Coppermine Road End Track

Life doesn't get much better than this.

We officially had a perfect New Zealand weekend...The past month or so our lives have been utterly consumed with work and school and we have had very little energy left over for enjoying the outdoors and tramping. However, this week I have been on study break and this allowed me to catch up on a lot of stuff and take the full weekend off.

Most of the weekend we kicked back and cooked, watched movies, and just hung out together. The weather was fantastic in the Manawatu, and this morning we woke up and decided it was the perfect day for a tramp...So, off we drove to Woodville to explore a different area of the Ruahine mountains.
The Coppermine Road End Track is one that we have not explored yet and it is so close to our home. We were happy to have a beautiful tramping day. It was overcast and that cloud coverage allowed for perfect tramping (sometimes it hinders the view a bit, but it's lovely when you are climbing uphill!)
We tramped the Coppermine Loop Track as we did not have time for the full uphill to the Wharite Peak. This first part of this tramp is all through the forest and a LOT of uphill, but it loops around into farmland and opens out to this amazing view of the Hawke's Bay region.
Travis said that this cool hunting lodge was like his dream home! (Funny thing is that he is NOT kidding! haha...)
This was the perfect Sunday lunch spot and we chilled here for a bit and enjoyed our favorite tramping feast of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
It was a bit odd to find these huge trees at the top of the track. Mostly we saw an abundance of leatherwood which are these smaller bushes higher up the mountains. We heard that this area has the longest stretch of leatherwood around...interesting.
After climbing uphill for what seemed like an eternity I had to have a picture at the summit (or the closest to summit that we could figure. This wasn't really a full on mountain-top tramp! haha) This is my fair warning to all trampers heading out for this track - it's no joke when they say it's intermediate!
We were very sad that the mine area itself was closed off (especially since we had tramped along an uphill path out of the way of the loop to see it! ) We just have the worst luck lately with mines and we never seem to get to see them! oh well.

The track itself actually was so lovely. Usually we find the tracks are straight up and straight down, but this one was a little bit of everything: nice and gentle for the first 20 min. or so, a few creek crossings (nothing major, but just enough for a little adventure), Then it takes a really steep turn and heads straight up for a long while, once the route peaks it comes around through farmland and the rest of the way is a breeze. Coming down is gradual and pretty easy going which made the track one of my favorites because usually the downhill is a killer on the knees!

Overall this was an awesome tramp and we just had a beautiful Sunday.We definitely recommend this tramp and will be exploring further the other areas out here. We finished off the afternoon heading into Woodville for a coffee and a look around the Woodville Mart (antique store).