Sunday 24 August 2025

Leader: Kate Livingston

For this Sunday trip we explored the southern part of Belmont Regional Park: heading over Belmont Trig to Cannons Head, looping round and down to Korokoro Dam before picking up the track back out to our cars at the Cornish St entrance in Petone.

We met up at 8.30am at the school and set off in three cars to the Hutt Valley, arriving at Cornish St around 9.15am. The track follows the Korokoro Stream along a narrow valley. The Korokoro Dam was built in the early 20th century as a water supply for the lower part of the Hutt Valley. Although no longer in use, the old pipes and dam structures can still be seen alongside the valley track. After an hour's easy walking we took a left turn and headed uphill toward Belmont Trig, pausing for a break at Baked Beans Bend. Coming out of the bush we reached the Trig around 11.30am. The weather was warmish and nearly windless, which was a great blessing when standing at the exposed hill-top with the Trig. There were excellent views over the Hutt Valley, the Wellington Harbour, and the hills and mountains to the north.

Being too early for lunch we headed northward over former farmland. There were plenty of indications of an active replanting programme on the old pastures. At the junction with Takapu Ridge Track off to the left, we went right toward our goal of Cannons Head, arriving around 12.30pm - time for lunch. There were excellent views across to snowy peaks of the Tararua Range.

After lunch we headed downhill on the Middle Ridge Track to the Stratton St entrance to the park. After jumping a small stream it was an uphill walk again on a 4WD track - the initial direction being Belmont Trig. After around 20 minutes the track to Korokoro Dam turns off to the left. An up-and-down sidle track through some nice bush with nikau palms eventually brought us out to the Korokoro Dam. There isn't much water left in the lake behind the dam but there was an impressive amount of water flowing over the remains of the spillway and down into the valley. We followed the track down stream, connecting up with the valley track we took earlier. By around 4pm we were back at the cars.

Those on the trip were:

Chantal Heller, Elisabeth Hynes, Ian Algie, Jen Perry, Julie James, Kate Livingston, Marian Cox, Mark Robertson, Owen Cox, Paula Richardson, Rob Dey, Sandra Rowland, Kathy Mercier

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.