Wesley Church Group Walks

Whakapoungakau Trig, etc

By Maurice Boniface

1st September 2008

Talk about 'The Last of the Summer Wine' - Monday's tramp was one of those occasions! John picked up Dave, Ken and Terry and brought them over to our place and we all went in my car over to the Okataina Outdoor Centre car park. The idea was to walk along the Western Okataina Walkway to the Whakapoungakau Track Junction and then up to the Trig. We put on our gear and set off along the track. When we were here two years ago, the track was covered in water and we had to clamber through a whole lot of blackberry because a pipe under the track for a stream to go through, was blocked and the stream covered the track. We had a look at it today and it was fine. The area around here is open and flat with a mown strip of grass for the track. We passed a tree with lichen hanging from its branches so it must get plenty of rain. The track goes through some bush then comes out to another open area and we found another blocked pipe and the water covering the track, making the low part very boggy. It goes up slightly to a drier part where there is a frame of boards with a DOC counter under it to record how many people go over it. Dave unscrewed the side screw and had a look at the counter which he found wasn't working. Terry tried to get it to work without success - it was reading 42. Dave put it all back together. The track then enters the bush and shortly begins to climb at a fairly steep rate. The ground here is comprised of scoria which is much better than mud when it has been raining but of course it gets pretty scoured out when the water runs down these steep parts. We puffed our way up until it got to ten o'clock so we stopped while I tried to ring Mum and got through, so we stayed here for morning tea. Dave had a great big block of some Muesli-like concoction which was called 'OSM'. We asked him what this stood for and he said "One Square Meal" and said it wasn't particularly flavoursome but he found it gave him the energy he needed for tramping. Ken held it up for me to take a photo.

We continued to puff our way up until we came to a level section. Part way along this was a tree which had fallen across the track so we had to clamber over it as best we could. The track started to climb again until we came out onto the open part. They had all stopped and were having a joke about me which I didn't quite catch. I thought they had stopped because we had reached the junction but it was a false alarm, the 'track' off to the right, wasn't one - they said if I wanted to go down there they would wait here for me to come back! I've got a photo of them all smiling at the thought of it. I nearly made it this week's photo, but decided against it. The track continues in the open. Ken pointed out to me several Lancewood trees which were at the juvenile stage with their long thin leaves with serrated edges all hanging downwards and then he pointed across the track to an adult tree with its smaller leaves arranged like a normal tree. We then came to the old dead Rata Tree with its trunk soaring over the low vegetation all around it and is a real landmark of this area. It has no branches left but points like a finger, straight upwards towards the sky. You can see all the twists and turns of the vine as it wound around its original host of which there is nothing left. I asked Dave if it was as big at the base as the one we saw when we climbed up the track off the Okataina Eastern Walkway. He said it would be pretty close to that one. We finally came to the junction where the Trig Track goes off to the right, so we followed it and found it went downwards which means we have to climb all that more upwards later! Dave found a 'Widow Maker' on the track and picked it up and threw it on the side. I got him to pick it up again so I could take a photo of it. He said to me "Did you notice that all the ends of the leaves have been chewed? Possums and Wallabies love them. See, the other plants haven't been chewed but this one belongs to the Giegie family and grows up in the trees as an epiphyte". The track starts to climb on our final assault on the Trig. We passed a fallen log with some bright yellow fungi growing on it. Shortly the tall mast beside the Trig came into view, then the Trig itself and then we came out onto the grassy area which surrounds the Trig. We climbed up onto the Trig to get a good look all around. Below us was Lake Rotoiti and to our left Lake Rotorua with Mokoia Island in the middle. Out to sea we could see Motiti and Plate Islands. It was pretty cloudy around the horizon so we couldn't see too far. Dave had been looking around the grassed area for a sheltered spot because there was a cold wind blowing and he found one out of the wind and in the sun so we all sat down and started our lunch. I had to move away to ring Mum as it was a bit marginal. I sent my text but only got two replies.

After lunch we had a look around the mast next to the Trig. The were several panels on the building next to it telling you about it. It is a Radio Repeater Station used by DOC, Marine VHF, Civil Defence, Coastguard etc. There is a big bank of solar panels on its roof to run the station, which looks as though it has been added to several times. We set off on the way back and hadn't gone very far when Ken was telling us that some years ago Ron had told him about a track which goes off this one and joins the Western Okataina Walkway near the Outdoor Centre. The group had found it and walked down it but had difficulty finding the markers because there were so few of them. Dave asked if they were yellow ones because he had noticed some on the way up. Shortly we came to them and we had a discussion as to whether we tried out this track. We decided we would see how far we could get, so Dave set off with enthusiasm with us close behind. You couldn't call it a track because often we were pushing through undergrowth so thick you couldn't see your feet and the track kept going ever downwards, so we hoped we didn't have to come back! The markers were of all sorts, mostly plastic ribbons but they were all different colours, yellow, red, white, orange, some were milk bottle tops, mainly blue - they must have had a hammer and nails with them to put them up -some were up high some were down low. Sometimes there were a whole lot of them close together, sometimes there would be none for a hundred metres or so! We climbed over, under and around fallen trees. We passed places where pigs had been rooting up the ground for bugs and roots - it looked like a ploughed field! We saw a Ponga Tree whose trunk looked like a pregnant woman and all sorts of Fungi. I will attach a photo of us making our way through the jungle! The trouble was to find the markers. Dave would come to a place where he couldn't see the next one so we would all fan out looking for them. Suddenly Ken or John or Terry would call out "Here's one!" So we would all go over that way (I never see anything unless it is right in front of my nose - and even then I probably wouldn't recognise it!) We had been going on this track for about an hour and a half when we finally ran out of markers, so we held a general meeting. Dave said that if we were young chaps we would probably keep going and find our way out but being old buffers like us, it was a bit too risky, because once it got dark we would have to spend the night out there and it wouldn't be pleasant! We reluctantly decided that the safest option was to go back the way we had come! We turned around and started to puff our way up all those steep parts we had come down. Fortunately we had a number of rests including some when we had a job finding the markers again! The other trouble was that it started to rain! We put on our rain coats and carried on. It wasn't long before the trees started to drip on us and everything we pushed through was saturated, so our shorts got wet as well. We were very thankful when we reached the main track again at twenty past three. The trouble now was, that we had to walk all the way back down the track we had walked up in the morning and by the time we got home it was going to be later than usual. I was at the back so I rang Mum and said it would be a quarter to six before we got to our place and she was staggered! It reminded me about the time when we went into the forest from Kawerau and got a bit lost and ended up ringing home from the top of a peak a 4 p.m. to say we wouldn't be home until eight! At least today wasn't as bad as that. We had taken our coats off, but it started to rain again and we had to put them back on. It continued until we got back to the car and we had to gat changed in a little shelter where the information panels are. We drove home and I got there at ten to six. Maureen rang shortly afterwards to see where John was so I said he would be home soon! Our tea was a bit later than usual!