Having had four years plus of full on involvement in sorting out organisers/leaders for our Sunday tramps I often schedule myself several months ahead particularly given my leadership involvement as well in both the Auckland Tramping Club and the Outdoor Activities Club tramps.
I thought I would have plenty of time to do a full reconnoitre prior to the date of the tramp to update my knowledge of Broken Hills in the Coromandel Ranges so I scheduled this tramp for May 4. One way or another I then never got around to fully checking this out. As I will only volunteer to lead to places where I have full knowledge of the proposed route, I decided to change Broken Hills at relatively short notice to Wires also in the Coromandel Ranges.
One of our club bus driver's kindly volunteered to take us down to Wires and back, however, a family illness situation rightfully necessitated his having to cancel at less than one day’s notice. Carpooling for as far away as Wires not being particularly ideal resulted in a last minute decision to carpool out to Bethells Beach to do Wainamu Stream with the Kuataika Trig for the lunch spot.
Fifteen trampers including four non-members made the trip on what turned out to be a beautiful sunny autumn day.Two groups with Roger taking the fast group of six and the other nine a medium group led by me.
Several trampers had not seen the impressive Bethells sand hills before that bordered our way up the Waiti Stream as we made our way around the lake.
Wainamu Stream is an ideal one for anyone doing an off -track stream bash for the first time. A good dry spell for several days preceding the tramp allowed us to negotiate the stream keeping our socks dry apart from one or two that wanted to plough through the water rather than rock hop each crossing of which there are quite a few. We eventually reached the place where the stream intersects with Wainamu Bush track where we had a brief morning tea stop before climbing up the track to the junction with Houghton, Smyth Ridge and Kuataika tracks.
Twenty minutes along Kuataika track there is the Kuataika Trig ( 265 metres ) situated on a rocky outcrop that offers great views from Anawhata through Cannibal Creek, Bethells, Muriwai and the South Kaipara Harbour .A truly magnificent place to have as a lunch spot, particularly on a beautiful sunny day.
Roger's group had taken in a much wider sweep of tracks prior to reaching the trig and were just finishing their lunch at the trig when my group arrived to start lunch.
After lunch my group retraced their steps to the junction and went down Houghton track then taking the track along the southern side of the lake and up and over the sand hills back to our cars .The nice weather had attracted quite a few people (and a jam full car park ) who were enjoying the lakeside sand hills with several children also enjoying a dip.
Roger's group, after having done some extra time along Kuataika, arrived back around half an hour after mine.
Everyone enjoyed the day and given the circumstances agreed that where we went was an ideal alternative on the day.
By Ian'Bumper'Morris