Tracing the last unexplored section along the Wainuiomata Water Race Track below the Orongorongo Maintenance Track.
In Bush Bash 44, I walked along what I believe is the old maintenance track atop the water race which I call Water Race Track. To my surprise, when I rounded the last spur just before Scour Pipe, I entered a ditch which I have seen numerous times before. This ditch curves around the spur, and has long been a mystery. It sits below Maintenance Road but passes underneath Scour Pipe, which connects to the Orongorongo Pipeline above.
After giving it some thought, a theory came to mind. What if the water race is actually beneath this ditch instead of further up the hill where Maintenance Track is located which is the assumption of others. Just to be clear, the water race is not beneath Maintenance Road for all of its route, but it is assumed by some that the water race is just underneath Maintenance Track. What is the difference between Maintenance Road and Maintenance Track you ask? The track was once part of the private road, but was abandoned decades ago. Nowadays, this section of road is now an overgrown track. Anyway, my reasoning that the water race possibly not being under the Maintenance Track was stumbling into this ditch when following what I think was Water Race Track. It didn’t align with Mainteanance Track when I rounded the spur. If this is correct, it could also explain another anomaly (in my mind at least), the drainage pipe that runs beneath the Orongorongo Pipeline and the assumed path of the water race near this ditch seems too deep for its purpose of passing a creek below the water race.
But what if the water race was further down the hillside below Maintenance Track, and the drainage pipe was initially constructed for that. That would explain the existence of actually two things, a visible lower track after Scour Pipe and why the drainage pipe is so deep compared to the top of the earth bridge that conceals the Orongorongo Pipeline above because that could have been added on a couple of decades later when the Orongorongo Pipeline was laid in the early 1920s. With this idea in mind, I decided to explore the area just below Maintenance Track from the Earth Bridge and head in the direction of Coleman’s Tunnel on the assumption that the water race ran not under Maintenance Track above but further down the hillside. I was looking for any exposed sections of the race or manholes.
So, I made my way up to Scour Pipe and followed this lower track running west along the hillside assuming that it could be part of Water Race Track. The track is visible, but tangled in supplejack, which made it slow and difficult to get through. After a while, the track begins to fade into the steep hillside, probably due to rockfall and debris from construction of Maintenance Track above. The slope here is unstable, and progress was slow. I eventually reached the area just below Meter House, where I know the water race track runs above Maintenance Track, in fact it runs behind the roof of Meter Hut as you can clearly see it to this day. I climbed back up to Maintenance Track and tried to figure out where the Water Race Track descends and intersects with Maintenance Track, and then passes beneath it and down the hillside I just explored. It’s hard to say, but I did notice that this section of Maintenance Track is for some reason, the widest anywhere along the whole route including Maintenance Road.
From there, I followed Maintenance Track back toward the earth bridge, then descended back down to what could be Water Race Track and continued down the hillside to exit the bush.
My next goal was to follow a link track I’d discovered during Bush Bash 44, one that climbs up from the public road below and heads toward the water race track just east of the spur where the ditch is located. I retraced it again, and although I could see the water race track above, there was no obvious connection. The track simply ended. Most likely, it once zigzagged all the way up, but over time the upper portion has eroded away. The steep bank supports this assumption.
So, I climbed the bank to rejoin the water race track and walked back toward the ditch and Scour Pipe to check whether the track truly aligned with the ditch as it circled the spur. It does.
After that, I left the bush and returned to my car. My current theory is that the ditch could be part of the original Water Race Track, and the path near Scour Pipe, which continues along the hill, could also be part of the same track. The problem is, I have no concrete proof, only clues that seem to fit. The ditch connects with the track which further aligns with an exposed section of raceway further east. Along the way, I noted several cuttings in the bank, some old bottles, a rotting timber post still in place, and even a wooden plank and a concrete brick half-buried in the undergrowth. These all point to a track that once existed here, likely used for maintaining the water race, which, if the theory holds, runs directly beneath it.
What I had really hoped to find today was a manhole, which should occur roughly every 40 metres, or a visible section of the water race itself: an opening or a glimpse of the outer wall. Unfortunately, I found none. So for now, it remains just a theory. The idea is that the race runs lower than both the Earth Bridge and Maintenance Track, before rising again above Maintenance Track near Meter House.
At this point, I believe I’ve now explored the full extent of the Water Race Track, whether above or alongside the race itself. While I didn’t find any new visible sections today, on other occasions I’ve located around six places along the near 2km route where the race is exposed. This last section confirms there are still plenty of unknowns when trying to map the full course of the water race.
With this mission complete, it’s time to look for a new area to explore, ideally somewhere with a bit of hidden history waiting to be uncovered. Unless new evidence comes to light, which would undoubtedly pull me back to this spot, I’ll turn my attention to hopefully another mystery as compelling as finding the water race or the site of the Kittyhawk wreckage from a 1943 crash above Sunny Grove which I was focussed on a year or two ago. These remain two of my favourite historic adventures in the Wainuiomata wilderness so far and all good things come in threes. So what to do next?
