A relaxed start and some questionable navigation lead us to the Ōrongorongo Station carpark at 9:30am. We left a car there, drove to the Catchpool Valley carpark, and were walking by 10am. In no time at all we were heading up the Ōrongorongo Valley. A vague attempt was made to keep boots dry on the first river crossing, but we quickly gave up on that, and decided it was actually pleasant given the hot sunny day. As we approached Matthews Stream, we overtook a small digger heading up the valley.
A brief lunch put us at risk of sunburn, so within no time we were slogging uphill towards South Saddle. It was hot work, and we met a couple of parties coming down, who thought we had made the right decision to go over the Saddle rather than up Mt Matthews. When we reached the Saddle, we briefly took in some lovely views of the coast (Palliser Bay) and then all proceeded to lie down and soak up the sun.
The route down Mukamuka Stream starts a little overgrown, but is still easily navigable – as long as you avoid the Ongaonga (Editor’s note: one of New Zealand’s most poisonous native plants – has sharp stinging hairs on its leaves which inject toxin into your skin. Even the lightest touch causes a lot of pain and tingling See: www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/urtica-ferox/).
As the stream gathers water and grows in size, there are some really beautiful sections. Eventually the terrain levelled off, and the rest of the walk out became a bit of a trudge. It was a relief when we met a couple at the Coast who said there was a good camping spot “just over there”. “Just over there” turned out to be a half hour walk to Mukamukaiti Stream. A walk which involved more sand then any of us were happy with.
We set up camp on a patch of sand that provided a good balance between shelter and flat ground. The forecast was for rain to come in overnight, so we used plenty of rocks to hold our tent pegs down. But in the end it only drizzled, and there was no wind!
On Sunday morning we packed up our wet tents, and plodded south around the coast to the Ōrongorongo Station carpark. The coastline is very pleasant, and although we didn’t see any seals, there were a lot of goats, sheep and horses, as well as a bloke in his stubbies down by the shore.