Massey-Cossey Loop Track

I have been dying to come back to the Hunua's but have struggled to convince people to come with me... something about early mornings and stairs scares people apparently.

Anyway when Courtney agreed to come with me I was over the moon and we started looking into tracks to do. As usual the council site is not the easiest to navigate when looking at the tracks in the Hunua's. A lot of them are closed due to die-back or slips.

Open tracks as of today are - Suspension Bridge track, Massey-Cossey Loop, Half of Wairoa (multiple slips took out the other half) and the Hunua falls loop.

We decided to do the Massey-Cossey Loop track and asked Nadira and Dagon to join us (along with Rosa). I am putting it out here that I wanted to do the Wairoa Loop and that this walk has a lot of stairs and I warned everyone. I think I need to make a disclaimer - warning there will be a fair few stairs - proceed with caution : sign here if you agree with the stairs.

Our walk started in the Hunua falls car park, the car park opens at 8 am in Summer. From here you have to go through a large Kauri Die back cleaning station. Across the rickety bridge and to the left is where the walking tracks start.

We walked to the right to do the Massey track first as we wanted to finish at the stream crossing, within 200 m of the walk starting you arrive at the base of stairs. After what feels like hours (not long) you keep climbing until you flatten along a ridge line for a km or so before climbing again.

Roughly 3 km in (almost straight up) you see a look out and from there you head down. In typical dog mum fashion Courtney chucked Rosa up on a fence - with a massive drop below, I then chucked Hux up but kept hold of his harness (don't try this at home). Next thing Pascalene tried to get Nadira up on the seat and she almost jumped over the barrier... oops. We took sensible photos and then carried down the hill.

Photos from Myself, Courtney/Rosa and Pascalene/Nadira

Everyone complained about my stairs but this next part was horrible, a gravel and dirt track going straight down. We were walking sideways at one point and I was hanging onto the punga trees going down so I didn't end up sliding down the hill. After what felt like an eternity going up and down along the ridge line we made it to the Cossey Dam cleaning station and then to the dam itself.

We had a wee photo op at the dam face, a rest, water, treats and Pascalene had some human brownies which went down a treat after all those stair. After a break we headed along the dam front to where the Cossey track linked back to the falls (through another die back station). This track is not as sealed as the Massey one and has exposed roots, deep stair wells and a narrow path which drops off down cliff faces into the stream below. It was a quick path and a nice way to get out of the hot beaming sun. Native birds swooped from the surrounding trees and the rush of water below us was relaxing. The estimate was 1 hour from the dam to the falls. It took roughly that as most of the track is flat with the odd straight up or steep straight down.

As we scampered through the forest we started to see signs which said warning river crossing. Luckily there hasn't been much rain recently so the river was low enough for us to safely cross. The river was freezing!. The boys had a drink and then quickly jumped up on the rocks so that they did not have to stand in the water. Ed tried to cross over the rocks but his front feet steeped a little bit to far and he was stranded between two rocks. Ed then fell into the water and was pretty grumpy.

Photos credit to Courtney/ Rosa

Just after the river crossing we ended up back at our branching trail, turning right it was a quick 10 min walk to the falls turn off. The falls as usual were busy but we managed to get some dog photos before we headed home (back through the Kauri Stations).

The car ride home revealed how damaged my legs were from the three schnauzers scrambling over me in the back seat for an hour on our drive to the Hunuas. Luckily I am not a leg model so we are good. Also a cute close up with Dagon before we head home.

Summary:

On leash

No bins

Some facilities at the start and at the dam

Distance : 8.6km

Walk time : 2 hours and 2 minutes

Total time : 3 hours and 51 minutes (a lot of stopping for the stairs and the gram)

Flights : 107

Stairs : lots

Massey track is gravel and relatively sealed

Cossey track is root beds, loose dirt

Grade : Easy-medium

No dogs in the water at the falls or surrounding picnic areas

Busy trails as the day progresses

Car park opens at 8 am and closes at 9 pm (daily savings)