. We found these just a short distance back - the trail had not yet been signposted, and we had to continue along a rough track into the bush, passing some limestone outcrops in one place.. Then came our next challenge - we came to a patch of open pasture but could not find the next marker. We scouted around for maybe half an hour (even considering abandoning the track and cutting across to the road just 1km away), and eventually Jeff found a marker on the other side of an area that appeared to have landslid some years ago. We had to bash our way through bush, scrub and sinky bog before getting back on the track once more. Once out of the bush the going was cruisy once more as we continued to follow the stream. We had visions of an easy walk out to the finish, but we soon found ourselves climbing up to enter bush once more. The track was clear, but after a few minutes we came to a large landslip that had since revegetated, and again we had to hunt for the markers. We found these at the bottom of the landslip - the track had evidently been washed away - and continued along the left bank of the river. Then all of a sudden the bush gave way to open country - this time the carpark. It was now 5pm. As we rested here, there was a loud and mysterious roar that appeared to come from the bush-covered cliffs across the river. A train was passing over the North Island Main Trunk railway viaduct just half a kilometre away, and its noise echoed from the cliffs. But the tramp was not over yet - while Nelson took the two other drivers back to fetch their cars, we carried on walking along the access road out to State Highway, stopping to admire a waterfall and the railway viaduct.

Once out on the main highway we continued on towards Te Kuiti and had reached the outskirts of the town by the time the cars caught up with us to take us back to the hostel, with once car load stopping for spearmint milkshakes at Tiffany’s cafe in the town’s mains street.

Back at the hostel, we enjoyed a yummy dinner of spaghetti bolognaise followed by cake and custard. Nelson, Peter, Linda and Bev went back into town to watch the election results, and the rugby, at the Cosmopolitan club, while the rest of us stayed behind. The TV room was being used by five backpackers from overseas who were watching a video, so we had to use the radio in the kitchen. But thanks to the demanding day’s tramping, wentilillos were beckoning and the only one who resisted the temptation to get shuteye had to use his personal headphone radio to hear Labour get just a smidgen ahead of National in a close election. Sunday Down came the rain! We had breakfast Goldilocks style again, Jeff cooking the porridge this time, then packed our bags and cleaned up, before meeting in the lounge for Alasdair to take devotions. He shared some thoughts from a book Sacred Spaces - Stations on the Celtic Way by Margaret Silf  The Celts regard springs as sacred places providing water. Springs in woodlands give water to help the trees grow; and are also gathering places for people. We need our circle of friends, family, colleagues, workmates, etc and what each person contributes, likewise with our outer circle of people we do not know so well. We can imagine all these people as trees with invisible roots and visible branches, and we need to tell others how we value them rather than criticise them. In the tramping situation we as a group work as a team, helping one another with all the challenges the route may present. It was about 10am when we left the hostel to drive into Te Kuiti and Brook Park behind the Boscos cafe. The rain let off just enough to make us want to explore this farm park with its shorter Blue Walk and the longer Red Walk. So boots on again, walking poles out, we set out on the Red Walk.

This climbed up to a lovely little green pond near the junction with the end of the Blue Walk. The rain returned and set in, so instead of completing the one-and-a-half Red Walk we decided to return along the Blue Walk dropping down to come out at the car park.

One car load went to Tiffany’s for lunch, with its spearmint milkshakes, while the others went to Boscos cafe next to the park, before heading home early on a blustery return-to-winter afternoon to arrive at The Bracken about 3:30pm. COST: $93 (travel $43, food $10, accommodation $40)