This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
T* roar of the Duchess set the neighbourhood dogs barking as we drove up a quiet back street in Wainuiomata. Wayne pointed vaguely down the road and mentioned that Chloe lived there - somewhere - we were all suitably impressed. People and packs were dumped on the road and as the Duchess continued on her way, we sorted ourselves out, checked the map, and set off.
Like so many tracks, you immediately start climbing and winding your way up the side of a hill. From what I could recall of the track, it wasn’t too bad, but quite muddy in places. The mud problem had been solved by the laying of heaps of gravel on the uphill section. The intentions were good, but in reality it was close to a nightmare. The gravel itself consisted more often than not of larger stones, rather than
By Sue Walsh
smaller ones and were more of a hindrance than a help give me the mud any day!
If you haven’t been along the Whakanui before I really recommend it. It makes a good day trip, but you’d probably need cars at both ends. You get views looking out towards Moores Valley before you start to head across to the Orongorongo Valley. The track undulates its way around the sides of hills before it eventually starts to drop down to the river.
Lunch was on the riverbed in the sun. It was tempting to stay, but the breeze was cool. On the way downriver we passed the Easys, who were exploring the area. Kelvin passed the key on to us; we promised to lock them out, and continued on our way.
We made good time to Paua Hut and settled down for the rest of the afternoon in a patch of sunshine, talking about everything and nothing until it was time for dinner.
Dinner went down well and i part of the desert was enjoyed by a local possum who had decided to sample it before we _ did. We salvaged what we could (luckily we had two cheesecakes!) and spent the evening around the potbelly talking, until people crashed.
We didn’t have to hurry on Sunday so had a lazy morning pitbashing and collecting firewood. After lunch we headed back up river to the Five Mile track (everyone opted for the cruisey walk out) and cruised our way along the track back to the Duchess and finally home.
Thanks to everyone for a good weekend!