WEEKEND DRIVE
This month David Coxon’s search for the fabled Fields Track finally bears fruit.
Over the last few months I had read a number of articles that mentioned Fields Track. When the same name also came up in a few conversations at work, I felt it was a message that this was a track worth exploring. What better justification for a weekend away! Having confirmed that Fields Track was one of the network of roads linking the valleys between SH4 and SH1 in the mid/lower North Island, I planned a trip that would take us up to Taihape via some back roads then across to SH4, picking up Fields Track, before a run back to Wellington. After the usual run up SH1 from Wellington, the trip started at Bulls with a detour out to the coast in the hope of finding access onto the beach. In this case we were out of luck, with the road ending a few hundred metres from the coast at the entrance to a forestry plantation. Although there was no beach access the road end itself, a parking area on the fringes of the pine plantation, made a very pleasant place for a late lunch.