Sunday 14 April 2019

Leader: Brandon Holman

Five of us gathered for a leisurely start at 9:00am in Kapiti, before proceeding in two cars down to Porirua, and parked at Elsdon Campsite, where we all set to go about 9:45am.

We took the new Utiwai trail up to the lookout which has been done in 19 minutes and 37 seconds (5.1 kms, 442 m of climb and 149m of descent), but we took considerably longer - possibly 45 minutes but we did stop to admire the view!

From the top lookout, where we had a short break for morning tea, before taking the farm road up to the top of Colonial Knob, then on down fairly steep grassy slopes to the Spicer Forest Track, which was very pretty with fallen pine needles, muddy in places and a few small wooden fenceless bridges across streams that needed care with muddy tyres. At this point we were on the Te AraroaTrail for a while.

At the southernmost point we turned on the massive gravel 'turbine road trail' which was as wide as Rimu Road, built for the delivery of the wind turbines. Eventually we came back to the Spicer landfill site after some serious hill climbing and found a spot for lunch within earshot but not sight of the landfill. After thinking we might just return to Elsdon via Broken Hill Road, we noticed the entrance to the Spicer Link trail which took us back through the trees and many switchbacks to Raiha Street and thence to Elsdon Campsite at about 2:00pm. It was good to see some youngsters enjoying this last trail.

Go to Trailforks for great maps and the GPS aware app for smartphones.
All in all a good cardio workout and some great views from the tops, out towards Kapiti Island, and the ranges.

Those on the trip were:

Brandon Holman, Chris Keating, Glenda Robb, Paula Richardson, Phil Curran

No photo album was created for this trip.