We met in the Rahai Street car park at 10.00. Although the weather forecast was dubious, we had perfect walking temperatures.
We began our ascent through the bush track through the Porirua Scenic reserve, really well maintained track that had only the odd bit of litter here and there. We came to a dirt road and continued our gradual climb to the top.
It was very peaceful except for the annoying dirt bike that passed through the group as we scrambled to safety.
On reaching the top, the view was slightly obscured by some cloud but didn’t deter us from grabbing some refreshments and posing for the odd photo. Speaking of posers, the motorbike rider decided to enlighten us with his opinion as to the best way to descend the hill – by bike in 5 minutes! For a brief moment, I was tempted to rename the site Colossal Knob after him.
On descending the 468 metre high Colonial Knob, we passed the turn-off to a track going to Mt Kaukau. This required a mere 5 hour tramp – another day perhaps. Instead of that route, we came through Spicer Botanical Park then up Broken Hill road to our vehicles in the car park.
All in all, a very enjoyable 3 hours spent in good company and I look forward to the next walk Ray leads through the Tararuas in September.