Little known NZ mountain trail offers big views

Geoff Chapple in bush on the slopes of Tamahunga. Picture / Miriam Beatson

No one makes much of a fuss about Mt Tamahunga, behind Leigh, but a quick scan of my maps suggests it's the highest trampable summit between Auckland and Whangarei.

The mountain is about equidistant between the two cities, and deserves to be better known for its long east coast views to the north and south.

It also marks a pronounced change in landscape. The chalk-white line of Pakiri Beach stretches north, a satisfyingly simple coastal strip that ends with the blue profile of Bream Head, 55km distant.

Southward, there's a comlex but equally satisfying myriad of estuaries, bays, headlands and peninsulas ending at the distant smudge of Auckland 65km away.

The carved macrocarpa sign at the Rodney Rd trail head names the track to Tamahunga's summit Te Hikoi O Te Kiri - the walk of Te Kiri.

By 1864, the opening battles of the Waikato campaign had been fought, and Maori prisoners from Rangiriri were transferred to Kawau Island.

Ngati Wai warriors under Te Kiri crossed to the island in a scow, sprang the Waikato men, and dashed to Te Kiri's pa near the Tamahunga summit. It remained a stronghold throughout the land wars.

Now, as you gaze to the summit, there's a weather radar station on top, looking like a big golf ball ready for whacking off the tee.

We set off under the shade of macrocarpa and pine trees, on to farmland. The land dropped away to a wonderful scoop of coastline, but beneath our feet, like that first ominous rivulet of something coming under the door, a developer's road snaked into the hill.

Cheers for the Auckland Regional Authority which recently bought boxer David Tua's property behind Pakiri, then another block, saving at least some of this land.

The Tamahunga track is not a long tramp - 6km from the Rodney Rd-end to Omaha Valley Rd across the summit - but it's moderately hard. If you start at Rodney Rd, then you start high, at 340m, and climb just 100m or so to the 445m summit. But long before the summit, there are downhills that effectively double the climb, and they're descents over crumbling clay, that can send you skidding.

When the track opened in 2001, the steepest of these descents was both slippery and trodden by cattle. Since then a cow-proof fence has gone in beside the track, eliminating the hoof bog. But the fence itself is unsettling. The descent remains steep, you're still prone to skid, and now there's barbed wire level with your throat.

The last kilometre to the summit goes through shady bush, and is a pleasure. According to a local story there's a cave around here where American soldiers, on war exercises during World War II, carved their names.

I've never found it despite several visits to the mountain, and it's unwise to stray far from the track. Like any mountain, Tamahunga has drop-offs and kiekie plant complications everywhere.

Just before the summit the track-builders chipped out footholds in the rock, and there's a lookout just above with stupendous views north.

Make the most of that, because the summit itself has put up the shutters.

There's a trig, a chopper landing pad, and the lazy buzz of the odd blowfly, but even if you climb the trig you still can't see out. You'll look in vain too for the weather radar station; it's well off the track, on one of the sub-summits.

Nice though to lie on your back here and watch the swallows dart about, picking off, we hope, the blowflies.

South of the summit there's another good viewpoint, and the bush is more open - goats at work.

At one point you can miss the path, we did, so always keep the orange triangles in view.

The descent is sometimes steep with carpets of dry taraire and karaka leaves making it slippery underfoot, but on the whole it's well-marked and a great downhill glide.

Birds sing here. We heard kingfisher, warbler, tui, and fantail and the swish of wings as keruru flew about, feeding on nikau fruit.

There are nikau all about, and they've just recently shed that paper bag-like casing off the fruit clusters.

I stared long and hard at these, having lately learned that New Zealand bushmen, bereft of a billy, but wanting that cuppa, boiled water in these casings.

Finally the track jumps a bushline fence and crosses a private farm to the carpark on Omaha Valley Rd.

The track is part of Te Araroa, the New Zealand-long walking track under slow construction, and the organisation behind it has always been proud of its very stout stiles, but the construction gang on this section obviously slipped up. Two of the stiles are wobbly, and need fixing.

This is a great day walk, and if you want to extend it from a three-hour to a four- or four-and-a-half-hour walk then you can start at Bathgate Rd, at Pakiri, rather than Rodney Rd.

A warning if you do: the 2km Bathgate Rd-Rodney Rd section of the track is not as popular and not well tramped in, so while you're doing a steepish climb - 300m within 2km - you're also getting dragged by kikuyu and other long grasses.

If you do this section though, you'll have the reward of that gradually unfolding view.


Transport
The Tamahunga Trail is not a loop track, and unless you make special travel arrangements, or are prepared to hitchhike out, you'll need two cars. Leave one vehicle at the carpark on Omaha Valley Rd, and travel via Leigh, to the Rodney Rd end in the other vehicle. Or you can take one car and simply walk to the summit from Rodney Rd and back again, a 6km tramp.

Getting there
If you do have two cars, take State Highway 1 to Warkworth then turn on to the Leigh Rd. Omaha Valley Rd is about 4km past the Matakana township, on the left, and the first carpark is 1km down Omaha Valley Rd.
Take the second car to Leigh. Turn on to the Pakiri Rd at Leigh, go 3km to the top of Pakiri Hill, turn left down Rodney Rd, park at the road end and follow the signs.
If starting the trail from Pakiri, go past Rodney Rd to the crossroads at Pakiri and turn left into Bathgate Rd. The road is not signposted, but it is the short one that turns inland at the crossroads. Park on the roadside verge, not the road end.

Gear
Boots or good walking shoes, warm clothes, a torch and whistle, sunblock and a hat. Pack food and water.

General
The tramp is year-round, but best done in summer and autumn. The track is BCA (tramping) standard and slippery in wet weather. If tramping alone, advise a friend of your plans. Map (not necessary, but handy) LINZ 260-R09.