Bowenvale Valley Track Loop

Time: 2 hours and 50 minutes
Distance: 8 km
Start: End of Bowenvale Avenue, Cashmere
Finish: Same place (it's loopish)
Date: Friday 12th March 2021

We parked in the car park at the end of Bowenvale Avenue and waited for She Who Must Not Be Named (my left eye was starting to twitch a little): who soon came hooning up the road, with her foot squarely planted on the accelerator. She swooped into the car park with a flourish, lept from her car with fabulous style and we were on our way.

This is one of those tracks shared by mountain bikers - which is not a problem on a Friday morning but might be a little alarming on a weekend. Luckily there are signs as you walk up the valley on the shared path saying "Keep Left".

The path follows Bowenvale stream, criss-crossing it over quaint foot bridges with possible turn-offs to other tracks with tantalizing names ("Hidden Valley"). Near the head of the valley there is a junction where you turn left and continue up the hill through farmland to Summit Road. This is the steepest section of the track and gets the heart pumping.

We crossed Summit Road and headed up the rocky spur towards Sugar Loaf. I caught sight of a trig and so it was all on to climb to the top. This effort was well rewarded with those beautiful panoramic Port Hills views.

We descended past the television tower, down the spur (slightly off piste) to the car park and then back over Summit Road to Latter Spur Track. A kerfuffle in the Ti Kouka tree above impelled us to turn our gaze skyward and we found we were looking straight down the barrel of a kereru's arsehole. We did not linger.

Shortly after, we came upon a clearing with multiple walking and mountain bike tracks going off in all directions. This was unfortunate because I had forgotten the map. We decided to follow our feminine intuition and head back downhill towards the Bowenvale valley. You would have to be crazy to bike these tracks but walking them was pretty good. First through eucalyptus trees (a taste of Ozzy), then pines (a hint of Europe) and finally we popped back out onto the valley track with a short walk back to the car park.