This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
ount Hawtrey (343m) stands behind the separation point between Days Bay and Eastbourne and can be accessed from either via a reasonable bush track which crosses its summit and links the two areas. The track is unmarked on the R27 topo map. The writer remembers reading accounts in early Tongue & Meat newsletters of Sunday tramps which struck trouble on the slopes of Hawtrey and was keen to have his first look at it.
We had sufficient punters for a cricket team as we assembled at Muritai Park, Eastbourne at 9.30 am Sunday 7 December 1997. On board were trip leader Dave Catchpole and wife Dot, Barry Cook, Jan Goodwin, Adrienne and Don Jeffs, Heather Jones, Lorraine Neilsen, Don O’Brien, Ollie Stempa and Lloyd Wilkin. The day was perfect for tramping, calm and sunny, the vehicles had been positioned, and at 9.50 am we were off.
The climb from the park to the top of the ridge was via the easy tourist-type track to the link-up with the McKenzie Track from McKenzie Road to Butterfly Creek. The McKenzie Track was followed north for say 150 metres toa bump where it turns left and descends steeply to McKenzie Road. At this bump we turned right towards the north-east and picked up the bush track to the I summit of Hawtrey which was gained after a short climb. During the climb we passed many trapped possums which were mostly still alive and awaiting their final despatch by the trapper concerned, who had chosen the track itself as the venue for nearly all his traps. This was most distressing for the women-folk present. A pair of sharp eyes spotted a a tree close by and its photo was duly taken. This was interesting because the bush here must be absolutely teeming with possums at night, as witness the large number we saw in the traps we passed. How then do any birds, such as the sighted morepork, survive? Just below the summit, we observed a cache of empty traps, a hammer and nails, and guessed that the trapper had knocked off work here for the weekend and would be back on Monday to resume trap-setting and clearing the traps. At the top we tramped over a succession of humps and wondered which was the actual summit as we saw no metal pipe in the ground to mark the trig. Here, some very big and tall trees had shiny metal bands around their trunks to deter possums.
A few minutes further on from the summit, we picked up the first of two tracks coming up the hill from Days Bay and stopped at the second for lunch. It was good to relax for a short break.
After lunch we continued towards Neo ia On? Tne ing a turnoff down to Sunshine Bay and shortly after, another down to York Bay, following which the very good track started to climb steadily as we approached Mt Lowry (373m). At the track junction just below the Lowry summit, the authorities have removed the wooden park bench remembered by most who have ventured this way before and replaced it with a much larger track signpost. A discussion here revealed that all our party members had previously climbed Mt Lowry, going to or from the Wainui shopping area, so we dispensed with the 10-minute side excursion to its summit, at which there is no view to be had, just a metal pipe to be seen.
Continuing towards the north, we then passed a steep track running down to Lowry Bay which our leader preferred not to use because of his experience with it on a previous occasion. Instead, we continued along an easy and very dry track at the ridgetop until we could start to hear motor traffic using the Wainui Hill Road below us on the right, and we saw more than one track leading downwards to the right to meet the Hill Road coming up from Wainui. Further on we could see ahead the road summit with its nearby lookout and at this point, we dropped off to the left to follow a very good track down to Cheviot Road at Lowry Bay, so ending a most enjoyable tramp from Eastbourne. The next day, a telephone call from the writer to Peter Clarkson at the Hutt City Council, the officer responsible for the issue of opossum was not his intention to allow such traps to be laid out along tracks used for tramping. They should be placed behind trees and out of the sight of track users. He added that a lot of work was presently being undertaken at Hawtrey to get rid of the pest in that area.
[Photo captions and page text that interrupted the story:]
; morepork, or Maori ruru, sittingin +
Lloyd Wilkin