Waiorongamai Valley (by Amanda Maloney)

Saturday October 2 to Sunday October 3, Brendan led a group of nine people in the
Kaimai ranges. We left from uni around 9:30 on Saturday morning. We had a great walk
up to the campsite and stopped a few old mine tunnels along the way. Anton suggested
that we check out Buck Rock on our way up, so we dropped our packs on the trail at
the beginning of the track and carried our lunches up to the rock. We had a great lunch
with beautiful views of the valley and a mountain right next to us. From there we
climbed back down, saddled up, and headed to the campsite. We got to the site around
4 or 5 (sun was still up!) and set up the tents. After the tents were set up and we had a
bit of a snack we explored the area. We found the old, run down hut, another tunnel,
and great a stream to get water from. After exploring, we headed back to the campsite
to start making dinner. Dinner was delicious, even without the oil and spices! :D After
dinner we cleaned up a bit, put away most of the food, and started making pudding. We
sat around the campfire and drank warm pudding! Everyone seemed pretty worn out, so
we put out the fire and got to bed around 9 or 10. The next morning we had breakfast and
packed up camp. We explored the tunnel that was just near the campsite before we began
our hike back down to the car park. We stopped at an abandoned battery and explored
a bit. A majority of the group wanted to get back to Auckland early enough to get some
left over homework done, so we got back to the car park fairly early and headed home.
Overall, the weather was perfect and we had great company!