New Zealand Walk: Mangatangi Track walk with great view points
Like many Kiwis, we were also getting sick and tired of staying home due to Covid-19 lockdown. Our defensive system, Level 4 for complete isolation from March 24, finally relaxed to Level 1 on 9th June. Now we could feel free to wander around so I started thinking of resuming my nature walking again.
On the morning of 14th June, my son Sudeep and I decided to go for a long nature walk as we normally did.
At breakfast table, we chose to go to popular tramping route in Mangatangi near Mangawhiri, where I had not been before. We looked it up through the Google map, where exactly the area is, and how to get there.
After light lunch we started with our usual walking equipment and water bottle at 12:30pm. We took SH 1 from Penrose, and from Pukeno we took SH2 to Mangatawhiri, then to Kaiaua Road, and to Workman Road, which led us to Ara Drive.
After driving along this road, and crossing a bridge over a small stream, we saw a signpost information about a walking track, called Mangatangi Trig Track, which would be 13.5 km long and would need seven plus hours to Mangatawhiri Reservoir. However, this track was closed due to Kauri dieback.
We drove further towards the dam along the side of a stream for about five minutes. We reached the car park with some sign posts and toilet facilities. The uphill road was closed for visitors’ cars.
We walked along the road for about 10 minutes to the top of the dam.
At the top we could see the structure of the dam, and Mangatangi Reservoir on the other side. The inaugural information was engraved (17 Sept 1977) on the stone .
In the reservoir, I saw two pillars, the one close to us was for water spill, and the one behind was valve tower 78 m from its base in the middle. The level of water was way too low for the season as a result of past summer long draught in Northland.
The area was beautiful with forest covered green hills with blue water of the reservoir. There was a family of five with two kids enjoying the area.
On the top of the dam a semicircular gravel road is constructed for service vehicles. On the other side massive soil deposition enforced and naturalised the dam with green grassy slope.
Across the dam there is a visi
tors’ centre with information about the dam and surrounding area.
We, then, continued our walk along the Ara Drive. It was quite interesting, zigzag uphill road with thick forest on both sides. This is the road connecting with Moumoukai Valley Road on west side. That road continues and meets Waterline Road that takes to Upper Mangatawhiri Reservoir, which is also a quite sizable reservoir.
After walking about 50 minutes from the dam, there was a diversion on the left side to go to the peak. We took this road. After about 150 meters there is a wide, levelled space where cars can be parked, when it would be open for private cars. Then, we continued uphill on the gravel road.
Thereafter, the gravel road, although driveable, was steeper at times and water lodged at places.
We walked for about 25 minutes and made it to the top, where some telecom equipment and solar batteries were installed. Just behind this was the trig with altitude (487 m) written on it. We took sometimes to rest, enjoy the scenery, looking around and taking photos.
This area falls within Hunua Ranges Regional Park (HRRP) and lies in southern end of the park. Although the Hunua Range is covered by luscious green vegetation, this range often refer to as the poor cousin of the more visually spectacular Waitakere Ranges. The Mangatangi Track, with its trig at 487m, offers one of the best vantage points in the park, with views extending over the Firth of Thames to the Coromandel Range.
The area is important watershed for the reservoir, so the green vegetation was thick and luxuriant, at places groups of kauri trees were growing healthy. Near the trig I saw a few NZ tree huneysucle (rewarewa), wild flower heath (Erica Lusitania), Himalayan (Leycesria sp.) and Japanese (Lonicera sp.) honeysucles. There were other flowers blooming including manuka plants
The track itself is relatively easy going, gaining 350m over the 3.5km from the Workman Road end to the summit. Major part of track was driveable road (Ara Drive) with toilet facilities available at places along the way.
I did hear a few bird songs, among which, I could distinguish tui’s sound. We also saw jungle fowl crossing our way.
The walk is easy to moderate. We did not drink water as much because of wet weather, however, the walk was very enjoyable and pleasant. We spent a total of five and half hours and came to know yet another important land mark within HRRP, Auckland region, and therefore it is my favourite walk.