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Kauri Mountain

On our last day of the long weekend we thought we would activate Kauri Mountain before heading home. This track is part of the Te Arararoa Trail, or New Zealand’s Trail. However for some reason it does not show on DoC’s file of walking tracks (ftp://public:public@ftp.doc.govt.nz/Public/GIS/KMZ_Files_For_GIS_Software/DOC_Tracks_2017_01_26.kmz). We got our info for this summit from another blog here https://nzfrenzynorth.wordpress.com/c12/ before we set out. At the carpark we were greated by 2 roosters so we found them some food scraps. This was another scorcher so we had plenty of fluids with us. The track is well marked and has a few stairs in steeper places. The track isnt to onerous however and can be managed in fairly short order. We took 50 minutes – its not often our time agrees with the signboard!

The views from the top were great however we opted to set up slightly off the top to take advantage of the shade offered by the Manuka and Kauri. South you can see Ocean Beach all the way to Bream Head (ZL1/NL-020).

Once set up I worked a few locals on 7 MHz before jumping to 14 MHz to work a few more locals and Gerard. Only one VK in the log however I did hear VK3SQ. It was a public holiday in New Zealand – Waitangi day so I expect VK was busy working.

After about 45 minutes at the top we head down and set off home, stopping past Orewa beach for a quick swim to cool down.

Details

Summit – ZL1/NL-079 – Kauri Mountain

Height –245 m

Access – From Whangerei Heads Rd, turn left (actually straight ahead) into Pataua Rd then right into Kauri Mountain Road. Just over 2 km down the road is a pull off area on the left and a DoC sign. From here follow the well marked track to the summit.

Nominal time to summit – 50 minute walk (less if you are more fit than we arent).

Mobile and internet coverage from the summit – 3g coverage on Spark and Vodafone

Summit Marker – Trigg.

Land Access Permission – Not required – DOC Land.