#52 of 100 trips for 100 years - Rongomai/Honeycomb Tracks Circuit 30 April 2023

 

The OTMC has been using the Rongomai Track since the 1950's and the more recent Honeycomb track since 1980. As both of these tracks head from Carey's Creek to Mountain Road, they make an ideal loop and completing the loop was the aim of today's day trip.  We had followed Careys Creek in January and today we started at the end point of that trip, Evansdale Glen.  The Glen is a lovely, grassy picnic area with a couple of walking tracks for those wanting to explore further.  Unfortunately for us, the start of the Carey's Creek walking track is on the other side of the creek and so it was wet feet right at the start for some of the 14 people on the trip.

The first 3-4km is a charming walk along the side of Carey's Creek with views of the slow flowing creek.  There are a couple of creek crossings so those that kept dry feet at the start soon joined those who had wet feet.  Being in the valley, it was cold but the pace was brisk and we started to warm up.  Stopping in the sun by the Rongomai track to regroup, we took this opportunity for a snack and drink stop

We continued along the track beside Carey's Creek, sloshing through the mud and crossing the creek a number of times so that even the few who had managed to keep their feet dry this far, didn't have dry feet by the time we reached the Honeycomb track about 40 minutes past the Rongomai turn off.  There is nothing easy about the Honeycomb Track as it is straight up, using both hands and feet to gain the ridge about 180m above the creek.  Recent rain had made the track slippery in places so we were grateful to be going up as coming down would have been more of a mud slide.  Taking our time, we all reached the ridge where the trees had thinned and we were rewarded with glimpses of the Carey's Creek area.

After another half hour of walking along the ridge we reached the junction of the 'nature walk' which is about a kilometre of sidling around the contour to join up with the Rongomai Track.  As there is a large flat area at the junction we decided that this was a good spot for lunch.  Everyone found a comfortable place to sit and enjoyed chatting while we ate.  After lunch we followed the nature walk which I had never been on and found it a very pleasant alternative to continuing climbing another100m up the Honeycomb Track before joining the Rongomai Track at the top of the ridge.  The nature walk involved a bit more up and down than I realised and included a short but steep down climb into a creek using a rope along with negotiating some tree fall over the track. The nature walk joins the Rongomai track on the edge of the pine planation. 

The next part of the track involves descending 200m down the sharply defined ridge to Careys Creek.  We had been down here before on trip #18 and trip #26 and like those previous trips down this ridge, we made good use of the well placed trees to help slow, an otherwise fast descent to the creek at the bottom.  The final leg of the trip involves retracing our steps along the side of Carey's Creek and back through the creek crossings so if your feet had started to dry out, they were well and truly wet again by the time we reached the car park completing the 12.8km trip over 5.5 hours.  

Black Gully to Evansdale 4 January 2022 (was #3 of 100 trips)

Following Careys Creek from Black Gully to Evansdale was trip #3 of 100 trips in October 2022 and as I had missed the trip (we were on weekend trip #2 of 100 trips) Three of us decided it was time to walk this track that I'd not completed before.  Starting at Double Hill the track initially winds its way through a tunnel of flowering manuka before dropping a knee jarring 100m downhill to Black Gully. The descent is made slightly easier with a number of steps cut into the bank making for a fast descent over a reasonably short distance.  We made the small detour to Black Gully Dam which was built in 1912 along with 17 km of pipeline to give water to the Seacliff Mental Hospital.  The flow to the hospital was gravity fed and not always successful due to the distance and terrain the pipe traversed.  After a fire at the Seacliff Hospital in 1942 with the loss of 37 lives, it was decided that a more reliable form of water supply was needed.

From the dam the track follows the old pipeline, crossing the stream often.  It is easy to see how difficult the terrain  made it to install and maintain the pipeline around 100 years ago.  There are numerous places that the pipeline is broken and these made the walk along the track more interesting.

The first part of the track is very pleasant walking between the moss and ferns beside Careys Creek.  The creek winds its way around slippery rocks and through numerous deep pools that look perfect for a dip in the clear water.  At this time of the year, the Careys Creek track is good for mushroom enthusiasts with a large variety of fungi to see. Not knowing the names of the mushrooms we saw, all I can say is that we saw  small perfectly round marble sized red fungi, large red and white spotted ones, grey frilly ones, large cream coloured ones and round white doughnut shaped ones.  We passed a number of fallen logs spouting whole cities of fungi.

As the track continues down the valley, the track moves from native bush to open grassy meadows and back into the bush with numerous stream crossings interspersed with the odd patch of pine forest.  After the lush greens of the native bush and bright sunshine of the grassy meadows the pine forest is dark and ominous.  It was good to pass through the pine forest quickly and back into the sunshine again.

From about half way the track drops into the creek and continues along the creek bed, crossing from one side to the other.  Keeping dry feet became impossible and it was refreshing as the water filled our boots and helped to cool us down. The track would climb out of the creek bed for a short distance then drop back in again.

 

There were patches of mud to negotiate, however the numerous creek crossings were good to wash the mud off.  In places the pipeline would disappear while in other parts we needed to continually step over it.  The pipeline often sat on top of the rocky ground like a snake, closely following the creek bed while other times it was raised above the ground.    All the time we continued to follow it down the valley.

Once we reached where the Honeycomb track joined the Careys Creek track the going became easier with less creek crossings and less mud.  We stopped for lunch beside the creek.  While enjoying the coolnes of sitting near the creek on a hot day we saw a couple of freshwater lobsters moving about in the clear water.  It is surprising how small the cracks and holes the lobster can disappear into under the water. Feeling replenished from lunch we continued down the track, in and out of the water for another hour until we reached Evansdale.  All up the trip was around 10km and took 4 hours (including stops).