This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, no 4, May 2024
Paraparaumu Scenic Reserve
3 April 2024
The reserve is not often visited by the club. There are no official DoC tracks but the area is crisscrossed by traplines that make for interesting trips although some of the traplines are steep and slippery. On a recce for the Wednesday medium trip, Chris and I discovered Colin Cook and Bill Allcock off on an investigation of an apparent topographical anomaly. The finding of our recce was that one trapline was bordering on scary. Not only was it steep, it was covered by very dry leaf litter that drew a comparison with ball bearings. For the club trip, it was replaced by an alternative but unexplored trapline.
On a fine, warm day six club members met at the reserve car park where we left a car and drove the very short distance up to the pylon track off Anlaby Road. To our relief, the track had been cleared of gorse and blackberry. We soon turned off onto a trapline that wound its way down to the Muaupoko Stream.
After morning tea in the valley we took off up C2 that brought us out onto the ridge that leads to the Papakirae trig and a magnificent view of the Kapiti coast. After appropriate admiration, we backtracked to trap 22 and picked up the line to point 316. From here we descended on the unexplored trapline (D4?) that we hoped would be less treacherous. It was straightforward travel until just above the side stream when it reverted to the usual steep and slippery format but fortunately only briefly.
We found a reasonably comfortable spot beside the stream for lunch before we headed uphill on a very steep line that required a full body workout. Once on the crest of the spur, it was a straightforward climb back up to the main ridge. From here we walked to the end of the ridge and a fiddly descent through regrowth onto old pasture and back to the carpark.
All up it was only a 5 hour 10 minute day. The reserve is not a large area of land but it yields plenty of variety and requires considerable effort.
- Party members
- Peggy Munn (leader and scribe), Leonore Hoke, Chris Munn, Pip Newton, Marg Pearce, Mike Wespel-Rose.