Saturday 17 August 2024

Leader: Owen Cox

Eight of us travelled in three separate cars to meet up at Catchpool carpark. The rain was expected later in the afternoon so we were trying to get most of the walk done before the rain came in.

We started walking around 9.30am, Clay Forks at the intersection of Five Mile Loop Track and Middle Ridge Track. It climbs Clay Ridge to the summit of Mt McKerrow (706 m). We stopped to have lunch at the top by the (amazing) little pipe that pokes through there for some reason.

As the track descends into the Catchpool Valley there are good views of the distant Remutaka Range and the forest canopy of the valley which we missed completely - no views for us today.

After lunch we continued on the McKerrow Track and encountered three horse riders and a dog up there. What a nice surprise! One of them gave us a quote that summed up the experience “only in Wainuiomata, eh? He he he!” (Next time you see Peter, you need to ask him to imitate this).

We then walked down to the junction where we had choices, one to go on the Orongorongo Track (4.6km, less than 2 hours) or to go up to Cattle Ridge Track (7.5 km, almost 3 hours) and without doubt, Parawais went on the longer one!

After we climbed up and down on the Cattle Ridge Track we then walked down on the Butcher Track for the last leg of today's walk to our cars, around 5pm.

We were very lucky to miss the rain which poured down not long after everyone left the carpark (and our car spotted those three horse riders on the road too). All of us drove home in the not so nice weather.

Another long, not too cold (at some point some of us sweat like something I cannot quote in our trip report!), beautiful misty day walk in Remutaka Forrest. Thanks Owen for organizing the trip.

Those on the trip were:

David Williams, Glen Cattermole, John Peterson, Matt Freeland, Nisa Promchot, Owen Cox, Peter Davis, Rob Dey

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.