The Mount McKerrow circuit may not be Wellington’s finest hike if you’re after spectacular views or brute physicality—but it’s a good day out nonetheless.
Begin along the Orongorongo Track, a popular path into the Remutakas and maintained to Great Walk standards. I always enjoy the walk up the Catchpool Valley, with myriad interpretive signs to help everyone appreciate the forest. This part of Remutaka Forest Park is also a kiwi zone, so dogs must be kept on a leash.
After four kilometres, at the top of a small saddle, the track to McKerrow swings left uphill. You’ll gain nearly 300m over the next two kilometres.
Once on the ridge you’ll find yourself on an easy tramping trail but still gaining elevation. The vast majority of this hike is in bush, but there are a couple of fine views along the way. At one point, where a storm has blown down the trees, you’ll be rewarded with a good view over Wellington Harbour and Cook Strait. Any views of the southern Remutaka Range (sometimes referred to as the Orongorongos) are generally obscured by bush.
To bag the summit, turn north at the junction with Clay Ridge Track, where the top of McKerrow is only five minutes away. Not that you’d know when you get there, as McKerrow’s summit (706m) is a humble rise in the ridge with nothing of note other than a permanent patch of mud. Even the pipe that marked the summit in recent times seems to have disappeared! My companion and I had our GPS tracker on, to be sure we had made it.
Return to the junction with Clay Ridge Track and turn right. Just beyond here the bush opens up spectacularly with terrific views of Wainuiomata, the harbour, and the Marlborough Sounds. This is the Kodak moment of the trip.
The track then returns to the bush and follows a spur. There is a fairly steep drop of 200m onto Middle Ridge before the track evens out, now clearly on a low crest.
At Clay Forks you can continue over Middle Ridge or turn right to follow the well-graded and easy Five Mile Loop Track to the carpark. The latter is particularly pleasant —it passes some pretty stands of tree ferns and picturesque picnic areas.
Need to know
Access: Drive to Catchpool Valley carpark, Remutaka Forest Park
Grade: Moderate
Time: 5-6 hours for the round trip
Distance and ascent: 14.7km with 704m of vertical gain
NZ Topo 50: BQ32 Lower Hutt