Newspaper Article 1980 – Sandyridge walk in Kaweka Forest Park

WALKABOUT

A series of articles describing pleasant Hawke’s Bay walks. Material is supplied by the Hastings-Havelock North branch of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.

Sandyridge walk in Kaweka Forest Park

This is pleasant walking out from the historic Inland Patea Road under a canopy of tall trees ending on a rugged ridge overlooking Hawke’s Bay.

The Inland Patea Rd follows the route of an old Maori track from Hawke’s Bay to the interior of the North Island.

What was termed the Inland Patea district in the days of the pack-horse and stage coach mail services was the huge area of high inland country stretching westward across the Hawke’s Bay ranges to a line running roughly from the base of the central volcanoes to south of the present town of Taihape.

According to an old Maori legend the Inland Patea came by its name long before the coming of the pakeha. A Maori named Patea lived with his wife and tribal kinfolk at Waimarama. One day he set off on a hunting expedition; however, he was away a long time and returned with a poor bag to find his wife had filled the storehouse herself.

Patea’s wife was noted for her scolding tongue and incessant nagging. After putting up with as much as he could stand about his hunting failure, Patea took her for a walk along the cliffs and conveniently dropped her over the edge. Rather than face her relatives, he fled to the wild and lonely country west of the ranges.

Where he remained for the rest of his life became known as Patea’s country and with the coming of the European, Inland Patea.

From the 1860s until 1905 the main trunk railway line was opened, the Inland Patea looked upon Napier as its town and port, with wool waggons travelling to Napier and waggon trains bringing back supplies and materials for building the railway.

Prior to the waggon trains, strings of packhorses, hundreds strong, with one man in charge of each team of 10, were engaged in transporting wool, supplies and mail over the trail between Napier and the inland sheep stations.

Mules as well as horses were used and one out of five was carrying fodder for the team and supplies for the men. It was the seeds from this fodder that lined the trail with weeds, leaving a permanent reminder of its past use.

If, as it occasionally happened, a beast missed its step crossing the narrow track over Gentle Annie, it and its load tumbled to a death in the Ngaruroro Gorge over a hundred metrers [metres] below.

All the packman could do was to lead the survivors across before they, too, panicked and joined the others in the river below.

In those times the Inland Patea pack track was probably the longest and busiest in New Zealand but as the waggon road extended up from Napier into the ranges, so the journey for the packhorses became less and for the waggons longer.

It is interesting to note that until gold was reported to be found in this area, no thought was given by the provincial Government to roading. This came only when members of the Government had a personal stake in the mining venture.

The Inland Patea Rd, better known today as the Napier-Taihape Rd, provides access to Sandyridge Walk, from the junction with Lawrence Rd, 64km west of Hastings.

An earlier “Walkabout” described the Blowhard Bush where the track commences from a car-park a short distance down Lawrence Rd.

This walk was popular in years past with youth groups, church assemblies and rock hounds but seems to have been lost since the building of a forestry road over part of its length. However, as the road is closed to private vehicles it is still one of our more interesting walks.

A short track leads into the Royal Forest and Bird reserve, to Lowry Lodge. It is here that the bush gains great interest, as the “Rimu” or lower loop track enters a maze of giant rectangular blocks of waterworn Waitotaran limestone.

It is a series of passages and rooms with moss-covered walls, trees growing at impossible angles, their roots seeking out the leaf-mould filled crevices. Tree trunks twist and turn in their search for life-giving sunlight.

Epiphitic plants scramble over steep faces, each trying to swamp the other in this desperate search for food and light.

The track climbs smoothly up past a large rimu tree of indeterminate age before winding its way down past ancient cabbage trees (Cordyline australis), one of the family of giant lilies that give our forests such a tropical look.

As the track drops lower toward the north-eastern corner of the reserve, an interesting tree may be found, the paratrophis microphylla, otherwise known as turipo or milk tree.

Several of these trees have been labelled. Their rough grey to almost white bark has raised lenticels, a corky spot on the bark which functions as a stoma or pore allowing the trunk to breathe.

The tree grows from 3 to 13 metres high and has a milky sap. It was this sap that in early colonial days gave the tree at least two names, milk or cow tree.

The settlers frequently used the milk tree sap to colour their tea, which in hard times was made by infusing the leaves of the manuka bush, hence the name, tea or ti tree, as is still used in Australia.

Close to this point the track divides, the main branch returning to Lowry Lodge, the other dropping down into the creek by cave-like overhangs in steep limestone.

Then a short scramble out across the creek and up on to an open meadow to rejoin Lawrence Rd and continue north past a side road on the left. Then take the next turning on the right, past a locked gate, to prevent vehicle access.

The road steadily climbs up past a short track, on the left, leading to a fine lookout over the hills to the north, then branches to the right.

Following the right-hand road out on to the saddle connecting Sandyridge to the main ridge system, limestone blocks again make their appearance against the stark windblown earth.

The road continues to follow the eastern side of the ridge looking out over the extensive country of Hawke’s Bay and the sea beyond. Close to the highest point on the ridge, large clearings of almost bare rock are exposed, displaying a network of fine debris-filled cracks.

These cracks are only a few millimetres wide but in length, continue on to join the active Lizard fault.

Movement of this fault, which is part of the greater Ruahine fault, has torn the country apart, forming the large blocks of weathered rock strewing the landscape.

On the crest of the ridge overlooking Lawrence Rd and Blowhard Bush, limestone blocks are fissured with the remains of an old cave system and an abundance of black coated, shining white calcite crystals.

To the west lies the route of the Inland Patea Rd, snaking over steep spurs to disappear over Gentle Annie. To the south of the road is the steep-faced Cattle Hill of Mount Miroroa, a point of great geological interest surrounded by a swarm of faults that rift the country apart.

The Mount Miroroa block appears to have been twisted clockwise as a massive cap of underlying rock was pushed up on top.

Or is it one of the signs in our wandering countryside of a retrograde movement of the whole of the East Coast?

At the southern end of Sandyridge may be seen giant fossilised oyster shells, black calcite covered rocks and rock formations shaped like stacked pancakes. From the end of the road a bulldozed fire-break drops steeply down to cross a stream and rejoin the Inland Patea Rd close by an old roadmans’ whare about a kilometre from Blowhard Bush.

Walking time: Three to four hours depending on your interests but just as a walk – two hours.