The Dome Hike

We were told that there is a pleasant hike just north of Warkworth – the Dome Forest Walkway. The track leads to a lookout and then on to a grove of old-growth kauris. The track to the lookout was well maintained and reasonably close. However, the lookout was nothing special. The trail to the kauris was much more of an adventure – up and down and very, very muddy. We could have handled the steep pitches if the mud hadn’t been, well, so muddy. At times, the mud was deep and sucked our boots, but at other times, it just made a slick, slippery slope where we all took turns stumbling or tumbling depending on whether we were headed uphill or down. By the time we arrive at the kauris, we decided that the effort was not worth it (they were nice kauris, just not nice enough). Unfortunately, we still had to walk back, irritable that we made the effort without a sufficient reward.