27 March 31, 2022
There was a 1 in 50 year flood in Central Hawkes Bay with many road closures and SH 2 and SH 5 north of Napier also had flooding and road closures so rather than cancel a day out we choose to go up the Taihape Road and visit Forest and Bird’s Blowhard Bush. This meant our party of 8 was able to have a late, 9 AM, start from Pukahu.
There was very little evidence of storm damage on the Napier Taihape Road and we arrived at the Forest and Bird shelter just after 10. We started off heading anticlockwise on the Tui Track but after a short distance Peter lead us off this track to follow one of F&Bs trap lines which took us up to the road along the top of the reserve just inside the eastern and northern boundaries of the reserve .
Initially there were interesting rock formations to pass under and through then we descended down to the main stream, crossed it and climbed up to the fire-break on the northern boundary. We followed this fire-break until we met the top road just short of the view point. There was not much to see at the view point apart from mist so we dropped down to Lowry Lodge for a dry space to have our lunch.
After lunch we carried on down the Tui Track, detourring through the Rewa loop where most left Peter and Marie scavenging for seeds. Our final section was a walk along the Troglodyte Track and more rock formations – the stream was flowing clear but definitely higher than usual.
We were all back at the shelter by 2 PM and back into town just after 3 PM
Party: Peter B, Nat B, Susan L, Anne D, Daniel H, Marie T, Kevin T, Glenda H