New Zealand Walk: Rimutaka Rail Trail for tunnels and waterfalls
In the mid Wednesday Spring members Manawa- of tu Tramping & Ski Club, (MTSC) trampers, plus a small dog, Elke, gathered at the Cross Creek car park to walk from the Wairarapa side of the Rimutaka Rail Trail to the summit and back.
The weather was fine with a light breeze and a temperature of about 10 degrees celcius. Under-two hours later, at a distance of 7km, and 300m higher up, the party was eating lunch in the engine inspection pit beyond Summit Station and the engine graveyard.
The pit provided shelter from a chilly wind only noticed beyond the top tunnel.
The track was in good condition including underfoot in the tunnels, where puddles were noticeable by their absence compared with previous tramps.
There were also beautiful waterfalls on each side of the entrance to the top long tunnel.
Since our last visit as a group in 2017, a decked, swing bridge had been constructed to eliminate the scramble down and across the stream at Siberia Corner.
With a limit of 20 persons and extensive steel rope stabilizing ties it is an impressive structure across a valley that was once the long ago scene of a wind/weather driven derailment resulting in the deaths of several young passengers.
Towards the start of the track the ranges present a considerable barrier making a railway across them unlikely. I wondered what the reaction of the early railway engineers would have been to the challenge?
The day after the tramp, William Laing, one of our trampers, emailed me with a link to an historical website that docu
ments the career of his great grandfather who retired as Chief Engineer to the New Zealand Railways in 1915.
It documented that James Burnett had been part of the survey party that established the route of the Rimutaka Incline Railway including the top tunnel. William noted that as he walked through that tunnel that he was following in the steps of an ancestor!
By 3pm, after an interesting and rewarding tramp with a difference, we were well down the road in Masterton in search of a coffee and ice-cream.