This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, No.1, February 2022
Korokoro Knobs E/M
Wednesday 5 January 2022
A word or two must be said to accompany the cartoon, which appeared within about three hours of the end of the trip! Always intended to be very short (it was supposed to rain), this trip was stretched out to fill a few hours by a lengthy morning tea, lunch and pauses for any reason at all. Setting out from Percy Reserve carpark, our first pause was to see cave wetas in the short cave by the duck pond. Alas, there were none.
And the Waterfall Track. Oh dear, the last flood or two has gouged out the bottom foothold of this track, causing the shortest members to make some undignified manoeuvres. The next pause of note was beside one of the two piles of rocks on the Kohekohe Track, which always create discussion. At the top of the track, we noted that anyone hoping to read the signpost at this junction with two other tracks has long been out of luck, with the only attached bit indicating the track just used. We, of course, knew where we were going - out to Acacia Avenue, Protea Street, Karearea Lane and Camels Hump for morning tea. Stops followed on Puketirotiro Knob and Sugarloaf before a leisurely amble down O’Donahoos Track to lunch in the Te Whiti Grove Playground, the site of the original Galbraith homestead.
Low water levels enabled a pleasant journey through Galbraiths Gully, pauses being taken to discuss items of human endeavours that inevitably partner the natural bush in these places. Indeed, the gully was luckily saved from becoming a rubbish tip in 1972 thanks to the actions of locals insisting that the area be vested as a Scenic Reserve. Several bends were given new and amusing temporary names by members before we climbed out where the bush track from Singers Road crosses over the stream and continues above the stream (piped at that point) the short distance to the U bend in Korokoro Road.
To break the walk alongside State Highway 2 back to Percy Reserve, a visit was made to the site of Ratanui, a large homestead owned for a period by James Hector, New Zealand’s first ‘government scientist’ and a renowned geologist. A short bush track took us into the main Reserve again, by the duck pond.
- Party members
- Diana Barnes, Alan Benge, Michele Dickson (leader and scribe), Julia Fraser, Dianne Kerse, Fiona McKinney, Jeanette Martin, Chris Paice, Annie Van Herck, Karol Wojasz