Suppose if there’s anything I’m guilty of, is that I think my standard of what’s generally easy is common.
(Apparently, no, it’s not. But also, maybe I need to realise I need to upgrade my taste)
Goldschmidt Track, over at Mangawhai, New Zealand. The track is about 2.9kms one way, with an elevation of estimated 130m.
You have to imagine me laughing whilst I typed that realisation above – because yes, I am kind of a bit dense in terms of what I think is pretty and common. What exactly happened here? Well, I tried my luck in suggesting our friend group’s itinerary this time, and it turned out that, while the whole location IS quite pretty, my chosen track wasn’t.
Ah, well. Let me take a step back and explain.
Our itinerary for this post is a track called Goldschmidt Track, a one-way trek that’s about less than 3 km total. On the All Trails website (and you might find that I would constantly reference this site, because a) it’s pretty nifty and b) they’re very good in what they do–tracking trails) it says about 100 or so meters elevation, so I was thinking, well, that would do. The beach just beside our house slopes down to maybe 80meters, and I often run that path (only about 3km round trip) so I figured, it can’t be that bad, no?
See, where I would be wrong, is that our itinerary included a pre-teen and a person who wasn’t completely inclined with intermediate trails, so that was mistake number 1. * laughs * Mistake number 2, would be that there’s a reason I took Communications in college: I suck at math. Or numbers. Sometimes.
Our usual group includes C and our now travel buddies of two years (not something they have a choice about but I’d like to think they’ve gotten over that and they’re happy to be with us anyway since we’re really good company, mind you), K and N, and their 11 year old son, M. The person who usually finds us good spots aside from C is N, but aside from being sick at the time we had the trek, I also volunteered to find us the trail this time. I figured: if the reviews say the views are good, maybe it’s alright.
Well, that’s where my foresight failed me. Because a) the reviews were less than maybe 20 or so, which meant it wasn’t that popular a spot; and b) if they already said stuff like “this trail is tough and slippery,” then maybe it’s not really for people who are used to tourism.
Goldschmidt track is apparently just a local dog walk trail–which means it caters to locals who wouldn’t mind a rough track. The whole walk starts initially with a good view and then plummets directly into absolute rawness–you almost wouldn’t know it was a track if not for the mild beaten trail and the semi-fixed steps around it.
First few meters of the walk
Very raw walk areas
Which, again, if you stayed around Mangawhai, it’s not a problem. But we drove an hour and a half from Auckland to get here–so for the rest of the group to get this kind of view? They were definitely less than enthused.
To be fair, after 2 km of walking it does open up to this kind of view:
Which then led up to this kind of view:
Mangawhai heads, as it turned out, has one of the best views of the beach–and the sandspit in the middle. As a part of NZ’s caring for the ecologically significant area, they’re only limiting the parts where dogs can go, hence I thought, okay, maybe checking out Goldschmidt Track is fine. (I would later on find out that maybe I should have done better research because there ARE parts of the beach that allow dogs and that maybe that would have made for a better trip)
So if you’re trying out this walk, please come with a fair warning that it’s incredibly rough–it’s hardly a popular trek as much as it’s just an extension part of a typical trek. It’s one way–you’re better off starting from Wintle Street near the beach, and end up at Cullen St (we did the opposite). I would even argue that you’re also much better off starting from Wintle St AND THEN just going back after reaching the peak, which is about less than 1km from the beach.
Then stay at the beach. lol
Here are a few more photos just in case you need more convincing:
