Walk 11 - Hunua Falls

Hello friends and readers from around the corner and across the seas! It's been too long. I know that, you know that and my password reset definitely knows that. But with the injuries and frustrating distractions of last year behind me it's time to start walking again, and we have!

I'm entering an exciting new stage with the walks as I'm very quickly crossing all the Auckland based ones off the list which means some serious exploring is about to start happening, which was one of my smaller goals of this exercise. My view of New Zealand is very city-centric and being able to visit not just some of the other larger towns but the nooks and crannies in between is going to be great fun.

I've eased back in with one of the shorter hikes - Hunua Falls which is about 45 minutes away from us and part of the Hunua Ranges.  Rain was threatening and the wet weather gear took up almost as much space as the humans in the car but we were happy in our confidence that at least the rain would mean the park would be nice and quiet. Well it didn't rain (while we were there) and the park was packed! There were food trucks and walking club buses filling the standard parking area and a field to the left had been opened for additional cars. Tents were up, deck chairs were out and the summer hum thick in the air. So to sum up I was annoyed. Not that I don't love people out enjoying the weekend. I just have a bad reaction to being wrong.

There were a couple of different track options available to us here. The Massey Loop which would have taken us up into the ranges more and the Cossey Gorge Track which was a smaller loop taking us away from the waterfalls, to a reservoir and back which is the one we went with.

The walk immediately begins with a stream crossing and a lovely view of the falls.

And if you look to the left as you're crossing, there's a view of the ranges we were heading in to.

The track was really well maintained and nice to walk. Some of the hikes we've done so far have said "easy" and almost killed me so I'm skeptical now of the track descriptions but aside from a couple of slopes closer to the reservoir this was very pleasant.

I hope nobody's getting too bored of the tree lined paths yet, because *spoiler alert* this is New Zealand and this is what we offer.

Very early on we passed a private property on the left which had a strange collection of trees where the tops and bottoms were a lush green but the middle sections looked either burnt or dead.

I thought it was the strangest thing and if anyone knows why or how this would happen I'd love to know.

You head down into the bush before turning up towards the reservoir and there's a lovely, quiet stream you have to step across to continue. When we reached it there was a couple with their dog who was perfectly happy to stand in the water and not walk any further. If we had brought a picnic this would have been the spot to enjoy it.

Once we had finished our loop we popped down to the waterfalls to have a closer look just as it was starting to rain (YES I was right!!) It seems a popular spot for locals to spend the day as pockets of people had staked their claims around the pool with families, gaggles of teens and visitors like us happily sharing the space. One of the first clues that you've taken a tiny little step out of Auckland.

Our next walk is not so small and not so "easy" as we head to the Karangahape Gorge which is about 2hrs out of Auckland and a proper day out. So keep sunny thoughts in your head for us, though I'm happy to take a car load of rain jackets and be wrong again.

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