Time: 3 hours (includes dilly-dallying to admire the beauty)
Distance: 6.4 km
Start: near 22 Bay Heights, Governor's Bay
Finish: Same place - it's a loop
Date: Friday 8th August 2025
The "absolutely stunning" 150 ha Ōhinetahi Bush Reserve spans Summit Road to Governor's Bay and has numerous tracks that criss-cross through it like a maze. Ōhinetahi means the 'one daughter' of the pre-European Māori chief Te Rangi Whakaputa of Ngāi Tahu.
These days, the reserve is owned and managed by the the Summit Road Society who have working bees every Tuesday and have kindly published the excellent OhinetahiTracks.pdf (Thank you!!). Over the years I have studiously studied this map and we have walked most of the tracks (blog posts: Ella's Track Circuit, Bivvy Track Circuit and Watlings Track Circuit.) Today our planned prospective route: a complicated clockwise circuit comprising Titoki, Ngaio, South Boundary, Bush Road, Duke Street, Watlings, Crater Rim, Faulkners and O'Farrells Tracks.
We parked near the row of post boxes at the corner of Ernest Adams Drive and Lachie Griffen Rise, and walked on up Bay Heights to the small easy-to-miss Titoki Track sign next door to number 22. Here, through the gate with the sliding wooden lock, you leave suburbia behind and immediately step into an enchanted forest: fabulous fuscia trees with their pink bark and gnarled trunks entertwine like lover's limbs. One tree in particular we stopped to admire: a woman's legs spread-eagled with an oriface as the centerpiece - probably the home of a small furry mammal. The soundtrack to all of this - the chimes chortles and wheezes of many korimako/bellbird. Magical.
We climbed up to O'Farrell's Track crossing. Gerald O'Farrell was a bankrupted (thank goodness) American entrepreneur who once (circa 1970's) planned an extensive residential settlement in the area. On the map, O'Farrell's Track looks like a pair of whiskers because it runs along a contour in both directions and abruptly stops. I have always wondered what happens at the end of those whiskers so today we did a quick recce in the easterly direction, walking along the contour to a closed gate. No signage telling us not to proceed, so we will have to check that out another day.
We back-tracked and continued ascending Titoki, then Ngaio and South Boundary Tracks. Our pace slowed as we stopped to take a gazillion photos and talk to the korimako/bellbirds and piwakawaka/fantails that came down to check us out. For a while the bush disappeared and we were in open grassland with bluffs rising dramatically above us. The track dipped back into the forest again and we wiggled our way up Duke Street, Bush Road and Watlings Track.
At the top we were on Crater Rim Walkway with views over the city. Cloudy and overcast. A tautology. Faulkner Track was our descent. Conversations turned to imminent travels: Cassablanca, Morroco; Syracuse, Sicily; Tāmaki Makaurau, New Zealand. Arthur's Pass and Akaroa.
We were back on South Boundary, Ngaio and then O'Farrells again. This time we checked out the whisker in the other direction. The track again ended abruptly at a not-locked gate. Will definitely have to check that out at some point too.
We back-tracked to Titoki and descended through the enchanted fuscia forest again, dilly dallying to collect māhoe/whiteywood (Melicytus ramiflorus) leaves for artistic rubbings.
