After a reasonable bike ride on Friday and a good four hours of walking on Saturday I was not fully committed to a warm run in the Waitakeres on Sunday morning ! But this was one of my last chances to run around the cascades section of the park and I was very keen to go there as the trails were new to me.
Vicki and I met for a pre-run coffee at Arataki (parking in the new “long term Hilary Trail” car parks !) and then headed off in the car to the Cascades trails.
The tracks start on a nice graded metal trail with a number of steps, clearly designed for tourists to see this beautiful section of bush. Sadly not far in to the bush we came across a massive (and ancient) Kauri lying dead next to the track 😦
I have seen a lot of signs regarding Kauri Dieback disease and the shoe cleaning sprays and notices are all over the ranges, however this was the first time I had really seen the impact of this fungus on a mature tree. It is utterly tragic ! There were a number of dead and dying Kauri all thorough this section of park, though fortunately there was plenty of sign of young growth as well. I just hope they do not get infected as well.
My daughter has borrowed my little camera so I didn’t haven’t on the trip and completely forgot to use the Galaxy phone to take a picture when we passed the dead kauri. However I did remember it later when we passed the new growth. Very disappointed in the resolution though I may need to play with the settings a bit.
Over almost three hours of running and walking the hills we were back at the car. I was utterly knackered after the 3 days of activity. Great trails, great views and a good fun run, especially running down Pukematekao !
We ran Lower Kauri, Long road, Fence Line, Anderson (Up, up and more up !), Scenic Drive, Pukematekao Rd and Track.
Almost caught up with the blogs, dive school to go !
Where is Phil now? 
You must be logged in to post a comment.