| Auckland Baptist Tramping Club |
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OKURA OPPORTUNITY Okura & END-OF-YEAR BBQ Sat 5 Dec |
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| For a fullsize picture click on the thumbnail |
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The Club has tramped the Okura Walkway heaps of times over the years, so for a change we decided to tramp
across the Weiti Station from an access off East Coast Road to join the walkway at Dacre Cottage. The
popularity of Okura as a tramp was reflected in the showing up of 25 people for this. As it was the end-of-year tramp, we met at The Bracken at 10:30am instead of the usual 8am, with North Shore folk meeting at Forrest Hill Presbyterian Church at 10:45am. We rendezvoused at the entrance of Weiti Station off East Coast Road about halfway between the end of North Shore and Silverdale, before driving to the woolshed on the property. Permission was obtained to cross Weiti Station beforehand. The walk to Dacre Cottage from the woolshed was an easy hour along a clay farm road, most of the way through pine forest. We descended past a large farm dam on our right in to a valley. About ten minutes before Dacre Cottage the pines gave way to open flat paddocks. Dacre Cottage itself was not open inside as the ranger was not there. We had our lunch on the grass area outside the cottage before carrying on along Karepiro beach to the southern end. We were now on the Okura Walkway, part of the proposed Te Araroa Walkway that will eventually stretch the whole length of New Zealand. Here we had a choice of routes: Geoff leading over the headland to the sandspit on Okura estuary, and John around the coastline. Jeff, Jocelyn and Myra went with John around the coast; the rest went over the hill - including two who were training for the hard South Island Christmas tramps, Judith carrying a dumbell in her daypack, and Jill with her South Island-ready pack complete with clothing, gear and sleeping bag! Everybody did the final section of the walkway, an hour of bush track eventually climbing over a hill and crossing a bridge to come out at Haig’s Road. Some of us added to this hour with one or two inadvertent deviations off the track. We came out about 3:30pm and proceeded to the Donnell Mansion at Campbell’s Bay for the BBQ. As we arrived, the swimming pool was in good use by the Donnell children; those of us who chose to put our togs on opted more for the nice warm spa pool. We all filled our stomachs with a sumptuous meal of sausages, steaks and salads, to be followed by pavlova, fruit salad and ice cream. Afterwards we went into the lounge to view a video produced by Wild South of the Milford Track, one of the options on the Christmas tramp. No, it wasn’t a tourist ad for a spectacular track in lovely weather, but a documentry bringing out the real truth that this is in the wettest part of New Zealand. It was introduced by Sir Edmund Hillary, and included such people as the well-known photographer Craig Potton. We did a very interesting and informative armchair (or floor) tramp, visiting the three DOC huts and climbing over the McKinnon Pass in blustery weather, and seeing the locals such as the hut wardens, keas and sandflies. After tea and coffee, we were ready to go home soon before dark, about 8:30pm, bringing to a close a full and interesting day. |
