turnout as it was also Father's Day and this could well take priority for a lot of our members.
On offer was two tramps for the price of one allowing us to tramp places that would not be suitable as stand-alone destinations. Battery problems with the club bus resulted in us carpooling and
getting away a bit later than normal.
First up the Paremoremo Scenic Reserve just past the Maximum Security Prison. This is the largest bush reserve in the North Shore District and has around 4 kilometres
of track, some parts well defined and some not so good. Included some steep
sections that needed to be carefully negotiated. One or two ended up on their
backsides here with pride hurt more than anything else ! After a flat start the
route climbs up a lot of steps, crosses the Paremoremo Stream and goes further upwards to briefly exit onto Brookdale Road before going straight back into the bush again. From here it was right back down again along a rather muddy 'track' of sorts that had a number of tree falls across it. Then a steep climb only negotiable by hand over hand holding small trees and branches to hoist ourselves up before yes you guessed it, going down again! We finally exited the bush where we entered just over two hours after we started at around midday.
A twenty minute drive to the north-western side of Riverhead Forest followed. This pine plantation forest is very popular with horse riders, mountain bikers, motor cyclists and walkers. The forest is operated by Matariki Forests (the third largest forestry company in NZ ) under Crown Licence. Entering the forest at Barlow Road we stopped to have lunch on top of a large pile of sawn timber just five minutes inside the gate.
What followed was a just over two hour loop through a mixture of bush tracks and forestry roads. Over a rickety old bridge and up to a high point that gave us a great view back down to where we had lunch. Along a ridge road then down again along a clay track, across a stream and into the forest proper.Then a series of four wheel drive tracks that ultimately took us to another high point on the southern side of the forest. We made our way back via a series of bike tracks and jumps. Campbell could not resist showing of his imaginary biking skills here as sailed over jumps of varying height and drops with the greatest of ease
A very pleasant day's tramping enjoyed by all.