Zealandia Pylon and Turbine Tracks

20 October 2015
Just me
6.9km, 1hr44min, total gain 208m, Visitor Centre to Visitor Centre

For some reason I cant recall, in the morning I had parked on Thorndon Quay and walked up to Manners Street and back (4.1km!), so I am really surprised, looking back, that I even considered attempting such a loop.

Writing this well after the fact a handful of moments stick in my mind. It was hot. The whole walk. I was incredibly surprised at my capacity to just keep going – I remember remarking to myself that the me of 12-18 months previously would have got halfway up the hill to the pylon, decided it was both too steep and too hard, then turned around and gone home (since I was on my own). I carried my dSLR, only to discover at about the 2km mark that it had either no battery life or no memory card loaded (I cant remember which, but I do know it was a heavy, expensive, pack weight of no use).

Sitting under the pylon that the track is named for to catch a breeze and have a snack, the turbine looked fairly close, so I figured I would continue on and get my first taste of the track that is marked on the maps as running around the inside perimeter of the fenceline.

I wish I had taken photos of the track. It was absolutely not what I had expected. Overgrown, full of holes, and in places only wide enough for my feet with steep drops. It also had very little shade to offer. Some of the climb was also much steeper than I had anticipated, and I questioned regularly whether I would be better off turning around to go back or continue on.

I was determined to continue on, and so I did. Eventually the turbine appeared immediately in front of me. It took what seemed an interminable time. After stopping in the sun to take some selfies and have another bite to eat, I plunged down the steep upper section of the track into the cool bush, stopping partway down after startling a Tuatara back into its burrow.

The walk down the Turbine Track was uneventful otherwise and apart from a brief debate of whether to take the Tui Glen track or continue down the Turbine track (the Turbine track won), I was back on the main path before I really knew it.