A wet morning did not stop eight trampers from doing one of the Club’s perennial favourites, the Ngapuketurua Track in the Woodhill Forest. As we were travelling to the Restall Rd entrance to the forest, the sun began to shine through - but even that didn’t guarantee dry weather all day! On previous occasions the trip was tramped in a clockwise direction; this time we did it the other way, mainly because the conservation area of native bush we would be going through was closed between 7am and 11am to allow hunting to take place (this restriction applied every Saturday for a period of time). The forest rangers advised Steve, our leader, to roadbash Mission Road to avoid this area at the start of the tramp. The track started as an easy route through mature pine forest, and we came out in due course to Selwyn Rd. We carried on down Selwyn Rd and turned left into what we thought was Mission Rd - this went through pine forest and came to a clearing and appeared to end but in fact it turned sharp left, and we suspected we might have been on the wrong track. There was a bit of discussion as to what to do, and Steve decided we had better return to Selwyn Rd and carry on further. As we were going back to Selwyn Rd, a line of 4whd vehicles passed us going the opposite direction. It did turn out we were on the wrong track, and we found Mission Rd and followed it westwards, with the Tasman Sea and deep grey clouds in the distance.

As we crossed Coast Rd and into a forestry track, down came the rain. We stopped and tried to get shelter under some pine trees but after ten minutes we really had no choice but to carry on. Eventually we rejoined the Ngapuketurua Track and followed it out to the surf and black sands of Muriwai Beach. After half an hour’s walk southwards - thank goodness there was no wind to aggravate the rain - we turned inland, climbing steeply up the sandhill and onto the southern half of the Ngapuketurua Track. We found a very good sheltered spot under some trees and sat down for lunch - and the sun came out again!

We did not spend too long over lunch, and we were away again, a pleasant walk through pines and scrub to come out and once more cross Coast Rd. The departing rainclouds made a lovely backdrop to the bushclad hills of the conservation area ahead as we carried on along Puketapu Rd.  As we left the road and climbed into the conservation area we saw a group of quad-bike riders run by 4Track Adventures slither down a particularly muddy section of track. Further up we stopped at a lookout, where we could see across the forest to the township of Muriwai and the Tasman Sea in the distance.

Another half hour of walking got us over the hill, across a couple of roads and down through lovely pine forest back to the carpark. We were out about 3:15pm, still a little bit wet but not too much really. COST: $5