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| A panorama looking south in Te Kopahou Reserve, with parts of the Red Rock track visible. |
Red Rocks Track
The Red Rocks Track is where it all begins or ends if you attempt the Te Kopahou Loop, a 4 kilometre dirt track popular with both mountain bikers and walkers that takes you from near Hawkins Hill to the sea down at Pariwhero/Red Rocks – an altitude difference of around 450 metres. It has numerous spurs and junctions along its length, it forms the eastern edge of the 600 hectare Te Kopahou Reserve, and is certainly the most used track in the area.
The track for the most part follows a ridge – flanked on either side by gorse or regenerative shrub and some larger less frequent specimens which have grown out of the prevailing wind, such as Cordyline Australis.
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| Left: The sign posted at the start of the Red Rocks Track near Hawkins Hill. Right: Looking east into Wellington from the Red Rocks Track trailhead. |
Cache Details & Information
You can find this cache a few metres away from where the Red Rocks track meets the Hawkins Hill Access Road. When placed, it was a 200mL black Sistema containing a logbook, logbag, geocaching notice & pencil. Easy to access – the best approach is from the Brooklyn Wind Turbine 2.5 km away – this cache is just short of Hawkins Hill. Otherwise, it can serve as a good starting or finishing cache for the…
The Te Kopahou Loop
The Te Kopahou Loop is a demanding and strenuous half-day 17.7 kilometre loop which takes you to some spectacular sights and locations in Wellington – from peaks to the shore, and right around the edge of Te Kopahou Reserve. It reaches a maximum elevation of 495 metres, and drops right down to coast, with over 1080 metres of ascent and descent each. It reaches a maximum gradient of 55.6%, steeper than the final climb/initial drop on the West Wind Opau Loop track. We completed this track in 6 hours 31 minutes, including stops for photos cache placing, cache finding & lunch. If you intend to attempt the loop, allow for at least 6 hours worth of walking/biking. This figure is highly dependent on whether you choose to walk or bike to Hawkins Hill from the turbine or Aston Fitchett Drive. We’ve chosen what we think is a good method below:
It all starts at the Brooklyn Wind Turbine – where you bike for 10 minutes along the 2.6 kilometre sealed Hawkins Hill access road until you reach the beginning of the Red Rocks Track just before the radome and past the mysterious castle house. At this point you can leave and lock the bikes (you’ll see why later), walk up to the radome, grab the Hawkins Hill cache, and progress onwards as the sealed road turns into a 2 kilometre flat dirt road known as the ‘Te Kopahou Track’ towards Te Kopahou trig, 10 metres lower in elevation in relation to Hawkins Hill. Roughly two thirds of your way along, you can the grab “All Three”, before continuing to your first destination where you can nab the self-titled cache at this location.
From Te Kopahou Trig – you start walking on what is called the ‘Bunker Track’ towards three WWII observation bunkers perched 170 metres above sea level on Sinclair Head. The track condition changes dramatically for the worse, and takes a nosedive with an average gradient of 30%, approaching 50% at times – down to an elevation of 220 metres before ascending slightly, and then again plummeting down to 140 metres with a gradient exceeding 55% - the steepest point of the trip. Remember to pick up “Protecting Our Shores” while you’re there!
Getting down off Sinclair Head to the shore is a bit of a mess – using a poorly marked route called ‘Ribs Exit’, and is probably not suited to mountain bikers, as you are walking through a small stream, mud, brushing past shrub at an angle of attack of up to 50%. From here, you can wander across the Red Rocks coastline to the coastal beginning of the Red Rocks Track, which will take you back up to your bikes. Along the way, you can pick up “Gale Force” on the ridgeline closer to the coast, and then “Boundary Issues”, and once you’re back at the bikes, you can snatch this cache as a finale – assuming you didn’t pick it up on the start of your loop.
Be sure to bring your camera with you as there are some spectacular views, some warm/windproof clothing, as it can get quite gusty up there, along with some food and drink. There should be cellphone reception along pretty much all the ridges, although you may lose it as you descend into valleys and possibly on the coastline. Enjoy!