Group met to carpool at 9.15am at Silverstream Rail carpark; 40mins travel time we arrived at the Catchpool Valley Road end car park located 12km south of Wainuiomata on the Coast Road.

The Orongorongo Track is an easy well formed 9km return trip suitable for families with young children. Dogs allowed but must remain on their leads. The track passes through superb groves of mature hard beech forest in the lower reaches of Graces Stream. Toilets are located in the Catchpool Valley Road car park and at the mid-way lunch stop where the track meets the river.

We set off at 10am in light rain. With a 10 min. stop enroute for morning tea by 11.30am we were at the detour around the slip that had taken out the path down to the river. Two of our number decided to avoid the steep track down to the river and had a scenic lunch stop while the rest scrambled down to the Orongorongo river for lunch.  An 800m deviation on the return trip along the Catchpool Loop Track took us back to the cars. 

Despite having walked the Orongorongo Track several times before we all enjoyed the vegetation and excellent company of our fellow members on Sunday.

Trip Leaders - Mark & Helen

Walkers - Nichole, Peter, Denise, Paul, Trish, Andrea, Brenda, and Delphine.