14 July

The scheduled trip was to Mackintosh Hut but the forecasted weather there was not good, whereas they were predicting sunshine in the Manawatu Gorge so there was unanimous agreement that the Gorge was the better option.

We left Pukahu at 7 AM and traveled south through Woodville to the Ballance carpark where we dropped 6 members off before the remaining 5 drove down to Ferry Reserve to start their walk.  The weather was cool but fine, the track was not too wet and slippery  and as usual the bush was lush.

 The two groups met up again near the first look-out down into the gorge and together we made our way westwards stopping at each view point on the way.  There are some magnificent specimens on this track; Pukatea with amazing buttresses,  an enormous Rata and a proliferation of Nikau and Parataniwha.  We met many others walking the track, some of whom were planning to return via the old Manawatu Gorge Road.

Lunch was had at the top of the Tawa Loop track, where the large 6 metre tall metal sculpture of the Rangitane chief, Whatonga, stands.  It was then decided that we should carry on down the Tawa Track and inspect the progress of the new Parahaki bridge at the western end of the gorge.    Two years ago we had viewed the access bridge that was built to facilitate the building of the new bridge. Now there are three sections of the bridge towering over the access bridge with a sizeable gap between each section.   (A July 2024 flyover of this bridge can be viewed at https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/te-ahu-a-turanga/).

We then decided to do what many other people were doing, which was to walk back to our van via the old Manawatu Gorge Road.  We all found this very interesting,  being able to really view things we had zoomed past in cars 10 years ago.  In settled weather the walk along the road is far safer than many places we walk up in the ranges and the sooner they legalize walking access there the better.  Nature is slowly  starting to take over this man made environment with plants emerging from the tarseal, mosses growing on the tarseal and slips across the road enabling many plants to grow.

We were back at the van by about 2:45 and Sean’s GPS  recorded that the tramp from Ballance to the western side and back was 17 km long and took 5³/₄ hours.  We welcomed  3 new people out on their first tramp with us; Sean, Emily and Selina – I think  they all enjoyed it.  Thanks Peter and Steve for driving us.

Party: Glenda H, Peter B, Judith M, Emily O, Anne D, Sean C, Stephen B, Selina C, Robyn W, Susan L and  Murry A.