We loved the late afternoon walk we did on the Kapamahunga ranges recently (The Karamu Walkway -Four Brothers Reserve), so decided to check the next part of the walkway in the company of some friends. The Kapamahunga walkway is about 10km long, but we only had a couple of hours. We parked the car at the Old Mountain Road end of the walk – the end point for our Karamu walk- with the intention of walking for an hour and then retracing our steps back to the car.

We walked over beautiful farmland, sometimes steep, sometimes rolling. Limestone outcrops and rocks dotted the landscape. I liked the way the rock in the photo above had split.

This is good sheep country. Sheep are less likely than cattle to cause erosion and manage to safely negotiate the rocky crags. In the photo below you might be able to pick out some white dots (sheep) at the very top and on the steep sides of the distant peak.

Here`s a close up (below) of a rock that had fallen onto the path – limestone, I think. It`s full of sea shell fossils and reminded me of the ones we saw while black water rafting in the Ruakuri Cave system in Waitomo. Amazing to think that rock, now 100 to 300m above sea level was formed in a marine environment.

We`d already turned around to return to the car when the first rays of the setting sun brushed some hills. There`s a pile of fence posts in the photo below – they`re probably intended to fencing.

We got back to the car at Old Mountain Road when the clouds were turning pink as the sun set.

We just stood there soaking up the beauty and enjoying the quiet as the sunset colours to the west intensified.

Looking back to the Karamu walkway some pungas (tree ferns) were back-lit by the fading sunlight.

Looking to the east the lights of Hamilton city twinkled in the growing darkness. To the far left are the lights of the Te Rapa dairy factory.

We headed home thinking we must do it again sometime!

Here`s the link to my post on the walkway that joins this one:-
http://gorgeouswithattitude.blogspot.com/2010/04/karamu-walkway-four-brothers-reserve.html

The Kapamahunga walkway is part of the National Walkway, Te Araroa :-
http://www.teararoa.org.nz/index.cfm/pageid/213/ViewTrack/292/Kapamahunga+Walkway