Whatipu

For 6.5 hours we were estranged from the hum drum of life. Our landscape tranformed every hour or two from Xena country > Golums swamp > to the beach.

I couldn’t leave this country before ‘getting back to nature’ and soaking up some of the rugged beauty of the Waitakere Ranges. An hour from central Auckland, Whatipu sits on the mouth of the Manukau Harbour overlooking South Head. Trean an I set out from Whatipu Lodge just after 10am. The first part of the climb took us straight up the cliffs of Gibbons track, looking out over the expanse we were to cover. Trean had dislocated her shoulder a week earlier so I played pack horse. We moved quite briskly, but stopped for some healthy chocolate breaks. I also took a bare plunge into the stream near the mouth of the Pararaha Valley.

If you’re interested in doing this tramp and others stop into the Arataki Visitor Centre first and pick up a map of tramps in the Waitaks. Starting this loop from Whatipu lodge do the Gibbons track first and come back along the beach. Finding the track off the beach is difficult. Also, when coming out of the Pararaha Valley walk straight out to the water - don’t try to cut accross the swamp. You’ll see why. See my Photolog for pics.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 7th, 2004 at 12:38 am and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.