Manuka Nature Preserve

Sunday we stopped at the Manuka Nature Reserve to look at the 2 mile nature hike.  Leonard did the smart thing and put on his sneakers - I should have done the same since the trail was a bit more rugged than I expected.  We were surprised to find a number of cars in the lot and saw a number of serious birders, complete with binos and fancy cameras with big telephoto lenses.  We saw birds, but once again, most weren't visible in the canopy which was filled with bird song.

Hiking Manuka Nature Trail- Note the short shadow, the sun is almost directly overhead

Pan of a crater along the trail with trees growing in the bottom  Click Here for full size view

The map had indicated the trail was a loop, but after climbing 600', looking at another crater, the trail showed no sign of turning back toward the parking lot.  Leonard checked on the cell phone to see if Google Earth might show the trail - with no cell coverage, it didn't.  We reached a spot marked 'rest stop' and seeing the trail continue deeper into the jungle we decided the prudent thing to do was retrace our steps rather than end up far from the car.

Warning Sign at the trail head

Back at the trail head we saw the trail map - it was a loop, and we'd gone a bit more than half way.  The sign that had caught our eye was the one warning about cliffs, drop offs and the possibility of cave ins.  It was a nice hike with the trail consisting from everything  - forest soil, tree roots, small loose lava gravel, larger loose lava rocks requiring us to keep an eye on where we were stepping rather than on the scenery.

Beggars waiting for crumbs while we ate lunch

 After lunch we headed for a 4 wheel trail down to one of the small bays on the S shore.  We can now say we've done some off road driving, and it was rough.  From where the pavement stopped to the bay was 7 miles - too far to walk, even for us.  After passing through a couple of narrow rock fences, and a couple of miles of being bounced around and the trail surface deteriorating as we drove, we decided we didn't want to go to the beach that much, and very carefully backed and filled to turn around.  Having the smaller version of the Jeep helped since it has a short turning radius.  Later we realized we'd neglected to take photos of the 'road'.

We weren't sure if we had the right track - several are marked on the map, but aren't easy to find even with the directions in the guide book.  Most  roads heading toward the ocean are gated (and locked) as part of developments some of which have been 'in progress' for years, but thanks to locals successfully fighting to protect their fishing grounds and way of life have been stopped  The latest attempt to develop the several 1000 acres was in 2009, and although streets were paved, only a few (non development) houses have been built.  Since water would have to from catchment (no wells) we can foresee a number of problems, but the views were spectacular if barren.