Nov 21 Enchanted Track
A forecast for a beautiful day prompted us to head up to the mountain. We intended to again hike across the Manganui Gorge Bridge but decided to explore the trails a little further down the mountain starting from the Stratford Mountain House, a resort owned and run by the Ngāti Ruanui iwi (tribe), traditional land ‘owners’ of this region. We decided to try the ‘Enchanted Track’ trail, and it was enchanting!
The mountain was almost completely clear today!
The track went up and down over ridges as we rounded the mountain, through a rain forest atmosphere, full of ferns and mosses overhead and underfoot!
We crossed a swinging bridge over the Waingongoro river and took a detour to the Waingongoro hut, a refuge for trekkers complete with woodstove and a drying rack suspended above it, table, benches, sink with running water from tanks of collected rain water, and 2 separate bunkrooms with ample bunks. ‘Long-drop toilet’ out back!
The ‘goblin forest’ of stunted, gnarly trees provides ready made steps of tree roots in steep spots.
As we hiked along I spotted the petals of white flowers littering the path, some were tiny, others about an inch long. Finally we saw the beautiful fragrant large flowers along the path. It is a native New Zealand clematis vine known as ‘puawānanga’ (“flower of the skies”). Usually the vine flowers way up in the canopy, hence the petals on the path, but no flowers around!
Finally after our 4 hour trek out and back, we ended up driving to Dawson Falls!