This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Written by Darren Hammond
I like my sleep, so when I found out that this day walk started in Wainuiomata at 8 am on Sunday, I took a few moments to think how much I wanted to do the walk. In hindsight, I am very glad that I decided to rise early, and drive over to Moore's Valley.
The Orongorongo and Wainuiomata catchments provide about 20% of Wellington’s water (60 million litres a day), and are closed to the public, but 6 times a year, the Regional Council invite bona-fide tramping clubs to have a guided walk through the area. There are also 12 open walks, which are much shorter than the one we did, with a larger group. WTMC was one of the groups granted a tour this year, and 8 of us (Brian, Jan, Eric, Christine, Christian, Constanze, David and myself) started off in light but steady rain. Our guide was Mark, a park ranger for the Regional Council. The moming’s walking was 14 km along a very well formed 4WD road through some fantastic native bush, with great examples of Rimu, Miro, Rata, Beech, Totara and many tree fems. There was some bird life, not as much as the aftemoon, and evidence of the wild pigs rooting among the fems. There are also goats and deer in the catchment. After an hour of walking, the rain had stopped, and there were glimpses of blue sky, before we started to climb, and the weather closed in again, but happily it stayed dry. Unfortunately the low cloud prevented us seeing any of the great views apparently offered from the top of this climb. We reached the intake weir on the Orongorongo River just before 12, where there was a hut with power and phone. So we enjoyed a nice cuppa with our lunch, while we took in the peace and natural beauty of the valley. After lunch, Lance, from the Regional Council Water Group showed us the intake, and then the 2 mile tunnel, which he had come through on his little train, from the treatment plant, where we had started the walk. The tunnel was built in 1924, there is a train track beside the pipeline, upon which travels a small yellow train, something like what you would see on a miniature railway. The train usually pulls a trailer which carries tools and equipment for carrying out work on this side of the tunnel. Definitely a better option than the route that we took back to the treatment plant, which is the old pack horse track, before the tunnel was built this was the only way to get building material and tools over to the intake. This track has only recently been re-opened, and not marked on the topo map. It was a long but fairly steady bush walk, much more birdlife through here, fantails, wood pigeons, tomtits, and tuis. Unfortunately the low cloud meant that we didn’t get any views until halfway down the final descent, but on a clear day, I bet it would be fantastic. It was about 6 km back to the other end of the tunnel, and then another km or so down a sealed road to the treatment plant. We didn’t get back until about 5 pm, so it was a fairly long day. But it was very rewarding and informative, our guide Mark regularly telling us facts about the flora and fauna, and the history of the area. It is a virtually untouched piece of native bush just half an hour from Wellington, which is only open a few times a year. I’d definitely recommend this walk to anyone, and I'd like to go again, if for nothing else than to see the views we missed! http://www. gw.govt.nz/section785.cfm