Latham's Hill Track

I frequently travel to and from Whakatane for my business, almost always early morning meetings giving me time on the way home to stop for a run...

I have driven by the sign for Latham's Hill Track many times, thinking "I must check that out"... but never seemed to get around to it. Then I read Andrew Shelley's write-up on it in Andrew's Walking (& Running). Still it has been several months before finally today I made the time to stop and run the trail. 

A big thanks to Andrew's write-up was that I knew that I should park the car at Awakeri Hot Pools and run down the road (about 1.5km) to the entrance. It is easily spotted as it is next to a B&B with two big flags up.

Climb the fence and follow the visible trail across the paddock, through the cattle race an on up the hill. Watch out for those tape gates, they will give you a buzz if you are not careful.

 At first you think "I hope it's not going to be all farmland"... but in no time you are up to the tree line and some excellent single trail.

The beauty of entering the trail from the Whakatane end is that the trail is largely runnable as you climb the hill. The trails are pretty well marked and while there are a few roots to watch out for, you can generally cruise at a reasonable speed - until you run out of steam.

 

As you work your way up, you find yourself cursing that there are no decent views through the trees, you can see that you have climbed quite a way, but the trees keep blocking the good views over the coast.... until you get to the trig! Then it becomes apparent that they have been teasing you! 180 degrees of views (see pic at top of blog, click to enlarge).

Cool, now you are at the trig it must be downhill time... well yes it is - for a little, then back up and a series of humps and hollows as you make your way along the crest. 


Unfortunately a side track off the main trail has been closed, that used to take you down into the valley, over a stream and then back up. I found this out when I bumped into two lovely ladies in their mid-sixties navigating their way down one of the steep descents. 

We had a great chat and they had put me to shame by starting - as I did - at the hot pools, but instead of heading down the road and then up and over, they had gone up and over from the pools, then turned around and retraced the route! Impressive!

My only real disappointment of the trail was that the descent to the end of the trail was at times quite steep, not dangerous steep unless you were reckless, but too steep to run safely... and running downhill is part of why we bust our gut to get to the top.

But after the really steep section the last km is nice cruisy downhill through a meadow, some more bush and eventually coming out beside the carpark at Awakeri Hot Pools where - hopefully - your car awaits you.

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