Huia: Big adventure, little time

Take a dip in the stream. Photo / ARC

"Mummy, I want to go bush camping with you."

This is what fathers are for, I think to myself. But a week later, with two backpacks stuffed with equipment, my daughter Maia and I head for Huia, a West Auckland region at the mouth of the Manukau Harbour.

In my mind it is too obscenely close to Auckland to feel that I'm on holiday. But for one night in the bush it isn't worth driving for hours.

After some head-scratching about where to go, I call the Arataki Visitor Centre on Titirangi's Scenic Drive, and find the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) maintains many small campsites in the bush there.

The helpful staff member figures out which campsite best suits our needs, which is to be "in the bush" and not more than 15 minutes' walk from the road.

Karamatura, at Little Huia, is the pick. Our camping fees of $13 are paid by credit card over the phone, and next morning we are off. We arrive at our destination just 45 minutes after leaving the North Shore.

The campsite is five minutes' walk from Huia Rd and exactly what we are looking for - a grassy cleared area surrounded by a stream and bush. The only "luxury" is a composting toilet.

The only source of water is a clear, clean to the eye and crisp stream that gurgles its way over the rocks into a 1.5m deep water hole.

Logical or otherwise, the paranoid corner of my brain fears that we might meet some sort of axe murderer while on our own in the bush. Or, at the very least, our car will be broken into overnight by a marauding bogan.

To my relief, the Karamatura car park is gated and locked at 8.30pm every night.

So, with the campsite to ourselves, we pitch our tent on the stream bank shortly before nightfall, cook our somewhat indulgent dinner of fresh pasta and wash it down with freshly squeezed orange juice.

Despite my misgivings, we fall soundly asleep and awake the next morning to the sound of birds.

The bird life at Karamatura is reasonably plentiful and two magpies are hanging around, with an especially colourful pair of exotic birds, tui and native wood pigeons. Mosquitoes are also more than plentiful.

As it turns out, the only thing with criminal tendencies we come across is a duck - it is quickly nicknamed "quack" and, having found us as soon as we arrive, it rarely leaves our sides.

Quack has a penchant for Signature Range fettuccini and buries her beak in our billy more than once when she thinks we aren't looking.

We discover other wildlife with a taste for human food when my daughter, unbeknown to me, rinses the bacon pan in the stream the next morning.

Within minutes, six hungry eels, enticed by the bacon aroma, slither their way over rocks to check out the pan. Feeding them left-over scraps from breakfast turns out to be one of the trip's highlights.

After packing up, we set off on the Karamatura Loop Walk - a well-looked-after gravelled track that follows the stream, climbs up to a ridge, and drops back down into the valley. Taking just a little more than an hour, it's an ideal hike for a smallish child.

Our camping excursion may be over but it's soon apparent there's more to do in Huia. Immediately across the road from the trail end is Huia Settlers Museum, open Sunday afternoons from 1.30 to 4pm, or by arrangement. This is a great place to learn about the lives of the early European settlers, who arrived to log kauri in the Waitakere Ranges.

Outside, we follow the Hinge Bay Walk interpretative signs, discovering this area was once a hive of activity in the late 19th century, when kauri was milled there and sent by scow to Onehunga.

The half-hour round trip to the old remains of the Manukau Timber Company Mill is relatively flat and good for the not-so-fit, or small people whose favourite saying is: "are we there yet?"

We plan to end the trip with a caffeine boost at one of Titirangi's cafes.

Instead, we chance upon the 122-year-old Huia Store, which serves fish, chips and burgers to day-trippers and - despite looking little different from how I remember it in the 1970s - now sports an espresso machine.

A leisurely latte and fluffy is the perfect end to our weekend's "adventure".