A dull drizzly day brought out only six people to explore an interesting and little-known part of the Woodhill Forest, a string of lakes about halfway between Muriwai and South Kaipara Head. Woodhill Forest is owned by Carter Holt Harvey, and a permit is necessary to enter the forest except for three public tramping tracks (two at Woodhill and one at South Kaipara Head) and one or two road accesses to the beach. This tramp required the use of a map and compass because, although the tracks are accurately mapped on the 1:50000 topo map, they are not named on the map and are not all signposted in the field. We left The Bracken just after 8am and met up with one person at Parakai - he then changed his mind when rain came on - and were at the south end of Lake Kereta on Wilsons Rd about 9:30am. A very short track on a “paper road” (unformed legal road, in this case used by the adjacent land owner as part of his farm) brought us to the edge of Woodhill Forest, and we followed a vehicle track that began to skirt the edge of some of these lakes.

The rain had eased off, and we were amazed by the beauty of these lakes even though the weather was dull and grey.

When the Club did the same trip about ten years before, half these lakes were just swamps or dry beds; this time all the lakes had water in them. The photo below was taken in 1991.

We were fascinated by a pink algae on the surface of the water near the edge of the lakes. It looked just like an area of smooth sand from a distance, and one could imagine walking on it.

As we came out of the manuka forest bordering these lakes and entered into the pine forest, we stopped for morning tea.

Eventually the track moved away from the lakes and came out at Inland Road, the main one of two parallel private roads running the length of Woodhill Forest. We took another track that went through a younger plantation and passed a lake that looked like it had coffee instead of water in it.

Our lunch stop was on top of a knoll off the track overlooking Lake Poutoa. We had to dodge a couple of showers while we were sitting down.

Afterwards we crossed over to Coast Road, the other private road running the length of the forest, and went along a trail-bike track through more mature forest. This made a refreshing change from roads and vehicle tracks through younger plantations, and eventually came back out onto Coast Road.

Another short track brought us to the ocean beach, a long beach that stretches from Muriwai to South Kaipara Head.

We then took a long straight track running parallel to, and between, Coast and Inland Roads through a mixture of young and mature forest. This came out at Inland Road, and another vehicle track ran through an area that was being harvested brought us back to the starting point. We saw stacks of logs and harvesting equipment, but the gang had finished work for the day so we were unable to see any of the tree felling or processing.

Just before we left the forest, we decided to follow a bush track on our left that appeared to run along the seaward edge of Lake Kereta. Unfortunately, this track went in about twenty metres before turning in and coming out on the main track just back from where it started! We were out by about 3pm. Because the Club had been invited to a member's 50th birthday party afterwards at her home in Howick, the option of stopping at the hot pools afterwards was not offered. COST: $9