Waitakere Dam & Tramline Walks - 9th Dec. 2006

Yesterday we drove out along the North-Western Motorway, got off at Lincoln Rd, then headed through Swanson and Ranui (old leafleting haunts both) to Scenic Dr and the Waitakeres.

We did the Dam walk first, which leaves from a carpark on Scenic Dr, handily festooned with a Waitakere Dam Carpark sign. Other signs however were misleading. One said it would take 1 and a quarter hours to get to the dam from the carpark. It took us only about half an hour, following the road down the hill. It's quite a boring walk there really, although we took two short bush diversions - one to a large kauri just off the road, the other was a track than ran below the road for a few minutes with some great views towards the Cascades Golf Course, which we had seen when we did the Auckland City Walk a while back.

Here's the typical view walking along the road to the dam.

The dam itself is quite spectacular, much bigger than I'd expected. There is a noticeboard explaining some of the history of the dam, the tramline, and of course the vital pipeline that carries the water from the reservoir to the city.

The dam from the hill wot you walk down to get to it.

Looking up at the dam from beneath.

There are nice toilets (longdrops of course) and there's a little section of bush below the damn, with some beautiful tui - it's strange seeing them from above and noticing the beautiful teal plummage that we miss from our usual vantage point.

Then we walked back up the hill a little to the start of the Tramline Walk. It doesn't follow the tramline the whole way, as it is too dangerous near the dam itself due to a fragile cliff face. But it was a pleasant and interesting walk including:

Looking back along the track, and the pipeline

A narrow but very high waterfall you walk under:

The first, short, tunnel, going in:

The Tramline Society's mini train - stopped at Picnic Flats when we came across it.

And the second tunnel, which is closed off and apparently quite long (with glowworms!).

It marks the end of the Tramline track and from there you can either turn around and go back to the Dam track to get out, or head along the West Tunnel track. We chose the latter.

Which turned out to be a grand decision, because not only was there cool moss,

there was also impressive fungi.

The West Tunnel track was pretty muddy in parts, and at one point, where we had to cross a stream, it was very difficult to work out where the track went next. There's evidence that the ARC is starting to put boardwalks through, but the work is only just begun and at the moment the track is quite a challenge in parts.

Eventually we met the Anderson Track and turned along that towards Scenic Dr. All well and good until we got to a fork in the track...

In the end we just picked one, no science to it. It took longer than 5 minutes to get there, but we did end up out on Scenic Dr. Unfortunately there was no indication of the direction of the carpark from the bush exit, so again we picked a direction and walked along the road, until we established that we had gone the wrong way, then we walked all the way back to our starting point, and then about another twenty minutes further to the car.

All up I think we walked for about two and a half hours. It would have been just over two without the mistake at the end. The walk to the dam is easy going down, but would be a bit of a puff coming back. The tramline walk is great, but the way out from there is soggy and difficult in parts. Once the boardwalking is complete it will be fantastic.

Auckland City Walk, Cascades Kauri Regional Park - 11th Nov 2006

Today we headed out West along Scenic Drive in Titirangi, then down Te Henga Rd, to turn into Falls Rd, past the golf course, to the carpark at the edge of Cascades Kauri Regional Park.

Nickname Pending chose the Auckland City Walk, named to recognise Auckland City's contribution to the Regional Park, because it was in our Day Walks of Greater Auckland book, and there was supposed to be a waterfall.

The carpark has a nice little area with information about the park, it's geological history and wildlife, and some really top notch long drop toilets in a cute little cottage.

Then it was into the bush. Near the start of the walk we crossed a small river by wire suspension bridge.

Then we generally wandered our way along the track, taking a few more pics along the way.

Mostly of moss. I seemed to have rather the moss obsession today. But I'll only put up my favourite.
After a while there's a short track you can take to the falls themselves. Now we'd been pre-warned by the book that there wasn't much to see. It was a nice walk, with some really quite spectacular rock formations and overhangs (which didn't photograph well). But yes there was some disappointment at the end. Here's the view of the falls from the end of the track.

If you squint you can just make out a little white bit in the middle of the shot. That's water rushing past.

However we went off track at this point and clambered over some big boulders, and managed to get this shot of the pool that the falls empty into.

Then it was back to the main track.

The bush here is older than the other tracks we have done to date. It's been regenerating here since at least 1925 when the park was opened, and it shows in the dense undergrowth that gives you a real sense that you are walking in rainforest. There are also, unlike other parks with kauri in their name, plenty of the Giants of the Forest, lording it over all of us and defying the small scope of a camera's frame. The track is surrounded by a multitude of flora species, and clearly there is a lot of bird life too, although we didn't see much beyond the odd tui when we visited. It's hard to hear the birds over the chatter of the streams that run along next to most of the track. The telltale ribbons and plastic markers of a comprehensive trapping programme show that the birds here are fighting a war with invaders, including stoats if the egg trap we found is any indication.

At the end we exited the bush just a bit up Falls Rd from the carpark where we had started, and walked back down the hill past one of the big frames that was so controversial all those years ago. Can't quite remember why now.

This walk would only take you about an hour if you didn't stop to take photos, and spend quite some time up the little track to the falls themselves. The walking is easy, not much up and down, although the track is quite rugged in places. I can't really explain the lushness of the bush without falling into cliches (and it doesn't photograph well), but hopefully many of the other tracks we have done in recent months will one day be as recovered from the scars of our country's settlement.