The NZ Railway stores branch purchased cutting rights for a large block of mostly Rimu bush, 5km west of Pokako (renamed Pokaka in 1924) in 1920. They then commenced building a robust tramway from the plateau down to meet the relatively new Main Trunk Railway at Pokako to bring the timber out.
A 1933 plan of the tramway - cache location marked with a red pen circle
This timber was intended for the well-known Railways House Factory in Hamilton (see Radionuts House the Workers Cache) but was not as good as expected, so the tramway was not operated as expected, but did bring logs for other mills, including the Pokaka mill – but more on that in a later cache.
Logs being loaded onto the Pokaka West Tramway
- Photographed by Albert Percy Godber circa 1924 - source The National Library of NZ
To construct this tramway, significant track material was recycled from other locations including Piha on the West Auckland coast. The tramway was well-build with solid earthworks including cuttings, embankments and benching, much of which is easily visible today.
This level of earthworking is unusual for the era, most sawmill-constructed tramways were built to “only what is needed” standard, and their remnants have often not lasted as well over the decades since closure.
From the bush workings above, the track first looped to the south, then north to achieve a workable grade down the plateau. The northward direction met what is now Mangaturuturu Road at the location of this cache’s parking waypoint, and the benchwork can be seen across the road from the DOC sign, heading off into private property at a higher elevation than the road, in an area of small trees. While you are travelling home after finding this cache you may like to stop at the extra waypoint S 39 17.467 E 175 21.600 where the track crossed Mangaturuturu Road after looping south again. From that point to your left through a gate you will see a long shallow cutting amongst trees, and to your right you will see a low embankment across the paddock towards a house.
The cache is hidden a few metres along the public walking track access to the Erua Forest Conservation Area, which actually follows the tramway earthworks all the way. After locating the cache, if you walk a little way further up the trail you will see further earthwork remnants.
You are looking for a 400ml camo Sistema box. GPS Coverage is very poor in the bush, no matter what device you are using – so please read the hint.
Sadly the level of DOC maintenance is not high in this area, and blackberry does grow fast. The cache owner has spent some time trimming, so early finders should not have problems, but later searchers are recommended to wear suitable leg covering or suffer some scratching.
- Acknowledgements for some source information from an article in the NZ Railway Observer April 2021 (written by Kevin Crosado)
Logging Recommendations
This cache, (like most of Radionut50’s hides) is NOT meant to be hard to find – so logs saying ‘easy find’ are pretty meaningless. The reason for this hide is to introduce you to this piece of our country’s great history , so logs commenting on your experience are very welcome. You are also invited to crack the hint, it is the location, not the search we set up for you.