We started with morning tea on a tree stump in the car park
then headed onto the track 
and up the Catchpool valley.
The track follows the stream for a while, 
then climbs up and over a saddle down to the Orongorongo river which was fairly full after recent rain.
We took lunch down on the shingle bed
and were joined by an Avondale spider.
We drove down to the mouth of the Wanuiomata Stream then walked across the bridge over the Orongorongo River and onto to Turakirae Head. 
It's an area that has been repeatedly raised by earthquakes and contains at least five raised beaches. It's a bit difficult to appreciate it at ground level but the aerial view in that last link gives a better impression.
A brief description from here -Spectacular earthquakes have been lifting the lower North Island out of the sea step by step over thousands of years. At Turakirae Head Scientific Reserve it’s easy to see a well-defined sequence of earthquake-raised beaches – sometimes called ‘stepped beaches’. Each plateau provides a valuable habitat for a variety of plants and wildlife. The five earthquake-raised beaches are internationally-renowned in scientific circles for the continuous record they provide of geological upheaval over the past 7,000 years.
If you want some more technical information then here are three links that might be interesting -
