Early in the year at a club social, Tony Walton, a trustee of the Kaimai Ridgeway Trust, spoke about development of the tracks in the Kaimais. He spoke about the deterioration of the tracks and how the Kaimai Ridgeway Trust was set up to maintain the tracks and prepare a plan for the future of tramping in the Kaimais.
Following on from this presentation, a number of tracks have been adopted by various tramping clubs, with each club agreeing to clear and maintain the tracks they have adopted. The North Shore Tramping Club has adopted a track that starts at the head of the Wairere Falls and goes north to the Aongatete Junction.
In July a party of three from the North Shore Tramping Club—myself, John and Mark—did a recce to check out the route. We judged it to be a manageable task, so we planned our first attack for 17–18 of October.
Our plan was for an early start to beat the Auckland traffic. We were able to travel down Onewa Road in the T3 lane, but this was offset by a ferry breakdown and having to wait at the Auckland side of the ferry terminal for Chris, our fourth member. We had a good trip down, despite a small delay due to a major vehicle incident at Maramarua.
We arrived at the Wairere Falls carpark at ten am, threw on our packs, grabbed our tools and headed up the hill. An hour later we were right into it, and at the same time wondering where our campsite was going to be.
After a couple of hours’ work we stopped for lunch in a tranquil spot beside the river where we discussed our progress. After lunch we got stuck in again and made good progress.
At about 4.30 pm we decided that age was creeping up on us and we needed to find our campsite, which we duly did about ten minutes up the track. Tents pitched, we sat down for a drink and then dinner.
By seven pm it was becoming cold so into our tents we crawled. It was a long night, except for the expected dashes into the bushes.
At 6.30 am, we were up and having breakfast, then we put our tents out to dry and recommenced our labours.
At eleven am we called it a day; exhaustion was setting in and backs were complaining. We dismantled the tents, packed up and headed off.
After lunch at the head of the Wairere Falls, we left the carpark at 1.30 pm, again hoping to beat the worst of the Auckland peak traffic.
Our trip home was not without incident. I couldn’t engage the gears of my vehicle at a junction, although I eventually managed after a few kicks on the clutch pedal. Worse was to come.
When I turned right at a Beach Road intersection in Auckland, again the gears wouldn’t engage. Out jumped my three passengers, who pushed the vehicle to the side of the road. We all inspected the components under the bonnet, kicked the clutch, and tried to phone the AA.
Then a loud chorus of “Hurray!” The clutch came to life again, and we all piled back in.
All went well until Birkenhead, where I had to stall the vehicle at a pedestrian crossing because I couldn’t get it out of gear. We lunched along the road for a while because the vehicle started again.
We only had minor troubles after this, and I made back to Kaukapakapa successfully.
To sum up the expedition:
• It was easier than we expected.
• All we needed were hedge trimmers and a small saw.
• We found a great campsite.
• We found plenty of water.
• Four to five hours a day is probably the most one can achieve per day.
• The weather was great.
• The four of us made a good team.
• We cleared this section of track well enough that it will be at least two years before it needs to be looked at again.
Looking at what we accomplished, we estimate that it would require four workers at least another seven trips to completely clear the track. Of course, more workers would mean it would be finished sooner.
The next trip is planned for Monday/Tuesday, 7/8 November.
If you can help, please give Ralph a call on 022 600 5730 / 09 420 3494.