However ,a very enthusiastic group of nine set off from the Strand at 8 am with our destination being the end of Wires Road, off Maratoto Road, off the Thames/Paeroa Highway. We had to cross a ford on the Wires Road that was nearly a metre deep in water as we crossed the swiftly flowing Hamuti Stream. This accomplished we got within 100 metres of the end of the road before a well churned up section forced our retreat to a farm a few metres back. Much to my delight the owner turned out to be someone I had been at school with at Vauxhall Primary and Takapuna Grammar and we had not seen each other for around 55 years. He allowed us to park in his driveway which was great as the metal road did not have any other parking areas other than the turning circle at the end which we could not access.
We duly set off up the four wheel drive track and reached the junction with the Wires Track about an hour and a quarter later. This 4WD track had its muddy sections but was a lot better than I thought it would be. The top end of Wires Track has an interesting section that has you walking down through a trench for about 200 metres, however, there were rough steps carved out to make access easier.
About halfway along Wires Track we stopped for lunch at a more open section of the track that gave us a nice outlook over the valley below. Soon after lunch and just before we took the diversion to the waterfall we were joined by a tired and decidedly lonely pig dog who seemed so relieved that she had found some humans.
We also viewed some remaining evidence of power poles and a stockyard dating back to the late 1800's on this section of the track.
We went down a very steep and slippery 'track' of sorts that ended near the base of a lovely waterfall in full splendour given the significant rainfall in the area during the past week. Back to the main track and we arrived at the Hamuti Stream crossing that had us in flowing water up to our knees. We all negotiated this okay and then clambered over rocks along the riverbank to pick up the track again. Soon after we exited onto farmland over which we followed the fence line to get back to the Wires Road again. A short walk up the road with our tenth member in tow we arrived back at the farm where the bus was parked.
Gordon, the owner, told us he had a list of missing dogs in the area and sure enough our tenth tramper was identified and a phone call made to the owner ,a young pig hunter. We made our way back down the road and after crossing the ford we made contact with the young hunter and his wife and young child waiting on the far side.
He was, as you would expect ,very happy to have 'Trixie' back again.
In the interim we had named her Lassie (as in 'Lassie Come Home') and later added her name to the trip list as 'Trixie Bitch' who had arrived to join our group under 'own transport'.
We therefore claimed a total of ten trampers which sounds much better than nine!
We went home via Paeroa and stopped for a coffee break at McDonalds before our driver Ian G. had us safely back in Takapuna by about 5.45pm.
We all agreed that we had had a most enjoyable and interesting day and felt good about our part in reconciling Trixie/Lassie with her owner.