East Cape to Cape Egmont Traverse

This East Cape to Cape Egmont Traverse is not so much a trail, more a Kiwi pilgrimage to our early pioneers and landscape.

Two authors/walkers have completed this traverse and written books:

  • Raymond Salisbury – Cape to Cape – 80 Day Traverse of the North Island [1]
  • A H REED – From East Cape to Cape Egmont On Foot at Eighty-six. 1st Edition 1962.

At age 86 A.H. Reed didn't take the difficult Raukumara Range Forest Park route, but followed the east coast beaches south, visiting coastal communities, before heading west inland. A great Kiwi feat none-the-less.

1970s: The proposed Cape Egmont to East Cape walkway

Starting in the late 1970s the then Department of Survey and Land Information embarked on a project to link Cape Egmont to East Cape by a walkway.

At least one section of the ‘Cape Egmont to East Cape’ walkway was completed and still remains in use:

2020: As a cycle tour

Departing in February in 2020 this North Island traverse was completed as the "Kopiko Aotearoa" cycle tour: [4][5]

West-East route: Cape Egmont – Te Rewa Rewa Bridge – Hobbit Hole – Mangamataha Bridge – Centre of the North Island – Waiotapu – Carved pou – Lake Waikaremoana – Rere rock-slide – Motu Road – Bay of Plenty – East Cape Lighthouse

Other cyclists concurrently cycled the 2020 "Kopiko Aotearoa" cycle tour from east to west route.

References
  1. Salisbury, Raymond (1 April 1997) [1995]. "The Great Escape". Cape to Cape – 80 Day Traverse of the North Island. Word for Word Publishing. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 February 2005. Retrieved 1 March 2007. A red station-wagon full of elderly folk pulled up alongside me. Seeing I was obviously going tramping, a lady asked me 'Where was I going?' I replied 'for a walk down the road,'...
  2. Barnett, Shaun (17 May 2015). "Wild Range: Matemateaonga Range". Wilderness Magazine. 51a Riverlea Avenue, Pakuranga, Auckland 2010: Lifestyle Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 23 February 2020. No wonder Maori had a route along it and Europeans planned to build a road over the crest, too. Some work on the road was completed in the early part of the 20th century but, happily for trampers, it never became much more than a dray road.CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. "Matemateāonga Track". www.doc.govt.nz. Department of Conservation (New Zealand) (DOC) (Māori: Te Papa Atawhai). 23 February 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020. Penetrate deep into the wilderness of the Whanganui National Park on old Maori trail and settlers’ dray road.
  4. "Cape to Cape: friends cycle from Cape Egmont to East Cape". Gisborne Herald. 12 April 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  5. Hope, Sharnae (9 February 2020). "Waikato man's pedal power to give back to NZ's mental health crisis". Stuff (website). Retrieved 24 September 2020.


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