Trip Reports

Pirongia Weekend   —   12-13 March 2005

Written by Chris

We travelled down to the Pirongia Forest Park Lodge after work on Friday to allow us a full weekend in the area. The setting for the lodge is right on the bushline with great views over the Waikato, particularly spectacular on a clear night with all the nearby towns’ lights sparkling away. The lodge has a well-equipped kitchen, large dining and deck areas, 4 × 8 bunkrooms and 2 × 3 bunkrooms and is a facility we should use again when visiting the Waikato.

Three walks were on offer for Saturday and after a discussion on Friday night we decided who was going on which trip. We had two doing a shortish walk from the Lodge to Ruapane Trig, eight doing a return trip to the top of Mahaukura and back, and seven doing the longer loop up the Tirohanga Track to the summit and back to the lodge via the Mahaukura Track. Margie, Shirley, Evelyn, Roseanne, Sandra, Bruce and I did the longer walk reaching the summit about 11am. The weather was fine and clear and we had superb views from the summit seeing Mt Taranaki and Mounts Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, and the Kawhia and Raglan harbours. All agreed the view from the top was well worth the climb up.

The tracks on Pirongia are rugged and challenging with many climbs up and down rocky peaks, with some of the steeper rocky tops having chains to cling to for extra safety when climbing. The weather had been very dry leading up to our weekend on Pirongia and any mud was very easy to negotiate.

Sunday night we had a BBQ with shared salads and desserts. As normal, per our club, the food that was provided by our members was plentiful and after eating, we retired to the deck to listen to the guitar music and singing provided by our very tuneful Margie.

Sunday morning after breakfast and a clean-up around the Lodge, we headed for the Kaniwhaniwha Stream on Limeworks Road, Te Pahu. We walked up the Nikau Grove, stopping at the Kaniwhaniwha Cave which Brian explored, and I followed once I saw him out in one piece. We continued on, up the Bell Track as far as the large kahikatea tree, which is the tallest recorded tree in New Zealand. After lunch by the tree, we returned to the cars where some of us had a refreshing swim in the large swimming hole under the bridge before returning to Auckland.

Thank you to everyone who joined me on the Pirongia trip. The people, weather, accommodation and walks were great and I had a neat time back in the area where I grew up in. Also on our trip were Brian, Sue, Maureen, Ralph, Dennis, Kathy, Jill, Ted, Angela, and two non-members Faith and Rosie. Rosie is an old club member who now lives in Australia but suffers from habitat deprivation and returns to NZ for regular walks in our bush.