THE WIRES TRACK
13th June
by Keith Pyle
A blustery winter’s day saw six of us, Ian, Irene,
Tom, Jo, Brian and Keith, set off up the Old Wires
Track at 9.40am. Once in the forest it was lot better
and quite dry on the ridge with its mulch of fallen
rewarewa leaves. The track was the last link in the
national telegraph network, spanning from
Invercargill to Auckland including a crossing of
Cook Strait, and was completed in 1872. The
KKTC had cleared the track in the eighties.
There was quite a lot of diversity with rimu,
lancewood, and a dominance of large erect kanuka
and also tanekaha. After 45 minutes we took a 10
minute diversion down to the waterfall but could
only see the bottom fall of 17m. We proceeded
back on up to get into a sheltered spot for morning
tea. Then it was on up the ridge, passing through a
lovely young kauri grove and again taking a 5
minute diversion to a large kauri was very healthy
but with large flakes of bark exfoliating. Some of
these were collected by members to take home, to
challenge their artistic talents. There was considerable discussion about the age of some of the
trees we saw including some recent seedlings. We
proceeded up, passing the sign that had been put
up many years ago by Ian about some of the
history, the replica telegraph pole, and then finally
ascended the stone steps which had been specially
cut to enable horses to climb up more easily. We
reached the four-wheel-drive track at 1.10 pm for
a late lunch.
Stone Steps
Mature Kauri
We debated whether it was worth going on to see the relics from logging another 20 minutes
away. The wind and mud on the track from here on made some of us, who had seen it before, a bit
reluctant so we set off back down arriving at the cars after 2.25 hours at 4.00pm. Enough for a
winter’s day but a very pleasant outing was had by all.
Replica Telegraph Pole
Another view of the Falls
KKTC Sign