I had a free afternoon on Sunday, and decided to use it to check out Cattle Ridge in the Remutaka Range, where I’ve not been for a long time. It’s a less direct way to reach the Orongorongo River, but it makes a nice change from the long and hard-surfaced almost-a-road walk which is now the Orongorongo Track.
It was also an opportunity for me to try out my Aarn Liquid Agility pack, which I bought 14 years ago then forgot I owned, but recently rediscovered entirely unused in storage. (This particular model is no longer manufactured.)
Date: 1st November, 2026.
Location: Remutaka Forest Park, Catchpool Valley.
People: Just me.
Route: From Catchpool Valley up the Butcher Track, along Cattle Ridge to the top of Browns Track, then down to the Orongorongo River, then back via the main Orongorongo Track.
After a short drive, I left the Catchpool Valley carpark at roughly 1.30pm, reaching the base of the Butcher Track within about 5 minutes. The Butcher Track climbs upwards to Cattle Ridge, but for most of this it sidles a spur and remains not far above a stream coming down from Baker.
The climb itself took about 30 minutes. There’s a lookout at the top, which is signposted from further back, but its location wasn’t immediately obvious. The whole area up here borders on private land, including the entire Baker Track which appears current on LINZ maps.
A gorse-covered ground-trail briefly led me to an overgrown gate with a private property sign. After some backtracking, I followed the main track, counterintuitively, downhill to the north-west which didn’t seem right at first, although it turned out the lookout point was just a minute or two further along. It’s directed out towards the south and west over the Wainuiomata River valley towards Wellington and out to the sea. I took a photograph, turned around and went back. From about 2.20pm I begin thumping my way along Cattle Ridge.
For most of Cattle Ridge there’s not much to see out to the valleys on either side, from under its trees, except for a view across to Mt McKerrow early on, but it’s a nice bush-walk. From the Butcher Track end it’s quite broad on top, but then narrows. There’s a little undulation between 300m and 400m elevation but I didn’t find it hugely noticeable for most of the time.
I spent some time playing with my compass and practicing keeping track of how far I’d come according to my map. The track itself is mostly easy to follow, although at one specific point (roughly 10 minutes east of pt .444) I managed to lose it briefly and so had to back-track and momentarily think about where I was.
After roughly an hour of walking along the top of the ridge, I arrived the track junction with Browns Track, which goes down both sides in a steep and mostly straight line. I set a bearing, just to be sure, and got started.
Browns Track is very steep, but sometimes that’s what you want if you’re just trying to get down by the most direct route possible. Therefore, after 15 minutes of slipping and sliding, I’d dropped 200 metres from Cattle Ridge to the Orongorongo River.
Aside from the general steepness, there’s only one specific point – not far from the base – which involves some scrambling over a relatively steep face. There were adequate hand-holds, but enough background risk to make me pay very close attention to where my hands and feet were. It’s ages since I’ve been here and I wondered if this was recent, but have looked up my notes I see it’s been a feature of Browns Track for a long time. I wrote about it several times between between 2007 and 2009, which might have been when I was there last.
Hitting the river at 3.35pm, I spent the next 15 minutes following it up-stream, criss-crossing the river a few times (mmmm wet socks) to find the Turere Bridge. Up until this point I’d seen almost nobody since the car-park, although I did finally spot a person further up in the river bed. I guess fewer people around around on Sunday afternoon if they’ve mostly stayed the night and maybe already headed out. Then I began the walk back along the main Orongorongo Track, first climbing up the customary detour.
To add some interest, I had my compass out again in an attempt to find the base of the other end of Browns Track (which comes off Cattle Ridge in the opposite direction), and felt rather smug that I picked it out successfully.
With daylight to spare, I went on one final detour, across to return via the Middle Ridge Track. It involves some climbing, but not much climbing in the scheme of things. I arrived back in the carpark at roughly 5.10pm, which was about 3 hours 40 minutes after leaving. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.
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