Mauao (Mount Maunganui)

In early August (the day after I walked the Martha Mine Pit Rim Walk) I met up with the tramping club for a 2-part tramp.  The morning consisted of walking up Mauao.  The afternoon was the Papamoa Hills, but I had to bail half-way through the Papamoa Hills because of an appointment, so I didn't think it warranted a post about half of an afternoon walk that I will repeat at some point in the future.  So, if you were desperately waiting for a Papamoa Hills post, I'm sorry to disappoint you (for now).

We collected at around 10 a.m. near the base of the Mount to ensure everyone was present and decide on a plan of attack.  As it was foggy and somewhat raining, half of the group decided to walk the circuit around the base of the Mount.  I chose to join the group heading for the summit.

I was glad that my knee seemed to be back to normal as we climbed the extinct volcano.  At one point a service worker in a ute passed us on the trail, but then we veered off on a footpath away from the "road" track.

A bit further on another worker was on the trail with some orange cones.  He was constantly looking up.  Later I realised that he was probably looking for falling rubble as his co-workers were checking some stability issues near the top.

The views were non-existent, with the low cloud obscuring them.  The way up was somewhat steep, aided by numerous wooden steps.

Closer to the top was a diversion to a lookout.  A few of us headed out to look, but the view beyond the growth along the lookout edge was of misty whiteness.

At the summit there was a clearing with a concrete trig and a wooden one.  Mist surrounded the clearing.  You wouldn't know we were at the top of a mountain, albeit a small one (at 232m above sea level).

As we made our way back down the views started to open up a little.

We chose a steep, unmarked (on the map) path down to the base circuit walk.  Some interesting formations on a rock cliff caused a pause.  To be honest, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking at.

Once arriving at the path that goes around the base of Mauao, we wandered along that back to the starting point.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the club travelled to the Papamoa Hills for an afternoon tramp.  I joined them for about an hour and a half there before heading to an appointment I had.  I will return to the Papamoa Hills at a future date then do a post that does it more complete justice than I can at present.