Zealandia Faultline and Raingauge Spur tracks

 16 April 2016
Just me
7.4km, 1hr52min, total gain 229m, Visitor Centre to Visitor Centre, inside the sanctuary fence

I wasn’t feeling massively inspired this day, but we had no LJ at home for the weekend, and the sun was shining after a few days rain, so off I went while Mark did some work around the house and study. I was still aiming to finish my goal of red-lining all the tracks inside Zealandia, which I still haven’t completed, so off I launched into the back of the Upper Valley.

The best view I had all day

The faultline track was muddy. I seriously regretted opting for sneakers and shorts rather than boots and gaiters. It wasn’t overly surprising though, given the weather we had recently had, and the fact that the faultline track doesn’t see a lot of sunshine. I opted not to take the detour up the Western Firebreak for some reason that I cant recall now, perhaps I was running low on time, as I had only started walking at 2:30, and knew I had to be back at the visitor centre by 5pm, not knowing how long the loop around the back was going to take.

A burst of colour on the upper Raingauge Track

The track climbed gradually, with a couple of short steeper sections, until it got to the back fence. Unlike around the Brooklyn side of the valley, this part of the fence line track inside was actually moderately well defined. It was also quite steep (and so quite slow). I also found a surprise – a road around the back of the sanctuary. It looked to connect Brooklyn and Wrights Hills. The amount of undeveloped farm land to the south and west of the sanctuary was also quite a surprise. I sort of knew that the bottom of the island scooped around like it did, but at the back of the Faultline track, you feel like you are in the back of beyond – and then you look out and you are nowhere.

The raingauge track was also steep, and slippery in places, as well as starting to get quite overgrown with gorse and blackberry in places. I definitely wished I had gaiters and walking poles inching my way down the hill. The bottom of the track is very sudden – one moment you are in a dry, exposed bit of track, the next you are in the bush, and barely a moment later you are back on the faultline track, heading home again.

This leaves me with the Western and Eastern Fire Break and Tui Glen tracks to complete, and then I will have done all the tracks inside the fence except some sections of the clearing around the inside of the fence. Given the average condition of the “track” inside the fenceline, I’m not going to push to complete the last segments of that once I have done the others, instead I will do the loop around the outside one day.

Zealandia – Fuschia Loop

30 September 2015
Just Me
4.59km, 1hr18min, total gain 184m, Visitor Centre to Visitor Centre

After many a time walking the main tracks of the valley, and dozens of trips up to the Upper Dam, with some free time up my sleeve I wanted to get really exploring the Valley. So a dream to walk every track on offer came to mind.

I started with what turned out to be the easiest loop – the Fuschia Loop. This track is designed to be walked as a loop, rather than as a there-and-back, or connecting to another track via the fenceline clearway.

On my way in, once I got up past the Upper Dam, I debated which way to go around the loop. Eventually I opted for counter-clockwise, with a plan to pop out to the end of the short Campbell Street Track while I was there.

The climb was moderate, but reasonably gradual, and all wonderfully shaded. Suddenly I came across a sign indicating it was 100m distance to the fence, as an optional side track, so I dumped my pack and took just my camera and myself up. The distance suggestion seemed way out of whack – I’m sure it was further than that.

Anyway, the VIEW from the top of the Fuschia Loop was INCREDIBLE – although the best spot to admire it from is about 50m along the fence back towards the visitor centre. Once I have completed my mission to walk all the tracks this is one I will certainly come back to. It is easily the best view out of the sanctuary I have found, as the fence doesn’t block the view like it does in other places. I could have sat there for ages if I hadn’t left my pack with my food and water back down the hill.

Back in the bush I got spotted by a kaka, that I gather may have been guarding a nest, as it followed me VERY closely as I continued down the track – never letting me get out of its sight for a good couple of hundred meters. Every time I got more than a dozen steps past it, it would fly over or around me and land just ahead of me. What an experience.

The track popped back out not far from where it had started. The track out to the fenceline at Campbell Street was flat (it was a bullock track back when there was mining and the dam was full) and short – only worth doing so I could say I had done it.

My return to the visitor centre was uneventful. To make things a little different I went across the dam and back along the tracks on the other side of the valley for a while as I headed back to the main path.

Definitely a highly recommended loop. I saw absolutely no-one in the half hour or so I was away from the main track, and it’s a great start to getting out into the “back” of the valley.

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.

Meeting Sirocco

30 August 2013
Mark, Myself, about a dozen others
Zealandia Sanctuary

Marks parents were very excited – a double reason to travel to Wellington. A new grandchild and a chance to see Sirocco, a rare Kakapo (giant parrot). Sirocco, in particular, is quite famous after he attempted to mate with a human head during filming for a documentary. Sadly, he’s not considered breeding stock, so instead has become a species ambassador, travelling around the country to visit different sanctuaries.

Mark and I spent a bit of time debating whether we would go. There was always a chance that his visit to Wellington would be a once-off and we might never get another opportunity. When Marks parents volunteered to babysit so we could go different nights, we figured why not. And I’m glad we did. Even though Sirocco has been back to visit in the time since we went, that evening off was lovely.

A talk in the visitor centre, then a guided walk through the valley to the specially constructed habitat, hearing the birds that live at the sanctuary settling in for the night and then getting a chance to spend half an hour or more watching how Sirocco moved and learning more about his life, before walking back to the sound of kiwi calling across the valley. Worth whatever we spent on it, as most of the ticket price went to Kakapo Recovery.