A back yard walk – Sunday 11 September 2016

Eleven members and two visitors met near the Brook Visitor Centre just before 9am on a calm sunny morning. We all headed through the new gate in the animal exclusion fence behind the centre and walked up the valley floor to the ridge track. The walk up Falcon Spur soon got us warmed up and before long most of us had to stop to remove a layer or two of clothing. The track up the ridge has been well made by volunteers with many zigzags and plenty of plastic orange markers indicating the way. Every 100m or so a trapping track crosses the ridge track. These tracks are marked with pink plastic markers. A few of them such as “H” and “M” lines have been cut to tramping track standards and are marked with orange markers.

After a morning tea stop we made good progress up the ridge to the “M” line. We turned left onto this new track and followed it across the slope towards Tuatara Spur. At one point the track appeared to cross a wide solid log and only when everyone was across was an alternative route pointed out. We stopped for lunch on the Tuatara Spur where most of us climbed up the extra 100m to look at the new fence line along the ridge crest.

After walking down the Tuatara Track for a while we detoured down the Gable End Spur Track to Ferny Flats Crossing. We certainly enjoyed listening to the birdlife here; at one point a tui kept us all entertained for several minutes. After crossing the river, we walked down the valley on the excellent Koru Track back to the gate and the cars, finishing the walk by 3pm.

With many kilometres of new tracks in the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary there is plenty of scope for other excellent trips here. Those who enjoyed this “back yard” walk were Chris (scribe), Jo, Julian, Lesley, Andrew, Marie, Geoff, Vanessa, Colin, Jeni, Joy, Alison and visitors Lisa and Anne.