Monday 26 September 2022

Leader: Dave Cox

The lovely walk from Catchpool Carpark to the Orongorongo River can be extended from an easy to a medium trip by taking one or more of several side trails and by exploring the river valley.

On this trip we turned onto Butcher Track after about ten minutes along the Orongorongo Track. This climb offered some magnificent views out to Wellington Harbour.

At one look-out we took time out for one minute of silence to reflect on the life and death of Queen Elizabeth II (Several people remarked that this was possibly the first time on a club trip there had ever been one minute of silence with nobody talking…)

We then followed Cattle Ridge track and turned downhill onto Browns Track to get to the river. This steep track was even more challenging than usual – after the previous few weeks with heavy rain it was damp and slippery. After quite a bit of slipping, sliding, crawling and grabbing onto branches we made our way along the river bank to find a sheltered spot for lunch.

After lunch we separated into two groups. Some were keen on hut-bagging and crossed the river to explore the trails and huts on the true left bank. Others wandered up the true right. After all the rainfall the river was fairly swift in places and this offered the chance to practise our river crossing skills.

The hut-bagging group took a little longer than expected and someone suggested that in typical Parawai fashion they had probably decided on a quick detour to the summit of Mount Matthews (actually they were just taking time to bag as many huts as possible… also in typical Parawai fashion).

We met back together at Turere Bridge and followed the Orongorongo Track back to the carpark.

This was a terrific day trip with good weather and great company, taking about six hours altogether.

Those on the trip were:

Chantal Heller, Chris Keating, Dave Cox, Glenda Robb, Marian Cox, Mark Robertson, Owen Cox, Patrick Liss, Paul Michl, Rob Dey, Sandra Rowland, Susan Robertson, Tony Quayle, Yingjun Shelton

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.