This article was published in Tararua Tramper, September 2025
Kaitawa Scenic Reserve - East Section
Wednesday 23 July
The Kaitawa Scenic Reserve east of Waikanae has two sections. The Reserve is formally untracked, but remnant logging tracks that pre-date the gazetting of the reserve provide reasonably comfortable access through parts of the eastern section. The prime intention for this day was to determine the extent of an overgrown fenced enclosure that I had fleetingly encountered on a previous trip.
A hard frost greeted me at the South Mangaone Road end. The white grass crunched underfoot and the frozen vegetation encroaching over the first section of the Pukeatua Track brushed crisply against my jacket.
At the first stream crossing on that track I headed up the watercourse. The water level was low enough so that, with due care, I was able to keep my feet dry by rock hopping when stream crossing was required. A few hundred metres upstream there is access to a logging-era bulldozed track which can be followed (with a few interruptions) to the abandoned bulldozer [refer Tararua Tramper April 2025].
As can be seen from the trace, for the next phase of my day I followed a comfortably graded remnant logging road almost due north, then did a sharp turn to the south and then south east, to be confronted by a fence gate 1.8 metres high. I followed the scraggly-positioned fence to satisfy my curiosity regarding the extent of the irregularly shaped enclosure. The longest side (west) is about 50 metres in length.
Who? Why? How? are unknowns about the enclosure. Initial speculation is that it was a deer trap / enclosure.
Travel back to the car began by following the logging road back to the significant south turning. At that point I made a decision to take a direct line of travel in a NW direction down an indistinct spur to a significant stream forks. A poor decision! That spur is a god-forsaken bit of territory with entanglements of supplejack and kiekie, and steep sections covered with loose rubble and rocks – a never-to-be-revisited line of travel.
From the forks, travel to the road end was straightforward. Sadly for my outer layer, the morning's frozen vegetation had thawed and it was thoroughly soaked by the trip's end. Such is one reality of winter tramping.
This trip makes a comfortable 'adventurous' medium-grade day trip. Bill Allcock