April 2023 News

AGM 4th May 2023

The Napier Tramping Club AGM
4th May at 7.30pm

Venue – our usual Cricket Ground Club rooms.

We’ll have our regular meeting after the AGM which will be brief. A shared supper will be served after the meeting.

Please come and support your club especially as some members are severely affected and trips are all a bit tricky at present.

I hope to see you there.
Di Reid

Wilding Pine Update

Giles, Di and I had a fruitful day up at The Lakes on Tuesday 11 April. To our surprise we found 960 in about 4 hours (see pic of example typical extraction roots and all). These were along the eastern roadside and in the scrub/bush on the eastern ridgeline just above the smaller lake. I also managed to poison a few bigger ones too – it’s a long while since the brace and bit has seen so much action! Great to see the hollows are still largely pine-free – it wasn’t so long ago this was starting to disappear under the green pine weed (see pic below).

The cyclone has caused some real damage up there – indeed the access route has no culvert left and the PanPac access has been moved to just before the public car park where the deep culvert had been dug to block the road about 200m before. The meadow in front of Robson’s Lodge has been significantly scoured out too….loads of slips on the left of the road up towards Kohinga too.

Reports also that the track to Macintosh is significantly damaged – though accessible with care.

Our next days are Tuesday 9th May and Tuesday 11th July. I’ll email round shortly before to sort numbers and logistics. Weekend dates to come.

Regards
Graham Leech

Tramp List Amendments and Road Closures

Due to the inability to access most of the Ruahine Forest Park and the Kaweka Forest Park, the club is arranging local walks in environs of Napier and Hastings. Go to the tramp registration system for updates.

A post on the Ruahine User Group Facebook on 6 March advises:

Cyclone Gabrielle update from DOC: Good news. Aerial spot checks of huts and structures in the Ruahine Forest Park this week showed no further major damage (other than that reported earlier on Leon Kinvig hut, No Mans Road and Kashmir Road).

Slips were seen on tracks near Ngamoko, Leon Kinvig, Smiths Stream and Hinerua huts.

This means that the Ruahine Forest Park is OPEN. Storm damage is likely so extra caution is required. It would be very helpful if any damage can be reported to manawatu@doc.govt.nz, ideally with photos and GPS.

A number of council roads accessing the forest park are closed, plan accordingly.

NB: Update on Kashmir Road. This is located just before Daphne Road. The contractor is waiting for confirmation that Mill Road is safe for machinery before clearing the slip.

On 9 March: Access to Daphne car park (off Kashmir Road) is now open. Kashmir Road is closed past this point due to further slips, which are yet to be cleared.

On 11 March: Update from DOC, track closures: The tracks between Alice Nash Heritage Lodge and Iron Gate Hut and Iron Gate Hut to Triangle Hut are closed due to large unstable slips. The DOC website will be updated shortly. Signage has been put up at nearby sites.

Click below for the links to local road closures:

Central Hawke’s Bay

Hastings District Council’s area

The Aotearoa Species Classifier App

At a recent club meeting, Di Reid mentioned a new app which identifies plants, animals and birds in New Zealand. But when trying to search and download it, many club members had no success. It turns out that this is because it only works for iPhones and iPads at present – but there is an Android version coming out later this year.

For more information on the app, click here.