Te Rereatukahia Loop
Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park

24 - 26 October 2015 (Labour Weekend)

For labour weekeend, we headed down to Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park for a bit of tramping and relaxation. I was joined by Vanessa, Chris S, Staci, Abigail, Lena, Kristy, Keagan and Chris R.

Itinerary

Track Profile

Day 1 (Saturday):

We left Auckland at 8.00am to head down to the start of the track at Hot Springs Road near Katikati, which was a couple of hours drive.  The weather forecast was for pouring rain but is expected to clear up.

At about 12.30pm at the road-end we put on our rain coats, packs and set our course to Te Rereatukahia Hut, deciding to have lunch later.  The first bit was down to a river crossing and luckily it was not in flood so it was able to be crossed easily.  Then it was a genital uphill, to get up onto the ridge of the Kaimai Range.  Due to the weather, you could not see much other than cloud and being wet.   Once up above 500-600m it stopped raining, still not being able to see anything, but we decided to continue onto the hut where we would have a late lunch.

We finally reached the hut where we got into dry clothes and had lunch.  There was already a group of 6 people in the hut, so with us it made it a full hut.  We played some card games until it was time to cook and eat dinner.  After dinner another group arrived so there was a bit of shuffling to accommodate.  

We went to bed and proposed to set alarm for 4am so we could listen to the Rugby World Cup semi-final game All Blacks vs Springboks on a radio.  Due to the number of people in the hut we decided to not doing this (however another group did).

Day 2 (Sunday):

This morning we took it lazy and let the other groups leave before us before we had breakfast.  The weather was still the same as last night of being surrounded by cloud.  Once we packed up, we headed in the direction for the road-end.  The track gets us back onto the top of the ridge of Kaimai Range where it was quite windy, but still could not see anything.  So we enjoyed the open tops where we had the thrill of the wind going through our hair.

We then dropped off the ridge where we stopped for lunch sheltered from the wind and the weather started clearing up.  As we heading down Tuahu Track, we started seeing blue sky, a nice view and temperature warming up.  As we had a bit of time before our pickup we did a detour to see some Kauri trees, which we admired.  Finally we reached the road-end where we got picked up by Vanessa & Chris R.

For the second night we camped at Sapphire Springs campground just down the road from the road-end where they had thermal pools.  So we setup our tents (including my new lightweight tent), did a bit of relaxing before we had a swim in the pools then cooked dinner.  We relaxed for the rest of the evening before going to bed.  

Day 3 (Monday):

To start off today we had a nice cooked breakfast before we packed up camp by 10am.  We then headed to Karangahake Gorge, which is on our way home.  We did a bit of exploring/walking around the Victoria Battery area which none of us had visited before, it was very interesting.  Then we headed to Karangahake Tunnel where most of us walked a return trip through the tunnel before we had lunch.  After lunch it was time to head back to Auckland via Pokeno, where we stopped for ice creams.  

This was a very enjoyable trip which had the best of both worlds being Tramping and relaxation.

Maps

• NZTopo50: BD35 - Matamata
• NZTopo50: BD36 - Lower Kaimai

View Larger Map

Further Information

• Department of Conservation - Te Rereatukahia Loop