A short trek to explore a historic cemetery, followed by a visit to a popular swimming spot.
I realised this morning that I had a sore foot while walking around the house barefoot. Not ideal when you’re planning a long trek into the Wainuiomata wilderness! However, I’d already organised everything around today’s adventure, so I decided to head towards Wainuiomata anyway, and work out where to go along the way that wasn’t too intensive.
I eventually decided to start by exploring the area surrounding the historic Sinclair Cemetery. This place has special memories for me, as I spent a lot of time playing here as a kid. My dad’s property adjoins the site, although back then, nobody seemed to realise it was an old cemetery. It wasn’t until the 1980s that its history was brought to light, the bush was cleared, and a memorial cairn was erected in the middle of the cemetery. A brass plaque was mounted on top, listing the names of those buried there.
Unfortunately, someone recently prised the plaque off the cairn. As the cemetery has been targeted by vandals before, with a gate and sign also disappearing, I thought it was worth searching the surrounding bush. Those earlier missing items had turned up at the back of my dad’s property, so I decided to check there first, hoping the plaque might have been discarded nearby.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of it. I then decided to make my way around the entire cemetery, checking the surrounding vegetation and down the bank below. Although I didn’t find the plaque, it was a good opportunity to explore an area that would have looked very different in the 1880s, and perhaps discover something historic that had been overlooked in the years since. See the photo to the right to see the site in the 1880s.
Apart from some old barbed wire deeply embedded in tree trunks, with decades of growth gradually swallowing the wire, there was nothing particularly new to discover. However, I did notice something unusual.
Nearly all the large holly trees below the Sinclair Cemetery site, which had self-seeded from trees originally planted around the cemetery’s perimeter, had either recently fallen or were in the process of falling. I found this rather strange, as many of these trees had been there for decades and some possibly more than a century.
My guess is that, being of a similar age, they had simply become too large for the ground supporting them. The soil below the cemetery is often damp, being heavily shaded and lying alongside Skerretts Creek, which floods periodically. Combined with some particularly strong winds during 2026, perhaps the trees had finally reached their limits.
I also examined the bank on the opposite side of Skerretts Creek and noticed considerable erosion since the days when my dad built a bridge across the creek behind his property. The bridge gave us kids access to this part of his land, including the hillside above the creek where Sinclair Cemetery is now located. The bank at the far end of the property, directly below the cemetery, also appears to have eroded significantly since I was a child. One tree, now on the verge of falling off the bank is clear evidence of just how much the bank has receded.
After thoroughly exploring the cemetery, I followed a faint, overgrown short track that climbed towards Sunny Grove Track, which was once part of the original Orongorongo Track.
From there, I headed a short distance up the hillside to an area I had explored on two previous occasions. What had originally attracted me was an old track disappearing into the bush alongside a small creek. This time, I followed it further around the spur and could see that it probably continued towards the ridge above.
However, the gorse was becoming increasingly thick, and as I’d already explored that ridge numerous times, I couldn’t see much point in fighting my way through it again.
Instead, I dropped down the hillside towards the Hine Road Recreation Area, eventually reaching another section of the old Orongorongo Track. Interestingly, this part of the track now resembles a streambed more than a walking track. The small creek I’d encountered earlier flows directly along part of the old route before continuing down towards the reserve.
I suspect that when the track was still in use, there must have been some form of drainage or diversion to prevent the creek from flowing along it.
By now, I was back in the recreation area, and the day had become noticeably warm. Walking through the long grass, I began thinking about where to go next. My original plans had changed considerably, and I still hadn’t managed anything like the amount of exercise I’d intended.
I eventually decided to head down to Richard Prouse Park and photograph Rock Pool, a popular swimming spot where, surprisingly, I’d never actually swum despite all my years living in Wainuiomata.
Rock Pool takes its name from The Rock, the prominent hillside rising above the river, through which Moores Valley Road has been cut. During the twentieth century, The Rock was used as a quarry, leaving much of the hillside stripped of vegetation and exposing the bare rock that gave it its name.
Today, the landscape looks very different. Vegetation has gradually reclaimed the old quarry, with ferns and young native trees covering much of the previously exposed hillside.
After photographing Rock Pool, I continued along the Wainuiomata River towards an area where an old walking route once linked Moness, an early homestead located within what is now the park, with the sawmills situated on a plateau across the river.
I refer to this old route as Mill to Moness Track and had previously discovered evidence of it below the plateau during an earlier bush-bashing adventure. It was interesting to revisit the area and imagine how people once travelled between the old homestead and the sawmills.
Nearby, the Wainuiomata Stream joins the Wainuiomata River, an area that was once a popular trout-fishing destination during the nineteenth century.
In the 1800s, a fishing hut known as Smiths Whare was located above the river. It provided accommodation for visiting anglers. Among those associated with the area was Mr Skerrett, whose name lives on through Skerretts Creek, where I’d been exploring beside the cemetery earlier in the day.
Simths Whare was constructed from remaining sawmill huts that were located here earlier and this hybrid hut was destroyed by fire in 1888, and the surrounding land was subsequently used for farming. Even today, an open grass field remains where the historic hut once stood.
Having finished exploring the river, I made my way back towards the car. Before leaving, I stopped to photograph the Wainuiomata AFC clubroom, home to the local football club, which has competed at a reasonably high level in Wellington’s regional football competitions.
What had started as a potentially disappointing day because of a sore foot turned into an interesting little adventure. Although I hadn’t ventured deep into the wilderness as originally planned, I’d managed to revisit several places from my childhood, investigate some local history, and explore a few more corners of Wainuiomata that still have stories to tell.
