Thursday 16 April 2026
Leader: Owen Cox
This was a Thursday trip and we started walking about 10am. After crossing the Maungakotukutuku Stream we headed into the bush aiming for the track up the spur. Unfortunately, we had to bush bash through some supplejack before reaching the ridge and the track.
Once we reached the track, we had a straightforward walk to the clearing on the western shoulder of Maunganui. From here we headed south through low bush before hitting a deer trail that headed east below the scrub cap of Maunganui.
We followed the trail for about 300 metres to a small steep spur below the top of Maunganui that dropped into the headwater of the Akatarawa River West. At the base it levelled out and was easy going. We crossed the headwater and walked down through regenerating forest for a kilometre (the original forest in this area was clear felled approximately 70 years ago). Here the stream was in a small trough and the open forest floor lay under a heavy canopy with good stands of rimu present.
After lunch, we dropped into the stream bed (just below a side stream) and had an easy walk downstream to the fork of Martins Stream (flows in from the west draining the east side of Titi). There were old logging skid tracks here and a beautiful middle aged beech forest. I was surprised to see little sign of people visiting recently.
From the fork of the Akatarawa River and Martins Stream we headed up the spur to spot height 613 on the ridge between Maunganui and Titi. This section was easy going. From the ridge we picked up the ridge track heading towards Maunganui and then turned down the same ridge that we had climbed earlier in the morning. We followed the track that drops down a spur to the left near the bottom. This route joined up with old logging tracks than eventually took us to Maungakotukutuku Stream by the Perhams Road entrance. A short road walk down the valley took us to the car which we reached at 5pm.
Those on the trip were:
Owen Cox, Petr Kure
Currently there is no photo album for this trip.