Whirinaki Forest Park, Wednesday 22 November 2023
Banner Photo: Whio in the Whirinaki River (Julian’s photo)
A team of 14 in four 4WDs set out at 7am in drizzly conditions, with high hopes of better weather for the always popular ‘Whirinaki Thru Tramp’. This is the Plateau Road start through to the River Road end, a distance just short of 27km.
Turning off SH5 and initially very overgrown, the road was actually not too bad; just the usual potholes and ruts to avoid and several fords that were not deep. But it still takes around 2.5hrs to drive in.
The canopy of Whirinaki Forest
On arrival, the clouds were parting, the sun broke out, and wind… what wind? So conditions were ideal for the tramp. Alison, Marie, Kelvin and Tony kindly drove the cars around to River Road, intending to walk in to maybe meet us, or go as far as they wanted for the day.
Immediately, we ten were immersed in the fabulous, dense podocarp and beech forest and abundant birdsong that makes this place such a delight to be in. And considering that due to this year’s weather events meaning probably few trampers this year, track conditions were overall very good. Later on there were a few windfalls and gully slips, but any major trees over the track had been conveniently chainsawed.
Heading in this direction also means the trend is gently downhill, in fact from 943m asl down to 421m asl at River Road; a piece of cake!
Some stopped for a squint at the cave, the dracophyllums (also known as Dr Seuss trees) were noted along with some small groves of Black Maire saplings, a somewhat rare native hardwood, and several flowering clematis.
A little before the first lunch stop at Central Whirinaki Hut at noon (10km in), we enjoyed sighting a pair of resting whio down below on rocks in the river. Julian got the best shots on his superior camera. And another pair of whio were spotted a little way before the second lunch stop at Vern’s Camp, a further 8km along.
At Vern’s Camp Shelter
Among the numerous birds spotted, quite a few long-tailed cuckoos were heard and there were several sightings of kaka flying overhead, distinctive by their loud, raspy calls.
Whirinaki River waterfall
After Vern’s Camp, feet were getting tired, but there were no complaints as we all diverted to view the impressive waterfall and later on the also impressive Whaiti-Nui-A-Toi canyon section.
But none of our drivers were encountered. Then finally, after the final 9km stretch and the hugging of a few big trees by a certain someone, we were almost done. Suddenly, a group of about ten blokes on mountain bikes came through behind us, having done the official mountain bike route. They were a group from Christchurch up for a ‘boys only’ week, and good guys too.
The leaf of Black Maire
We were back at the car park after around seven hours total, pretty good for the distance covered. A very enjoyable tramp, plenty of friendly banter and great weather; you can’t ask for much more!
Then the tiring three-hour drive back, meaning we reached Napier around 8pm. Everyone had had a great day, and thanks to Alison for excellent organisation and arranging the good weather too!
Trampers: Keith Gore, Shona Tupe, Julian Phillips, Su Nugent, Marie Deroles, Juliet Gillick, Colin Jones, Elly Govers, Gerard van de Ven, Bryan Powlesland, Alison Greer, Kelvin Shaw, Tony Pluymers and reporter John Dobbs
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