Day Trip - Sunday 20 October 2013

 

A Year Later - Photo Gallery - Fay Zhong

Sunday 20 October was a beautiful sunny day, just perfect for getting out of Auckland to spend a few hours tramping in what turned out to be a route that none of the nineteen trampers apart from myself could recall doing before. As far as I could determine Wires track had not been done by the club for quite a few years and several commented on how nice it was to do something different.

A two hour drive from base is Wires track, so named for the telegraph line that was constructed along the route way back in 1872.This rather picturesque track is accessed via Wires Road, off Maratoto Road, east of Hikutaia about half way along the Thames/Paeroa Highway. Once on Wires Road the unsealed and rather rough road crosses the Hamuti Stream via a ford that is often underwater in times of heavy rain.

We started our tramp around 10.15am from the end of Wires Road by climbing up the Whangamata Off Road Vehicle track. Just prior to the start I had told the group that we could possibly encounter motorbike riders using the same track and sure enough soon afterwards two roared up behind us a short while later. We had a water stop on top of some rather unique looking soft white rock bulging up from the track and arrived at Wires Plateau about 90 minutes after setting out. The Loop track kept heading eastwards, however, given the degree of unfamiliarity with the route I decided to keep everyone together and we made the descent down Wires track soon encountering a section a few hundred metres long that had been cut into the rock and necessitated walking through a trench of sorts. Quite unique.

 

Lots of tree falls across the track, some of which looked like they had been there for a while. Also some supplejack to negotiate our way through.
Stopped for lunch on a ridge that had an open sunny spot that provided a rather panoramic outlook.
Soon after lunch we found some small remnants of the telegraph poles and an overgrown fence that had been a cattle pen in earlier days.
A bit further on and we found the 'track' that led down to a waterfall on the Hamuti Stream. Although relatively short this unofficial 'track' was very steep and quite rough in the lower section. Rewarded however, with a great photo opportunity as although there had not been a lot of rain in the week preceeding the tramp there was still a good strong water flow over the falls.
Backtracking then up to Wires track and then continuing to drop down the ridge and to the Hamuti stream a bit further downstream from the falls. We had to cross the stream, however, a large treefall provided a good dry access to the other side. More bush then soon emerging onto farmland.

Our driver Jo Lowe had gone on ahead and had rather kindly brought the bus back down from the roadend to park opposite the stile exit from the farm. Nice not to have to walk back up the road in the heat of the day.

Total time elapsed was around four and a half hours inclusive of lunch and Jo had us back at base just before 5 pm.

All participants enjoyed doing something new and opted to get home in good time rather than looking for any icecream/milkshake/coffee stop on the return journey.

Leader/Scribe: Ian W Morris