5 January 2007

Kitekite and Byers Tracks

(page 2/3)

It's around here I spot a plant I have never consciously been aware of before. It reminds me a little in habit of a kumarahou, (Pomaderris kumarahou) except that it is much smaller in leaf size. This section of the path is a little more exposed and I have difficulty getting a piece to sit still for me in the little gusts of breeze.

I've shot a copy of the pic to Tony at Bushman's Friend, so I may get an accurate ID in a day or two if he's not too busy guiding walks at Whangaroa or organising houseboat holidays.

The surface is still good but the descending path is somewhat narrower

and towards the bottom involves a series of steps.

and a small area at the bottom which my 128kg plus heavy pack finds a little difficult to leap across with any kind of grace. I am glad I have my poles. (These days I am always glad I have my poles.)

There are about six groups of people spread over the rocks around the base of the falls. Immediately below the falls is a large shallow pool where a number of children, some wearing togs, are having a ball.

Thanks to the craziness of the last twenty years, pointing a camera at strange children is no longer a safe option, so I take some time to organise my shot ahead of time to eliminate them as far as possible.

It's a neat place, though I wonder what makes it different from the spot down country where several kids were killed just recently in just such a pool when the cliffs collapsed onto them.

We make our way across the exposed rock streambed and begin to climb again. The variety of ferns here is amazing and I am not even starting to get a handle on more than a few.

There's a section of cliff wall beside the path that is just thick with filmy ferns, but my efforts to capture these are beset with problems around dappled light.

It's a very different track this side.

In fact there are places where the cliff just won't wear a track and ARC have constructed steps to take us through.

However, my fear of heights notwithstanding, there's nothing here that worries me too much. There's enough enclosing vegetation to give at least the illusion of safety.

The vegetation continues, rich and complex:

Sometimes the boardwalks and rails are sturdy affairs, and sometimes there's just the path.

Somebody, manybody, spent weeks and months and years navigating and building these tracks, and I am very appreciative indeed that we get the benefit of the work they put in and the ARC maintain.

Somewhere there must exist a history of tramping in the Waitaks. I'll have a look in the Auckland Public Library. One reason I'm curious of course is the existence of magic names like Ussher Cross and Home Track. Where did the names come from? What do they commemorate? ARC appear to have no official history or record, though a number of staff go back many years and have a wealth of knowledge.

We decide to stay with the Kitekite Track for the present.

We're still dodging tree roots, and I probably wouldn't choose this track after recent rain.

Shortly after we encounter what must be the longest collection of steps I've encountered so far in the Waitakeres

Still, I have to hand it to the ARC stepmeister. They do a much more comfortable step design than DOC.

The juvenile form of mingimingi (Leucopogon fasciculatus) - another recent name change - with the large keaves is also well represented along here.

There's also a lot of either Coprosma arboreum or C. spathulata, but I'm not easily able to distinguish them. The canopy is getting denser now, and the contrast between light and dark parts of a photo is getting much more pronounced.

At the bottom of the hill is a stream crossing.

The rocks look to be and are large, solid and stable. But if you're as large as I am, leaping from one to the next doesn't work unless you also have the agility to land lightly and/or change direction suddenly to accommodate slipping . Even sticks don't help on slippery rock. A slightly wet or clay-covered boot can also generate a slipperiness somebody lighter need not be concerned by.

New stream-crossing techniques are called for. Like weight loss.

In the end I note that the downstream side below the steeping stones is fairly shallow and I walk across on the streambed, getting not the slightest touch of water on board. The Merrells earn another Brownie point. (Some trampers carry a couple of supermarket grocery bags and a small roll of duct tape for lightweight temporary gaiters in just such a situation.

Miranda balances perfectly while getting some shots of the stream.

I found this article while surfing for background infornation on Kitekite Track. Worth a read!

Offenders serving community-based sentences are proving invaluable in caring for Auckland’s popular west coast recreation spots.

Supervised work parties from the Waitakere area put in 4500 hours’ work around west coast regional parks last year, mostly around Piha, Karekare and Anawhata.

Park Ranger Andy Pedersen says a lot of the work’s involved rebuilding and improving walking tracks in the rugged coastal terrain.

“All these tracks are surfaced with a mixture of sandstone and cement. It’s hand mixed and hand carried and hand placed. They carry it up in bags and it’s very heavy. They earn their hours, they really work.”

This summer, offenders used hand tools to dig a lookout platform from a clay hillside on the Kitekite track to improve the view of a waterfall there.

Andy says every crew gets a pep talk about the value of the work they’re doing. “They’re working for the environment when they’re working for me and they absolutely love it. A few of them start pretty slow. It’s a very good education for them.”

Andy, who’s been a park ranger for 21 years, says offender work parties have always had a role in developing and maintaining the parks.

“They’ve saved an enormous amount of money and done a superb job. A lot of those jobs would not be done by normal contractors, or they’d need special equipment that we simply don’t have the budget for.”

Waitakere Service Manager Karl Bethell says the ongoing partnership between the ARC and Community Work is a valuable one.

“We have been working with Andy and the Auckland Regional Council for years, but the partnership’s really blossomed in the past three years. We now get in at the planning phase of projects and, where possible, provide offenders who have the right skill sets to make sure that each project is successful. We also send offenders to learn new skills so they are more employable when they finish their sentence.”

Karl says ARC has also offered agency placements for individual offenders. “The latest one is getting one of offenders to build a huge macrocarpa bench seat, which will be used as alookout for the Kitekite falls. We have had some amazing feedback from the offenders when they see how many people use the tracks and the areas they have worked on.”

Other satisfying projects saw offenders cutting firewood from pine trees, which have become a noxious weed in the scenic area. The wood was distributed to local elderly residents in time for winter. Andy says more unwanted trees will be recycled in the same way this year.

At Arataki, a bush camp hosting thousands of school children each year, offenders were assigned the task of splitting firewood into kindling-sized pieces – all by axe and tomahawk. Andy says it’s a job no regular contractor would take on because of the labour involved.

Offenders also shifted 200 tonnes of metal on the Kitekite track, walked by 30,000 people each year, and maintained Lion Rock track – the most-used track in the Waitakere area with around 100,000 visitors.