Solvitur Ambulando: August 2013

Friday, 23 August 2013

The Kohi Walk

Date: 16 August 2013
Party: Anna, Elizabeth, Lesley
Map:

Distance: 8.5 km
Elevation:

Time: 1hour 15 (our PB)
Notes:

Saturday, 10 August 2013

Mangatangi Trig

Date: 9 August 2013
Party: Anna, Elizabeth, Lesley
Map:

Distance: 16 km
Elevation:

Time: 3 hours 50 minutes
Notes:
Dams in the Hunua Ranges: There are 5 earth dams in the Hunua Ranges which supply around 57% of Auckland's water. Each was constructed between 1951 and 1977 on the headwaters of the river it is named after, apart from Cosseys, which is on the headwaters of the Wairoa River. The water from each dam is piped to the Ardmore Water Treatment Plant.

Mangatangi Dam

Completed 1977

Lake area 185 hectares

Mangatawhiri Dam

Completed 1965

Lake area 128.5 hectares

Cosseys Dam

Completed 1955

Lake area 123 hectares

Wairoa Dam

Completed 1975

Lake area 98 hectares

Hays Creek Dam

Completed 1967

Lake area 18.2 hectares

Dam Bomb - LV and EW

Sunday, 4 August 2013

We found this humourous (from the New Yorker)

Pukematekeo - Anderson Track - Waitakere Tramline Walk - Fence Line Track

Date: 2 August 2013
Party: Anna, Elizabeth, Lesley
Map:

Distance: Approx. 11km
Elevation:

Time: 3 hours 20, including breaks
Notes:

It is quite hard to track our first walks because we didn't know it was the start of a bigger commitment! But I think this is how the order of our Waitakere walks unfolded, initially inspired for me by doing the Montana Heritage Trail a short while earlier with Janet:
1 Montana Heritage Trail. End of 2011 some time?
2 19.1.12 Goldie Bush Loop. Goldie Track to Mokoroa Falls Track to Mokoroa Stream Track
3 10.2.12 Kauri Grove Loop
4 17.2.12 Karekare to Pararaha
5 2.3.12 Kura and Omanawanui Tracks - clockwise
6 8.3.12 Parau Track Loop
7 10.3.12 Maungaroa Ridge and Lookout
8 20.4.12 Lone Kauri Loop Road
9 21.9.12 Waitakere Dam
10 13.12.12 Kura and Omanawanui Tracks - anti-clockwise
11 20.12.12 Fairy Falls
12 29.1.13 Whites Beach and Te Waha Point
13 1.2.13 Te Ahua Point from Karekare, plus Karekare Falls
14 8.2.13 Te Toiokawharu
15 1.3.13 Slip, Pipeline and Incline Tracks
These walks are all following [more or less] the walks in our bible 'Walking the Waitakere Ranges', by Alison Dench and Lee-Anne Parore, whose wonderfully evocative descriptions of bush and natural beauty make us realize how much we don't know. We especially respond to such enticements as '...not for the faint-hearted' and '...mud, stream-crossings, several ascents and descents...' Their walks are well planned and the descriptions of those walks are brilliant. Although I have to say I walk with a photocopied copy in my pocket and always seem to pull it out once we have passed the spot in question and we all go "Ahh, duh, so that's what it was." And once again make resolutions to learn the names of our native trees, and birds, and ferns, and fungi, oh dear.
Hunuas
Now these walks have been trickier because my book, 'New Zealand Leisure Walks, Auckland - South' was published in 1996 and some things have changed, which has added a certain frisson to the trips:
1 2.2.12 Cossey's Dam Circuit
2 23.5.12 Cossey's Dam Circuit
3 22.3.13 Ernie's Track Circuit
4 15.4.13 Waharau Ridge Track