By Maurice Boniface
19th April 2010
Ken said that he would like to go to other end of a track the group went on from the Golden Cross Mine on an old pack track that used to go from that mine to the Golden Sovereign Mine in the Parakiwai Valley. I picked up Graham and Terry and went to Waihi Road where Ken and Dave joined us. We drove past Waihi to the Parakiwai Quarry Road which is just before Whangamata and parked at the car park at the end of it. We put on our boots and set off along the old road.
The sign at the beginning said that the Wharekirauponga Loop walk would take 3.5 hours and that is the one we did last year to look at the new bridges, but we were going to branch off it part way round. There was quite a wind blowing and it looked a bit like rain but it cleared later on and the sun came out. There was a little wooden 'bridge' on the track which had a counter underneath near the beginning so DOC can tell how many people use it. A short way up the track there was an arrow drawn in the dust pointing to the side where there was the start of another track and underneath it had 'lech' which didn't mean anything to us but it must have to someone. After a while we came to the first 'new' bridge. It is made of laminated wood and is arched so it looks quite graceful with the trees all around. We all went onto it except Terry who went down the old road to where a bridge used to go across, but all that is left of it are the concrete bases each side of the river. He took a photo of us on the bridge. Ken took us down a side track to where the quarry used to be and we looked up at a strange rock formation that looks like concrete posts stacked on their sides but it is how the rock cooled when it was molten lava. We went under the bridge to the track. It was originally a horse tramway to the site of the Golden Sovereign gold mine. In 1896 the Royal Standard Goldmine Co. of London purchased existing claims and set about spending vast sums of money preparing the site, building the tramway and purchasing machinery. In 1897 a new manager called a halt to proceedings after many thousands of pounds had been spent. No gold was mined and the area was abandoned! We walked along and shortly passed a rusty old hopper lying on its side in amongst the trees which used to be used at the quarry. The track runs along beside the stream which looked very pretty as it flowed passed the lovely green trees. The water was very clear and you could see different coloured stones on bottom of the stream. The tramline ran through lots of cuttings and at one place there were quite a number of wooden sleepers close together. There were several small streams across the track as well as a few fallen trees which we had to get around. At two minutes to ten I said to Graham 'two minutes to go' and right on ten o'clock Dave, who was in front, stopped even though he hadn't heard me - he must have felt the vibes in the air! I tried to ring Mum but my phone said 'searching for network'.
We carried on and shortly Ken picked up a tiny blue bird's egg, much smaller than the usual ones and we couldn't identify which bird's it was. A while later we saw a square peg on the track painted red with 4.5 in faint figures. It was much harder to read than last year but a workman had told us it was put in by a chap who was employed to measure the track and it was the distance from the car park. We came to the clearing where the junction of the loop track is. The sign said it was 30 min to the Wharekirauponga Waterfalls whichever way you went. We took the left track and shortly came to the next arched bridge across the stream. The others went onto it but I went down to the stream and took a photo of them on it. Shortly we came to two trees with red painted stripes down the trunks - this is where the pack track starts and we went up there - and it was a steady climb all the way from here on. We stopped to look at some of those bright orange fungi with white spots on them, one of them had its top turning upwards instead of downwards. We came to another tree with red stripes down the trunk but where this track goes to we didn't know. A bit further on there was a Nikau Palm leaf on the ground with a red arrow painted on and this was a mystery too. There were all sorts of markers on the track some were blue others were white, yellow and pink but there seemed to be more blue ones. After a while Dave stopped and said to me "This what happens when you turn around too much" and pointed to a tall thin tree trunk with two complete screw turns three quarters of the way up it! We came to a group of young Kauri Trees with a bigger one beside them. Terry stood beside it and pulled a funny face as I took a photo of it! He pulled off one of the bark scallops and it was bright red underneath. I was at the back as usual and came across the others who had stopped and said that there was a wasps' nest and that Ken had got stung. I thought we were still on the track and thought we couldn't get any further but they had turned aside at a sign that said "Kahikatea Tree" and the nest was near the tree. I didn't go near it even though Dave urged me to - I said "only if you go first!". It had gone midday but we continued on because they wanted to get to the knoll where they had lunch last month. We got to it a few minutes later which was pretty good timing. We scrambled up it and what a great view we got! I will attach a photo I took of the Aldermen Islands just off the coast from here. You could also see a little bit of Whangamata. The sun came out again and we sat in the sunshine, out of the wind and had our lunch. I sent a text "Lunch on the Te Whareki Track" Neil replied "I give up where is that"! I rang Mum and got good reception.
After lunch we went a little further along the track to where the Corbett Road Track joins this one then turned around and went back the way we had come. When we went past the track to the Kahikatea Tree I felt a sharp pain near the end of my elbow - a wasp had stung me too! It hurt for a while but wasn't too bad. It was a very pleasant day and although the wind was blowing quite hard up in the tree tops we were sheltered down on the track and the sun shone through the trees making it a pleasure to walk along, especially seeing it was downhill this way! We saw a tree whose thick root went across the track in curls like a snake and a rusty pipe down by the stream which must have been put there by the miners. When I was climbing over one of the fallen trees I didn't notice another branch just above it and I just about saw stars when my head cracked against it! Dave and Graham got a bit ahead of the rest of us and we found them on the last bridge waiting for us to catch up - Dave was sitting down in his usual way when he waits for us! We walked back along the old road to the car and had afternoon tea. Dave consulted his GPS and said we had walked 17 kms! We set off for home and I got there at 5.15 p.m. Mum said it was much later than when Ken and I went out on our own!
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