18. 30/11/2022. Trampers. Post Office Creek track from the Waipori Village side. Grade 3. $14. 60km. Leaders: Barbara and Leah.
The walking track is off Patearoa Road which itself is off Moonlight Road and we parked at the junction of the two. The permit was left visible through the windscreen.
A quick morning tea, and the party set off on the 1km down-hill (remember what goes down at the beginning of the day must go up at the end!!) to the rustic signpost indicating Post Office Creek track. There was a brief delay while one driver (nameless) went back and spent a frenetic 5 minutes searching for car keys in order to lock the vehicle. Having found the keys in the backpack, they were left on the ground while the pack was rezipped. The person (also nameless) who had ferreted them away while the rezipping was underway should be afraid; very afraid! A brief detour a few minutes down the track proper took us to the now dilapidated fishing huts.
A scramble back up the track and we were crossing the first of the creeks and negotiating the rock bivvy.
The entire track follows the contour of the slope with very little up or down. Many of the guts had bridges in varying degrees of disrepair but which, it’s understood, are likely to be removed entirely in the near future, after the maintenance work in the forestry has been completed. The tracks will be realigned to navigate the guts minus bridges.
Pigs had been digging up the track which left it nice and soft underfoot and there were a few fallen branches we cleared as we went.
We left the canopy cover of the trees as we neared the re-sited Waipori School buildings where we sat and had our lunch. Half the group elected to follow Jill to the actual Post Office Creek while the remainder sat and chatted, walked down to the lake edge and poked around the buildings.
Disappointingly there was no fishing or poetry recitation.
On the return of the wanderers, we set out again, retracing our steps, looking out for litter to take back to our vehicles. The last uphill kilometer was unwelcome but all 14 made it. A change of footwear, a little shenanigans with someone’s pack and sticks, and we headed back to the locked gate, this time heading to the right, over the Lake Mahinerangi causeway, through the fishing village and back to the Middlemarch Road at Lee Stream, enjoying a commentary from Jill who, for several decades, had farmed the property on both sides of the road.
One carload stopped for an icecream at Outram ($2 for 2 scoops being excellent value!), but weren’t joined by the other two, who must have thought 4.30pm too late for such extravagance!
An enjoyable day on an easy track which could well be considered for a combined day.
It would be possible to leave a 4WD vehicle at the bottom of the hill, at the signpost for the track, as we did on the recce, shortening the distance by 2 km.
Barbara
A combined group of 42 people met at Andrew Reid’s hay barn on Mahinerangi Road and soon set off down the steep hill past the cattle yards. It was nice to have several visitors out today, as the weather gods were truly kind, and the ground underfoot was firm.
We all enjoyed walking through the rolling country and down to Lake Mahinerangi, initially opposite the old Waipori school building.
The lake was very low but still picturesque. We followed a gold miners water race to a now empty dam. One can only marvel at how adaptable and hardy those early gold miners were to seek their fortunes in this remote area!
The trampers then went up through the farm, intending to walk several kilometres more than the hikers, but I am not sure there was much between us in the end!
Caption and Photo: John
Trampers had lunch beside a tree lane with good expansive views and the Mahinerangi wind turbines were turning in the distance.
Back down to the farm lane that we followed to THAT hill and our cars.
Distance covered was about 12.5 km. Jill
After parting ways with trampers 14 hikers led by Chrissy (thank goodness) climbed up a fairly steep hill where we had a short lunch with the promise of another break at the top of the next paddock! Well, we somehow went through a wrong gate so instead of doing a loop we did a loop and a half to get back on track. We were all in good spirits until we saw the road we had to go back up to get to the cars.
But it was onwards and upwards at our own paces and, getting overtaken by the trampers, we made it back. This was a hard walk for us, but our senior members were so impressive. Well done team. PS. we never did get that promised break?
All up it was a solid 12 kilometres. Thanks Chrissy. Jenny & Jan Y.
11 trampers enjoyed a beautiful day on Andrew Reid’s property. We parked at the woolshed and headed downhill before walking along a water race created by gold miners, to a now empty dam.
We marvelled at how this race had been dug into the hillsides – and can barely imagine the living conditions of the early miners, one must certainly hope their toiling brought rewards!! There were a few fences to climb
but we were rewarded with nice views over Post Office Creek and then Lake Mahinerangi.
We then walked away from the lake, across a dam, and through paddocks up to the farm boundary with DCC forestry. Lunch was eaten in the shelter of the trees.
Then a few more ups and downs but we basically walked through the paddocks beside Mahinerangi Road back to our cars.
A most enjoyable day.
Distance walked 15.5 km. – Jill.
15. 17/1/2018. Trampers. Post Office Creek. Leader: Jill.
… we backtracked about 1 km and shortly after went up a very steep stock lane …
… and lunched by the trig there, enjoying expansive views of the area.
We continued up the farm track towards the back of the Maungatuas – the intention had been to look over to Waihola, but it was decided that was a bit far on this occasion! It was an easy return down hill to the bridge over Post Office creek – and to our cars.
An 18.5 km tramp enjoyed by all. – Jill.
14. 7/5/2014. Both. Reid homestead, Verter Burn to Post Office Creek and old school buildings. Leaders: Ken and Peter.
21 of us parked in the Reid’s homestead backyard and made our way through one or two fences down to a bridge over the Verter Burn (near ‘1’ on the map) for morning tea.
We followed a road on the stream’s true left, which begs the question as to where originated the pond with its beautiful reflection on our left. (About ‘2’ on map.)
Between 3 and 4 on the map, is where we approached the Verter Burn ford, into which we were to plunge later, but at this stage we swung off to our left to make our way through early gold-sluiced cliffs (8/4 on map) to finally cross the Post Office Creek and arrive at (5) the former Waipori School building (as reported to the writer) of the one-time but now submerged Waipori Township.
We climbed the steep hill alongside the Post Office Creek’s true left to skirt on our right a forestry of densely branched trees (larches? [and unpruned!] with a scattering of eucalypt among them) for a lunch where the forestry road levelled out at the top (6).
Then it was back down to the school building and out to the aforementioned ford, which this time we crossed with variously successful attempts in keeping feet dry, (but mostly wet).
Beyond that, was the further challenge of the BIG CLIMB, of un-fond older members’ memory. A taranaki gate at its top was new to us, but Neil successfully unscrambled its complexity. Three more paddocks and gates took us out to the Mahinerangi Road ( 11) and along it to the homestead (12.1) again.
At Outram, the majority of the (now well-established) coffee club socialised at the Wobbly Goat, …
although some betook themselves to the No 8 w Herbs cafe across the road. And that’s it. – Ian.
The long hill climb back out of the Verter Burn gets no easier with age, but all agreed it was another good day out. – Ian
