Silver D of E Tramp in Waitakeres

A few weeks ago I was parent help again for a group of 16 year old Takapuna Grammar School students doing a Silver Duke of Edinburgh tramp in the Waitakeres. The bus took us all the way to Whatipu - round all those corners!

Teacher gives a few wise words. Talk about enthusiasm from the students. And we had that fantastic Auckland summer weather the whole time...

See what I mean about enthusiasm? Halfway up the Gibbons Track here. A nice steady climb through Manuka mainly. That's Emily in the middle...

At the top of Gibbons, nice gentle walking.

Change in pace on the Muir Track. A couple of rocky bluffs to find our way around.

The views up the Pararaha Gorge and Valley were spectacular...

A bit of careful walking were needed round the bluffs, but the students were mountain goats really...

Teacher offered a hand if needed, but in dry weather the Muir Track was straightforward

We stopped at the end of the Muir Track for lunch. I guess it took us a little over two hours to get here from the bus at Whatipu.

There's a great hut here too, and as you can see from the sign on the post, this track is part of the Hillary Trail.

From there we took a bit of the Buck Taylor Track, and connected to the Zion Hill track. This view back to Whatipu is from the Zion Hill Track. And from there we walked the rest of the Zion Hill Track, dropping down into Kare Kare, and then walked about 4 km along a road to McCreadies Paddock Campground.

There's lot of pictures of tents, but I've only put this one in the blog. Some were tidier than others. For dinner I had Mongolian Lamb. I was treated (each parent/teacher is fed by a group of 4 students - what a good idea.)

Just to prove I was there, here's a picture as we climbed out from MacCreadie's on day 2. That's KareKare in the background. Fantastic views. We took the Taraire Track out, connecting with the La Trobe Track, a bit of road, and then into Huia Ridge Track...

Huia Ridge Track was very different. Full of Suple Jack (?) vines - that you can see here in the background....

And trees like this - anyone know the name...?

This took us onto the Twin Peaks Track, which was pretty rugged. The track is less well maintained along here - with some surprising patches of mud (given the dry weather), and fallen trees. Made it more interesting - according to the boys. And the Twin Peaks did involve some serious climbing... and descending...

This fantastic Kauri was somewhere near the junction of Twin Peaks and Tom Thumb Tracks... A welcome rest... allowing the groups to catch up with each other...

Then we stepped out and looked down. We were still seriously high, looking out here over the Manukau Harbour, above Huia. The drop down was steep and fast and fun. Would not want to do this section from the opposite direction!

And from the point the track hits the road, there was a few kms to walk along the road to the Kiwanis Lodge which is owned by ARC. It has this lovely old house which appears to have been part of the Manukau Timber Mill Co operations which took out so many of the Kauri in the past... the adults stayed in here. On a bed. Not in a tent. Lovely.

And the students stayed in their groups in these huts and cooked dinner. That was after a hot shower. And a few cups of Milo. Needed that. And a few ginger nuts.

Day 3 we left Kiwanis bound for the Parau Track. This goes up and down a few ridges with one or two small streams to cross. Steep.

But the streams were beautiful.

And the track was well formed, but with a surprising number of huge old pine trees scattered through the native bush.

Then, quite suddenly, you are out, and it's all over. The bus comes and you are back in Auckland. Great to have such a wilderness experience at our back door.