Just a few kilometres north of the Karangahake Gorge and just over halfway down the Thames-Paeroa highway Maratoto Road heads eastward into the Coromandel Ranges from Hikuwai.Three quarters of the way along this no exit road we stopped to view and take photos of Mount Maratoto,a very steep rock thrusting up at an angle that looked way to steep to climb to the top.
There is a way up via a relatively okay unofficial track that could take you a long time to find unless you knew where to start. Fourteen trampers made their way up this track to re-group at the three quarter mark. Nine decided to take the final very steep section to the summit. Stunning views from both points of the Coromandel Ranges and the Hauraki Plains. Also a view back down to the end of Maratoto Road where the club bus looked like a little yellow spot on the landscape. Back down again to have lunch at the bus before tackling part two, the out and back tramp through to the former Golden Cross Mine.
Between 1895 and 1920 the mine produced just over two and a half tonnes of gold. Seventy years later the mine was re-opened both underground and open pit and produced a further twenty tonnes of gold and fifty two tonnes of silver before it's planned closure in 1998.The government of the day held a $12million Bond from the mining company that ensured the area was rehabilitated back to it's pre-mining state. The area is now used for grazing, wetland and native habitat.
The route mainly follows the course of the Maratoto Stream and we criss-crossed this several times as we climbed up and over the bush clad hills to emerge into farmland with lots of sheep grazing on the slopes. Time and light dictated that we did not stay to long here but most opted to go as far as the very picturesque tailings lake for another photo opportunity.
This area can also be accessed via the road-end at Waikino so we had done this in the only fair way true trampers should.
Up to this point we had all stayed together as a group, however ,now there was some familiarity with the route, a fast group led by Roger took off for the return journey whilst the remainder took a more leisurely pace back with me.
A great day out in the bush but worth the four hours of driving to explore an area pretty much new to everybody. The weather was very good which assisted in successfully summiting Mount Maratoto as bad weather usually means having to abandon this climb.
Overall tramp time was close to six hours, however,the pace was not fast and no one in the group had done the route before apart from Imogen and myself. When we do this again it maybe possible have fast and medium groups dependent on whether we have some trampers returning from this or the time we did this in 2011. Berhard did a sterling job of driving us both ways and had us all safely back at The Strand around 7pm.
There is a way up via a relatively okay unofficial track that could take you a long time to find unless you knew where to start. Fourteen trampers made their way up this track to re-group at the three quarter mark. Nine decided to take the final very steep section to the summit. Stunning views from both points of the Coromandel Ranges and the Hauraki Plains. Also a view back down to the end of Maratoto Road where the club bus looked like a little yellow spot on the landscape. Back down again to have lunch at the bus before tackling part two, the out and back tramp through to the former Golden Cross Mine.
Between 1895 and 1920 the mine produced just over two and a half tonnes of gold. Seventy years later the mine was re-opened both underground and open pit and produced a further twenty tonnes of gold and fifty two tonnes of silver before it's planned closure in 1998.The government of the day held a $12million Bond from the mining company that ensured the area was rehabilitated back to it's pre-mining state. The area is now used for grazing, wetland and native habitat.
The route mainly follows the course of the Maratoto Stream and we criss-crossed this several times as we climbed up and over the bush clad hills to emerge into farmland with lots of sheep grazing on the slopes. Time and light dictated that we did not stay to long here but most opted to go as far as the very picturesque tailings lake for another photo opportunity.
This area can also be accessed via the road-end at Waikino so we had done this in the only fair way true trampers should.
Up to this point we had all stayed together as a group, however ,now there was some familiarity with the route, a fast group led by Roger took off for the return journey whilst the remainder took a more leisurely pace back with me.
A great day out in the bush but worth the four hours of driving to explore an area pretty much new to everybody. The weather was very good which assisted in successfully summiting Mount Maratoto as bad weather usually means having to abandon this climb.
Overall tramp time was close to six hours, however,the pace was not fast and no one in the group had done the route before apart from Imogen and myself. When we do this again it maybe possible have fast and medium groups dependent on whether we have some trampers returning from this or the time we did this in 2011. Berhard did a sterling job of driving us both ways and had us all safely back at The Strand around 7pm.
