It was rather overcast when we set out from the carpark of Whareroa Farm. We followed the Farm Race up to the caravan where the toilets are now located. From here my intention was to climb the 5-ways track straight up to the lookout. Instead, we had a wee adventure, where I made a wrong turn up the Intake Valley track. This meandered along a stream a wee way when we came across a WWII remains from Camp Mackay. I realised we were heading in the wrong direction about here, especially when I saw a sign saying steep incline. We retraced our steps and found the correct track. This was a 1.2km uphill walk and a bit of a workout. View point reached, we had a break and admired the views where even the South Island was showing itself. It started getting a bit chilly so we descended the 3.8km Link Track. We then had another adventure with me going off piste again and trying to take us back uphill via the horse track. After 3 stream crossing and a narrowing valley, I asked Mark, who showed me the sea was in the opposite direction. Woops! Back through the streams we went and came back out on our Link Track which took us up to the Forest Loop walk which we followed to the Coastal Lookout. We didn’t stop here too long as the wind had got up and it was quite cold. From here it was a quick descent via the Coastal Lookout walk back to our cars. Most of the group drove into Paekakariki for a cup of coffee at the pub before heading home.

The walk took 2.5 hours and we walk just over 8kms. It was a great workout.

Lead - Judith O’Leary

Walkers: Denise, Christine, Sharon, Telas, Trish, Anne-Mette, Mark and Helena