Napier Tramping Club

based in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

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What better day to watch a wind farm?

August 5, 2009 by Keith Moretta 1 Comment

Manawatu Gorge (Te Apiti), Saturday August 5 2009

Trampers: Kelvin Shaw, Peter Slagter, Murray White, Graham Bell, Vic Bullock, Ron Morison, John Marshall, Jeanne Van Den Hout, Alison Greer, Ken Ross, Loretta Pearson, Sandy Lamb, Robyn Smith, Danielle Paviour-Smith and Keith Moretta

Heavy snow made the scheduled Kaweka walk inaccessible. Alison’s decision was to change to the lovely bush walk through the Manawatu Gorge. The day was clear, cool, but very windy. As we arrived at Ballance Road car park, Graham and Jeanne had already commenced the walk 10 minutes earlier.

Vic, John Marshall, Alison, Keith, John Gray and Robyn decided to walk in from the North, along the Klein track, while the remainder of the party were driven around to the south end of the track, with Ron returning the vehicle.

It's a well-kept trackThe bush was a wonderful mixture of young and old rimu, matai, with kawakawa, silverfern, nikau, horopito, black tree ferns (mamaku), fuchsia and many more. Most of the track had recently been replaced and re-aligned, with extensive wooden steps through some very steep terrain, which made it easy to walk. Turbines near the track emitted continuous low rumbling sounds as the high winds steadily gusted through the area. After 20 minutes, Alison’s group reached the Gorge track junction, with the Klein track descending back to SH3 in the gorge. Further along from the junction, the Gorge track levelled, with several lookout sites along the ridge. The lookouts gave excellent views over the road and rail through the gorge, while high above the gorge were views of the numerous wind turbines, slowly turning.

Looking out over the gorgeAfter a couple of hours from Ballance Road car park, we met up with the main party travelling north. Alison, Keith, Robyn and Vic continued walking south while the remaining party continued towards the Ballance Road. The main group reached the car park and cafe about 1.00 pm. Then, after a further hour’s walk, Alison’s group turned and headed back to Ballance Road and after a quick stop for lunch at one of the lookouts, we returned to Ballance Road. Alison and Robyn returned to the car park via Klein track, while Keith and Vic, viewed the Totora loop track. This short walk off the Klein track also exited onto Ballance Road, but a little further up from the other car park. Alison’s party arrived at the cafe about 2.00 pm. After some refreshments, we returned to Napier.


It was a lovely day’s walk in good company, some stunning bush, and a well-maintained track.

Filed Under: Recent trips Tagged With: Manawatu Gorge

Comments

  1. sue martin says

    August 29, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    We have just walked the famous Samaria Gorge (18km) in Crete. During the walk we compared the Manawatu one with this. Both very different but both enjoyable. Bet it wasn’t 30-40 deg!

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About us

We are a group of like-minded people who love the great outdoors. We tramp mostly in the Hawke’s Bay province, in remote areas such as the Kaweka and Ruahine Ranges; but we also travel longer distances to new places, for longer walks.

The Napier Tramping Club was established in 1974 and has about 70 members. We belong to the Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ Inc (FMC) and run Saturday, full-weekend and Wednesday tramps, every fortnight.

Interested in joining us?

Enjoy the great outdoors, keep fit and get to know others with similar interests.

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December 2022 News

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