Mt Matthews - Mukamuka LoopIntermediate - Experienced

Description

NB: If it's expected to rain a lot or has been. leave this trip for another day as there is a fair amount of river and stream travel. There are some wet weather deviations but you'll potentially just dig yourself further and further into a hole.

Starting at the car park, cross the bridge and then go straight down to the river jumping the fence. This lower section of the Orongorongo River crosses through private land so stay in or near to the river until you pass the houses to the north. It's a wide river so the best advice is to pick the straightest lines between bends for the next 15.5km. After about 10km you'll start seeing huts before you spot the arched Turere Stream bridge off to your left about 12km in. This marks the start of the Big Bend Track which may be easier travel than the river but is slower.

About 15km in keep an eye out for the orange triangle markers heading up Matthews Stream. If you don't have great navigation skills, you could take the Big Bend Track to the end where it spits you out almost opposite Matthews Stream. Follow the poles with orange triangles until you reach the DOC sign for the Mt Matthews Track and the start of the first actual trail of this run. Here you go straight up for over 200m before taking the signposted South Saddle track off to the right. South Saddle is a grassy open saddle that leads you down the Mukamuka Stream. Whilst the route is marked, make sure you are find the orange triangles before heading towards the coast. Here you follow the orange triangles on a rough goat track all the way down to the coast.

At the coast, hang a right and follow the 4WD tracks that are marked with blue poles for the Rimutaka Cycle Trail all the way back to the car park.

Features of interest

Over this run you will cover a large range of scenery from river travel surrounded by farm through to mature native forest, up to an exposed saddle through beech forest, down a scruby stream gully, past huge scree slopes, and around the rugged southern coast.

The wide Orongorongo River starts off as a working farm. As you head up the bush becomes more mature as you enter the Rimutaka Forest Park with tall emergent trees and historical huts littered everywhere. At the South Saddle of Mt Matthews you get a few views off towards Wellington and over the South Coast. Down the Mukamuka Stream, the mountains feel like they're falling down on to you with large scree slopes and narrow valleys before opening up at the mouth into pasture. The coastal section is along the Wild Coast Track and is pretty wild and barren. Karaka trees mark the sites of old Maori fishing settlements, there's the odd grave head stone, you cross three large shingle fans past Windy Point, and at the Turakirae Scientific Reserve there is a seal colony and boulders popular with rock climbers.

The famed Mukamuka Munter trail race runs in the opposite direction from the car park, up the Mukamuka Stream and then out to Catchpool Valley (https://mukumukumunter.wordpress.com/)

Make Up of Run

Untracked / Route only: 60%

Technical Single Track: 10%

Farm Road / 4WD Track: 30%

Route Data