Long-time Rangitāiki local, Bill Clark, and I go way back to our Theatre Whakatāne day. It’s only been in the last decade that we’ve connected through my love of the bush. He’s told me about local walking tracks like the Karaponga Reserve (Karaponga Falls and old hydro dam), Onepu Wetlands and now, Tunnicliffe’s Track in the Lake Rotoma Scenic Reserve. The yarn about Tunnicliffe’s Track came about over a cup of tea and my almost-burned brownies. He was telling me about an upcoming survey with the Botanical Society in the Rotoma - did I want to tag along? Why not? It’s in the bush and a new track to explore. He did warn me that it would be at a botanist’s pace, which I later learned was even slower than I imagined.

The trip was last month - it was a lovely group from Whakatāne, Tauranga and Rotorua. I did not contribute anything of scientific significance to their survey, but I did meet some people doing great things in the world of botany and medicine. I also learned that turning your phone upside down makes it easier to photograph fungi on the forest floor.

How to get there: Parking is roadside only on SH30 (no carpark) - there’s room before or after the track entrance. Try not to park at the entrance itself like I did - it’s on a blind corner and makes it harder to get back onto the road afterwards. The inconspicuous track entrance is unmarked, but obvious enough once you’re standing right there. This Google pin takes you to the start of the track.

 

The cut track isn’t a walking track, but an old forestry road. It’s unmarked and there are no wayfinding signs. Here’s the thing, if it was marked the terrain would be an easy bush walk with beautiful podocarp canopies and plenty of birdsong. Most of the windfalls I came across either already had a chainsaw through them or had a walkaround. Because it’s not, make sure to go in with a map/compass or GPS (I used NZTopo50) and know how to use them. There are plenty of little offshoot trails from the ‘main track’, probably from hunters.

Bill said that the walk itself is a loop, although I wasn’t sure how obvious the turnaround point would be. I decided to give it a go and walk back the way I came if the trail became unclear. About 20 minutes from the road, I came to the Sock Corner junction. We took the right turnoff during the botany walk, so I did that too. It wasn’t until I passed the giant Rata that I was walking in a new part of the forest. I heard a lot of tūī and the odd kereru giving me a heck of a fright as they flapped their way from one tree to another high above me.

The track runs alongside the Waikanapiti Stream and various tributaries - I came across a couple of crossings with wooden planks (including balancing wire!) to keep your socks dry, but the other crossings didn’t have this. I brought my JBL mic to record birdsong for my poetry and came away with mixed results. I will just have to keep practising.


Looking at the map on my Strava (tracked from my Garmin) and comparing it to one posted by the Ngā Tapuwae o Taneatua Tramping Group, it looks like I missed another junction after Sock Corner that would have led me to the spot where I eventually turned around. My Garmin tracking could have also glitched. Now that I’ve walked the section of the track that goes left from Sock Corner (I went right originally), I plan to walk it counter-clockwise to see if I can make it a loop. They also had photos of remnants from forestry trucks close to where I had been walking, so I’m keen to see if I can find those out too.

I did indulge my curiosity and followed some trapline markers along another stream tributary. It was probably here that I lost my orange Kathmandu raincover, so if you come across it, you’re welcome to make use of it and take it on your own adventures. I backtracked and made my way back to the junction where the trapline markers started and felt pretty silly for missing the obvious elbow turn on the track! Back on track, pun intended, I felt more confident that I was actually following the main track again.

I stopped a few times to give my birdsong recording another go. Annoyingly, I was mostly getting the buzzing of flies, so I put the mic away and focused on getting back to Sock Corner. I must have been in a daydream because I almost walked past it, or walked past without noticing the logs I used as markers. It was only 20 minutes to my car, so I carried on and looked forward to getting out of my wet socks and into my jandals.