News and media

The Kimpton climb

• 05 Sep 2008

Chris Morton

The team L to R: John Smith, Joe Macky, John Norris - (not shown Chris Morton)

The exit south from Manukau City has been a problem for a while, but Saturday saw a four-man South Auckland team, map to hand, marking out Te Araroa's route across a paper road to Clevedon Reserve.

The team carried GPS waypoints marking out the so-called paper or unformed section of Kimptons Road - a vested road with public rights of way. The GPS gives high accuracy, and the team staked the route.

Chris Morton

Fog gripped Auckland right through Friday and the weather report predicted another day of it Saturday. The routefinding expedition was duly labelled Guerillas in the Mist and sallied forth, but in fact the mist cleared quickly. The team macheteed its way upward in clear weather to a meadow high point. Guerillas in the mist no longer, but believe it - they stumbled there upon views across the whole of Africa.

Te Araroa Auckland Trust will now go to Manukau City Council with a plan for a carpark, 7 stiles, two segments of benching, and a bit of track cutting. We'd hope work will begin within 6 weeks.

Chris Morton

Views southeast across the inner Hauraki Gulf, with the Wairoa River in the middle distance. Te Araroa's route - not yet
complete in this section - follows up the Wairoa and into the Hunua Ranges.

Kim Ollivier

Cadastral drawing of Kimptons Road trail