Saturday 12 June 2021

Otawa ZL1/BP-208

We were back in the Bay of Plenty visiting family and I took the chance to activate another of the local summits. The weather was fine with rising winds and rain predicted for the afternoon so made an early start for the 1 hour drive from Whakatane to Te Puke. The start of the track is easy to find - just a few minutes drive from Te Puke up a very well maintained shingle road - Quarry Road. in fact it was absolutely pristine, I followed the grader up the hill!

 There's a nice car parking area up off the road and ample DOC signage. 

At the top of Quarry Road - turn hard left here to find the car-park

 

Car-park is well off the road and roomy.



Track start - it's definitely not 3 hours and 6.1km to the top though!!

The summit is reached via an easement across farmland and then into lowland native forest with a gentle 500m climb to the summit but spread over 5km so very easy (8%). The track is well marked but has some confusing forking options (not shown on topo map), I found taking the left fork each time worked out OK (up and down)

View of Te Puke from near the summit (yellow cloth on tree). Mt Edgecumbe ZL1/BP-132 in the distance

 Arriving at the summit there's a trig on it's side, wearing a sock! The area is bush-clad so I set my pole up bungeed to the trig and ran the wire back into a sheltered operating spot.

You can just see the sock on top of the trig, keeping it warm!

I fired up the KX2 and soon found Roly ZL1BQD at his lakeside activation on 40m with a good signal for my first S2L. Being a weekday, contacts were a little tougher than usual but I managed 8 before the forecast rain and wind arrived and I had to pack up and hurry down. Thanks to the Chasers for being there.

This is a really nice summit and should be on your to-do list when visiting BOP.

Getting there:

Google Maps - search for "Otawa Trig Carpark" or

Take Quarry Road from Te Puke towards the foothills. It will change to shingle as you climb. About 2 km along the shingle road you'll come to the crest with DOC signage and a nice car-park.

Repeaters: all BOP repeaters accessible

Permission: None required - easement onto DOC Otawa Scenic Reserve

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes to the summit, 5.3 km climbing 500m

Cell coverage: 4G Spark/Skinny