The choice of Saturday walk may have been influenced by the presence of the last three unvisited spot-heights in the south western corner of the park. In the end a bit of a knee twinge curtails activities on Sunday - so it's a somewhat truncated trip report this time.
What: Day nav trip
Where: Pukeatua - behind Waikanae
Who: Solo
When: 3 March 2018
Map:
I leave the express way and head for the Akatarawa Hill Road to turn left at Reikorangi. The road end is empty when I arrive but a gentleman turns up shortly and we get chatting. He's organising a walk for a senior group along the Mangaone walkway which follows up the Waikanae River and pops out in the hills behind Otaki. Apparently some of the members don't like getting their feet wet so he's checking some logs he dropped over a stream a week back weren't washed away in cyclone Gita.
The Pukeatua track is part of the Te Araroa trail popping along a ridge from Otaki Forks. At 0830 I start along an old forestry track which turns into single track before pt 422. One (presumably) TA walker comes through a little before 422 - he must have got up reasonably early to get here from the Forks.
At the saddle just after 422 I pick a spot and drop east towards the stream. It rapidly turns into a tangle of supplejack but is not too steep.
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| The way down |
Near the bottom I come across what looks like an apparently healthy supplejack vine growing out of a decidedly not supplejack tree. Weird.
The other side is a little clearer and after following animal trails that avoid the worst of the supplejack, I find a bit of a foot pad on the top of the spur - it's 9.40 and there's even the odd piece of old tape.
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| Nice open bush on the spur |
This leads up to the target - pt 535. The spur is a bit messy here and I'm having a bit of trouble with direction finding when I notice that my compass is a bit sluggish. I generally give it a bit of a wiggle when taking a bearing to check it is level and moving freely, this time the needle response is odd. I check my pockets and around my chest but can't find anything metallic and can't recall having a pacemaker fitted recently. It's still behaving a bit weirdly and on a second check I discover a plastic clip on my chest strap that used to belong with a previous water bladder - it has a strong wee magnet in it. I haven't used this day pack for a while and had completely forgotten it was there.
With navigational confidence (competence?) restored I find the way across a couple of bumps and to the climb back to the marked track. The ground trail is pretty good.
At 1050 I'm on the Pukeatua track again and, after a short break, head up towards the named high point - Pukeatua 812, meeting another TA walker on the way. There are a series of clearings around the top and views up to Kapakapanui with its head in the clouds and the side spurs to Judd Ridge - also disappearing into cloud. The Kapiti Coast is also visible. It's a little after 1120.
The name strikes me as a little odd - the hill of the gods (or a god?) - yet it isn't exactly commanding in the landscape. Kapakapanui to the SSW and the peaks of the southern crossing to the east look down on it.
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| Kapakapanui on left - target saddle low on right |
This is the furthest along the track for today as I have previously visited the next spot height along. Heading back to where I rejoined the track my right knee starts playing up and continues to give me gyp for the rest of the day.
The next section is to follow a long saddle to the Kapakapanui track south of here. It is such an obvious link between two navigable ridges that it's no surprise to see old venetian markers visible from the track - you'd have to be blind to miss them. In fact, to make sure people don't wander off, DOC has put some large orange triangles to mark the Pukeatua track. At 1150 I'm good for time so reckon I can go a bit easy on my knee.
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| A subtle sign |
The foot trail comes and goes but the ridge is narrow enough and it's clear people come through periodically. The climb out of the saddle gets a bit messy with undergrowth and lots of windfall. I'm also getting a bit whiny about my knee so slowing down somewhat.
Part way up I find some iron sheets and possibly timbers rotting into the forest floor - clearly there was something here a long time ago. Later, I find Henderson's Shelter marked on a 1979 map of the area - I assume I stumbled over its mouldering remains.
The saddle route joins the Kapakapanui track at 1240 and it's a short step down to the hut. It's tidy and I top up my water before taking a long lie down. The sun is hidden but it's warm and there's cell phone coverage. But not that great as I discover by chewing through half my battery life checking a few websites.
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| Kapakapanui track |
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| Kapakapanui Hut |
Blame it on the warmth or resting that gamy knee, either way it is a lot longer than I normally stop before mustering enough enthusiasm to overcome inertia, departing about 1315.
The map shows a bit of a flat section then a bump in the ridge where I am planning to take a spur back to the carpark. I keep my eyes peeled but in the end, as the photo shows, the subtle signs were there for the observant (1335).
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| Another subtle sign |
A good ground trail heads firmly off down the spur with old markers in evidence. A few times it became a little indistinct with long gaps between markers but it was pretty easy. The old track drops to a low saddle with the sounds of the stream on the right drifting up, then climbs to an abrupt transition into pines.
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| Forward |
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| And back |
The old maps website shows no track down this spur in 1979, a marked track in 1989, a note that it is overgrown in 1999, a dotted route in 2009 and nothing now. Funny how things change.
I join a somewhat winding logging road which is mostly pretty easy to follow although I wander onto a side track at one point and end up sidling through second growth pine to find the main road again.
The sun is out now and it's hot. What with the trees and the winding road I'm not 100% sure how far I've traveled until a pylon comes into sight indicating the start of the descent to the carpark.
I know I'm outside the Forest Park now and am not sure who owns the land. However, there does not appear to be any current logging activity and I figure that the odd lone tramper limping out of the hills is not going to create risk or cause damage. There's one house high above the carpark but I keep away from their drive and follow the logging road down. At the bottom there is an old sign that says 'private' but as there is also access to houses it's not entirely clear what it is referring to.
I note that I'm parked next to an old boiler - a relic of logging technology and a reminder that the hills will bear the scars of today's forestry well after the trucks and pines have gone.
It's just before 3pm so everything has pretty much gone to plan. I silently thank the support crew who has slipped two bottles of ginger beer into my change bag, and head back over the entertaining Akatarawa hill road. Next stop a bath then some barbershop.
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