Sunday 13 February Climbing Mt Manaia

Mt Manaia from Bream Head

Towering 460m above McGregors Bay is the majestic volcanic remnants of Mt Manaia which is soaked in Maori legends. Yesterday it was raining and the summit was covered in cloud, today the sun has come out and we're going up.

David at base camp

We took he dinghy to a beach where it looked easiest to reach the road and then the walkway except the beach was private and no public access to the road. A family was sitting in the garden and enjoying the sun and kindly let us walk through their property after a 10 minute what about where we'd come from and what we were doing.

Oil refinery on Marsden Pt

Half a mile up the road and the sign post pointed up hill. We casuallysrode on past 'path closed due to slippage sign' . Two weeks ago cyclone Wilma dumped 300mm of rain in one night and caused mud slides along a wide swathe of the coast. When we reached the slip it wasn't that big to step over and by the worn track we weren't the first. The path winds around the rock up and up using 1100 dept of conversation steps and gravelled paths. It took us an hour to reach the summit and all worth it for spectacular views over the Whangarei estuary, NZ's only oil refinery below us and out to the Hen & Chicken islands 12 miles away.

Claire & Mike's beachfront garden

The information boards described the summit as a sacred Maori place, a place where they brought the remains of important chiefs to be laid on the rocks. We walked onto that rock, there's no safety fence between you and a steep descent only a warning of no more than 5 people at one time but it was big enough for 10 at least.

We took the photos, enjoyed the sea breeze and had a much faster walk down. Going back through the garden to our dinghy we got chatting to the owners and enjoyed a pleasant hour talking about our adventures. New Zealanders really are very welcoming and hospitable people. We like them a lot.