Auckland Baptist Tramping Club


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A total of 14 people decided not to believe the weather forecast and showed up to do the Ernies Track circuit in the Hunua Ranges. Nine of us met at The Bracken at 8am and the rest met up at the Mangatawhiri Dam carpark.

We set out at 9:45am, crossing the overflow channel of the Mangatawhiri Dam before going on to Lilburne Rd, a private gravel road. At this point we had to spray our boots and poles to help prevent the spread of kauri dieback. This was a steady climb, with one or two glimpses of part of the Mangatawhiri Reservoir. The road finished at Piggott’s Campsite, where we had our morning tea break outside a small 4-bunk hut.
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After about 20 minutes we carried on, the gravel road giving way to a bush track with steep grades and a few slightly tricky bits as we came on to Ernies Track. This climbed up to eventually come out to a lookout where we could look out across the Mangatawhiri valley and see part of the reservoir in the distance.
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We had our lunch stop at midday in a grassy clearing. Andrew shared the day’s devotions from The Word For Today on how we can defeat Satan, He is a cunning devil who is out to tempt and to destroy. There are two ways to defeat him - (1) we must not fear him for God protects us from all evil (2) we must not give him access, by having a Spirit-filled heart. The best way to break bad habits is to replace them with good ones, and the best way to defeat Satan is to make Jesus Lord of our lives.
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At 12:30pm we carried on, climbing up to another viewpoint where we could see Mangatawhiri Reservoir before beginning a steady and steep descent. One-and-a-half hours later we passed the remains of an old house and bamboo plantation before crossing the upper Mangatawhiri Stream, wading up to our knees.
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Once across we were faced with almost one-and-a-half hours of undulating and very muddy track, with a seeming endless run of tiny and tricky stream crossings. The leaders, who had reccied the track a month before, found the mud was far worse that it was then, with al the recent winter rains. We were glad to come out onto the Waterline Road track at 3:30pm, and an hour later we finished back at the Mangatawhiri Dam carpark, just as the promised rain began to set in.

COST: $11
DISTANCE:  14.2km
AVERAGE SPEED:  3.7km/h
MAXIMUM SPEED:  7.6km/h