Ridge Rd Track

page 5

I still haven't identified these small whipcord plants? They are sufficiently common that I need to know their names. They look a little, at first, like the gleichenia ferns, or more likely, one of the lycopodiums, but I can't so far put a firm name on them.

This one is superficially similar but once you start looking there are a number of differences.

The map shows, somewhere along here on the left, a small black square, which indicates a building of some kind. And here's an unsigned small track leading off to the left.

Yes! And very comfortable looking, too. This could be a useful overnight or weekend base for a series of trips down RGB, Simla and Chateau Mosquito tracks

Let's have a closer look.

Hmmm. I pass the letter box. Up the steps onto the deck.

This has got to be the Auckland University Tramping Club hut. It's got student written all over it. Literally, as I discover a moment later.

Courtesy of Auckland University Tramping Club website:

The Tramping Club Hut in the Waitakeres is over 60 years old, and it is the oldest hut in the Waitakere ranges. Its name is Ongaruanuku which means 'place of the learned people' in Maori.

It was first built as a timber camp cook house. It was then renovated by the Tramping club in 1944, and officially opened on August the 27th in 1944. Before many people had private cars, catching the train out to Swanson and walking in to the Hut to stay for the night was the classic tramping club weekend trip.

The Hut has had many interesting visitors over the years, including Sir Edmund Hillary, who came out for the first Hut Birthday party in 1945.

The Hut contains historical tramping club memorabilia and is maintained by its members.

It is also surrounded by the Ark in the Park conservation area, where rare birds and animals have been reintroduced into this section of the ranges. Tramping club members are involved in some of the Ark in the park volunteer work.

If you would like to stay in AUTC hut, a prior booking is required. To book, please ring Auckland Regional Council Parklines Ph:3662000 option 2. Staying is free for AUTC members and a charge for the public. Adults: $5 & Children: $3 per night.

At the moment, they are trying to raise funds to build an environmentally friendly composting toilet for the Hut. This will cost $3000. If you would like to donate towards this project, send to: AUTC c/- AUSA, Private Bag 92019, Auckland.

I have a quick recce, look at the time and decide to push on to Simla, and stop by again on the way back for lunch

The clasy surface along here seems something harder, and there are small outcrops in the clay.

Not far along is the junction with R.G.B. Track, another "Experienced Trampers Only" one, as is Simla Track a little further on.

It's a bit of a plod along here. For one it's largely uphill, and for two, I maybe should have stopped for a bite to eat back at the hut. A small bell goes "ding" in my head, I reach into the camera bag for the water bottle and all is well. I wonder how often in real life - as opposed to tramping - we eat when what we really want is a drink of water.

This small-blue-flowered member of the iris family grows wild on clay banks around Helensville, and illumines many a shady spot in Woodhill Forest in spring. Here it is growing thickly beside the path. I can't give it a name. But it's a beautiful weed.

Now I'm not walking through that lot.

Alice reckons we should have stopped for a feed, too, but she's been drinking from all the puddles and she still looks miserable.

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Track Reports

Annotated ARC
Brief Track Notes: WAITAKERE RANGES

NORTH ISLAND

SOUTH ISLAND

In the Steps of Jack Leigh

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Fitness Building for the Elderly and Stout

Food for Tramping

General Advice:
Specifically oriented to the Heaphy Track but relevant to other long walks for beginners and older walkers

New Zealand Plants
(an ongoing project)

Links to Tramping Resource Websites

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