Mokorua Bush & Ohope Scenic Reserves

Thursday 6^th February 2020

I left the house a little after 6 to drive into Whakatane, as I desperately needed groceries, but thought I could make a morning of it by walking some of the Nga Tapuwae oToi Walkway.  I had walked the Kohi Point section of this walkway 16 days ago (read that post here), so today I thought I would tackle the overland walk from Whakatane to Ohope, that consisted of both the Mokorua Bush Scenic Reserve and the Ohope Scenic Reserve (the latter consisting mostly of the Fairbrother Loop).

I had decided to park at the bottom of White Horse Drive, which was a road perpendicular to the top end of Gorge Road.  Originally my plan had been to walk over to Ohope, along the beach, then walk the Kohi Point section of the trail again, then come back to the car along Hillcrest Road, but thinking about it overnight and during the drive over I had mostly decided that I would just walk over to Ohope and then back along the same trail.  Needless to say, if I was doing the original plan, parking here made sense, but in hindsight I should have parked at the bottom of Gorge Road, because even though the walk I did was the same length either way, I would have used slightly less petrol by not having to drive up to the top, and started my walk a bit earlier too.

I started out on the trail a bit after 6:30, slightly after sunrise, although with the mostly overcast skies you couldn’t tell.  I was carrying my walking sticks (trekking poles) that my sister, Jac, had given me as a gift a couple of years back; they are the kind that require you to unscrew sections in order to extend them, and try as I might, as I walked, I just couldn’t get them unscrewed today.  I finally gave up, made the decision to return to the car and leave them behind.  Consequently, I started the trail at around 6:50 (the second time).

Dogs are banned along the entire trail, as it is a conservation area for the protection of the Brown Kiwi.  One sign mentioned an instant fine of $300, which I thought a little light considering the endangered status of said bird.  The first 10 minutes or so of the trail ascended through native bush along a dirt track that had been eroded significantly over time.  At the top, the trail then crossed private access land, which I thought was a privately-owned farm, but the land did not look like it could support livestock or crops.   

Just ahead, though, was what could have been forestry, as there was a large group of pines, and shortly after there were piles of old cut-up trunks.

Passing a pond of stagnant water, the trail re-entered native bush for a while, following a small creek.  Checking my photos afterwards when back home, I found some of them a little blurry, which could be accounted for by the lack of light and the aperture remaining open longer than usual.

I crossed what seemed to be someone’s driveway (the kind that is kilometres long and winds through the bush), before descending down to Burma Road, the dividing line between the two Scenic Reserves.

I entered the Ohope Scenic Reserve and began another ascent.  When I reached a ridge track, I heard the distinctive rustle of a wood pigeon’s wings as it rose from the trail ahead, but only to a branch about 12 metres up, right over the trail.  I remained still and slowly took the camera to get a shot, then walked very slowly, quietly and carefully under it.  When I realised it was not going to take flight again, I took a slightly better, and closer, shot of it from the other side.

Passing some tree fungus, I continued along the trail.

I came across a bench, with a sign that said this was a great spot to sit and listen to the call of the Kiwi.  The problem was, they are nocturnal, and the best time to hear them was two hours after dark, not an hour or so after sunrise.

I reached the connection with the Fairbrother loop, where there was another bench, a sign, and two older ladies, who had obviously been jogging the trail but were taking a break.  I headed past them, then took the left fork and began descending a series of steps.  Hearing the chatter of said ladies somewhere behind me, I felt a bit competitive and increased my pace.  At one point I rounded a corner and a flightless bird shot off the track and into the undergrowth; it was too fast for me to be sure, but I thought it might have been a Weka.

I reached the bottom fork in the trail, and turned left again to walk the short distance down to Ohope, where I could have headed out to the beach, and headed around the Kohi Point track if I so chose. 

But I turned back to the trail entrance, which had a stone sculpture depicting North Island Brown Kiwi adults and chick, an interesting gateway and numerous signs (one of which showing a map of the whole loop walk and the approximate times, that told me the track I’d walked should have taken me 2 hours; it had taken about an hour and 25 minutes).

I retracted my steps to the first fork and turned left to take in the half of the loop I had not walked yet.  About halfway around this half, there was finally a break in the canopy for me to get a glimpse of the ocean from on high.  This was my first “view” during the entire walk, which is evident by the constant crowding of the native bush along the track.

I turned and headed back the way I came, making slightly better time.  Here are some photos of what the trail looked like, along with a family of bears I walked past.

When I reached the junction where I could head back to the car, I chose to continue on along the track to the bottom of Gorge Road instead.  At this point I assumed the track would take a moderate descent as the bottom of the Gorge was substantially lower than the top, however the track designers had chosen to veer off and up along a ridge-line, creating a long and continual ascent for most of the way before suddenly dropping down along a series of short steps to the car park at the lower end of Gorge Road.

I did not dally for long, but almost immediately turned and headed back up those many steep steps (my knees were complaining at this point) to return (via the trail) to the car.  The whole walk took me a little less than 4 hours, a total of just over 16kms.  Later, I realised the entire loop walk was only 13kms, which would have been a bit shorter.  Should I have done that instead?  Well, there’s always next time that I need to do a grocery trip.

 

Since this day I have in fact walked the whole loop (twice so far) and it is closer to 16km and takes about 4 hours.