7 April 2007

Cascade Track

page 2

So how does this one stack up against the Lower Kauri Track, with a similar warning sign. On the whole, I'd say a more attractive track, with perhaps slightly more difficulty associated with the steeper bits. I'm starting to think it mightn't be a bad idea to carry a small hatchet in my pack for(re)cutting access steps in some areas.

But it's friendly enough to start with

though soon enough the first steep bit eventuates and we're mainly dependent on tree roots for footholds for a bit.

For a period we flatten out and along here we hear some of the most liquid and haunting tui song I've heard in a long time. If they're talking about us, it certainly sounds flattering.

Alice seizes the opportunity to explore a fallen tree trunk. The birdsong is driving her crazy, and every now and again she identifies a tree it might be possible to climb. After several humiliating defeats on vertical trunks she settles for a horizontal one.

photo by miranda woodward

This is really beautiful walking through here, perhaps enhanced by the fact we are no longer heading solidly uphil.

This is a recent one.

As always along this track, a huge kauri can just pop up almost out of nowhere. The simple mass of these trees is either intimidating or exhilarating, depending on where you start from.

We're heading down the side of a slope here

More sections of boardwalk. Be careful on these. I suspect they're nearly always wet, and they can be quite slippery and occasionally wobbly

There's such a lush variety of plants here it can be mind-boggling

Here's a young Coprosma grandiflora.

A little further along I find one in bud.

It's starting to get quite boggy through here. later I reflect that ARC has put an enormous effort into boardwalk in some areas along here, while just a couple of short steep, slippery sections deny access to persons who would otherwise thoroughly enjoy the track

The parataniwha along here is especially lush and colourful

Another fallen tree hosts a mass of filmy fern and orchids

One of the features of this valley floor is the amount of ground dwelling kie kie, from 1.5 - 2 m tall. (I'd have to say I use kiekie as a generic for tall sedge/lily-like vegetation lke this. Botanically it carries no guarantees.)

We stop for lunch at the junction with the Robinson Ridge Track. I have been forbidden under pain of instant celibacy to publish any pictures of Miranda at lunch, but it's a nice spot, with a signpost stating we are 1 hour in either direction from the carpark. As the sign about twenty minutes back at the junction with Fenceline track also said the carpark was an hour away, there something cock-eyed somewhere.

Signposts are not a substitute for careful map-reading or common sense, especially as they apply to the elderly and stout. It's taken us a little over 90 minutes to get here.

A couple of walkers come past from Simla as we eat, with a much vaster circuit planned than ours. That's the nice thing about the Waitaks. With the network of tracks you can make any walk last as long as you want, provided your transport is sorted at the end.

We set off again.