Outdoors: A well-tended patch

By COLIN MOORE

On a map, the Mataitai Forest Conservation Area appears like a forgotten corner at the northern tip of the Hunua Ranges, east of Auckland.

The pocket of regenerating native forest off Ness Valley Rd, near Clevedon, is a remnant of a former state forest, now administered by the Department of Conservation in an otherwise green sea of Auckland Regional Parks land and water catchment area.

But the Mataitai block of no more than a few hundred hectares is possibly one of the more loved portions of an extensive outdoor recreation area that is sadly often ignored by Aucklanders.

You can thank the Manukau Tramping Club for the TLC the Mataitai gets.

Turn the clock back to 1976 when the National Council for Sport and Recreation was urging people to join a club - except there was no tramping club in the Papakura area. So a few trampers called a public meeting, and formed a club. Eighty-nine people joined its first trip to the Wairoa Gorge in the Hunuas.

Club members have tramped much further afield since then, but in the spirit of the club's foundation their own patch comes first.

Over the years club members have pored over maps and picked the brains of park rangers and landowners to find tramping terrain and off-the-beaten-track experiences not too far from home.

The Hunua Ranges and the "Seabird Coast" on the Firth of Thames are becoming increasingly important to recreation and tourism in a burgeoning metropolis and among travellers looking for an experience slightly out of the mainstream.

The Pacific Coast Highway from Auckland to Gisborne traverses the region and many of those FITs (free independent travellers) in their rental motor homes are turning east long before they reach the end of the Southern Motorway.

I am here on a Saturday morning with a group from the Alpine Sports Club who have come to enjoy the fruit of the labours of their tramping comrades from South Auckland.

Early on in their search for places to visit, the Manukau trampers explored the Mataitai Forest block. They spoke to the owners of adjoining farms, researched the kauri logging history of the area, got shown old logging roads and large kauri the loggers left behind. They also got permission to tramp over neighbouring farms and some areas of private forest that are now incorporated in the Mataitai conservation area.

And, as a department sign at the Ness Valley Rd entrance to the forest acknowledges, the Manukau trampers adopted the area, constructed and marked tracks, and continue to maintain them.

Our planned exploration is a relatively modest effort of a few hours, using less than half of the club's marked tracks.

The club uses different-coloured markers on the trails so it is not too difficult to plan a route and follow it. Our plan is a rough circle - though not the largest loop possible - that will bring us back to the carpark.

The trail starts at a bridge over the Aroaro Stream and then climbs steeply on to a ridge, which we follow to the west. The block incorporates three ridge-and-valley systems, so any loop of it involves steep up and steep down. Of course, that is usually the way in the New Zealand bush, and more so in a tightly crumpled range such as the Hunuas.

The trail is fairly clearly marked and our trip leader has provided us all with a hand-drawn map of the club's track system.

Nonetheless, there are several track junctions, and a topographical map and compass are still essential equipment to ensure we follow our planned route. This country may have been unmercifully logged for its big trees but it is regenerating thickly and could easily confuse the foolish or unwary.

The bush is hugely varied. There are stands of kauri rickers growing as densely as a punnet of bean shoots, some ancient puriri whose blossoms litter the forest floor and are possibly a lure for the tui we hear and in the stream grottos there are thick plantations of ancient nikau palms.

On the northernmost ridge we get a panoramic view across farmland to Duders Regional Park, the Hauraki Gulf and Waiheke Island.

We are back at the cars in about four hours, lunch stop included, with much left to explore on another day.

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz