Waikareao Walkway & Sulphur Point

25th June 2007

by Maurice Boniface

 Ken decided that we would do a local walk this week. I picked up Norma and we met Ken, Allan, John, Sig and June at the Maxwell Road car park at the start of the Daisy Hardwick Walk, which is the start of the Waikereao Walkway. However Ken said that before we set off on the Walkway, we would go up to Pillans Road and look at the start of the tunnel they are going to make along under the road right out to the Waikereao Estuary. This is being done because when we had the big storm a couple of years ago, a lot of the houses in this area were flooded and were a writeoff. In order to stop it happening again the Council has being doing massive changes to the stormwater drainage systems to get rid of floodwater more efficiently so that next time, we don't have such a huge loss of homes etc. Ken took us for a shortcut through Pillans Point School grounds to Pillans Road and along to where the road is closed (and will be for another 12 months). We could see a big crane in the middle of the road further down, but he took us around the block to Rutherford Reserve to show us some massive machinery taking up half the reserve and had a wire mesh fence al around it. There were two tall silos painted yellow, behind which was more machinery with pipes going all over the place. There were a couple of fellows up in the middle of all this doing some welding. When one of them came down the ladder to get something I asked him what it was all for and he said it was a slurry clarifying plant. When the tunneling gets going, the slurry will be pumped up here and will be whirled around to separate the water from the solid material and then both can be disposed of more easily. We then walked back to where the crane was, which was also surrounded by wire mesh. They have dug a hole in the centre of the road and covered the bottom with concrete. I presume they will tunnel under where we were standing, right to the end which is a dead end and the Estuary is beyond. They have also dug another smaller hole a bit further along.

We walked back to the cars and got our packs because we wouldn't be coming back until we had finished our walk in the afternoon. We set off along the Daisy Hardwick Walk which goes along the edge of the Estuary. The tide was out and a Heron was wading in the pools looking for crabs etc. We came to the spot where the Pillans Road tunnel will come out. They have covered the area with concrete and I will attach a photo of the group looking at it. As you can see it will be quite big. Ken thinks they will put a bridge over the exit so the Walkway can still be used. There were quite a few other people on the walkway including a mother with two little children - the little girl was having a great time running all over the place. We went into the bush and met a chap with a Husky, it was fairly young and he was teaching it - he made it sit while we went past. We came to an open space - Ken said it was another of the stormwater schemes. They have put a big pipe under the ground down the slope and under our path. On the other side of it was a large round steel lid held up by short steel rods. He said it was a kind of surge chamber - the water comes down the pipe into this concrete chamber and when it is full the water comes out between the rods onto the surrounding ground which is covered with rocks held down by steel mesh, then flows out into the Estuary - we could see that the water was nearly up to the top. 

We passed a Tortured Willow Tree, a branch of it had blown down so we shifted it off the track and under the tree. Further along we came to the board walk which goes across a marsh with rushes and lots of mangroves. The boardwalk doesn't have any sides so if you slipped over you would end up in the bog. Bicycles are allowed on it and it meanders all over the place - I think it does this to stop cyclists from speeding on it. We stopped to look at the houses on the hillside and Ken said this was another area where houses had had to be removed after the storm. Over to our left we could see the island we have been to on other occasions where the local Maori tribe have their cemetery. The track goes back into the bush and we came to a seat and as it was just after ten o'clock, we stopped for morning tea. Of course there was no trouble ringing Mum from here. While we were sitting there a group of people came along and one of them turned out to be Jocelyn who goes to Wesley and helps to maintain the church website where Neil puts a copy of these stories each week. The other two were her brother and his wife. They stopped and had a chat and I took their photo - Jocelyn told her brother there was a one in over a hundred chance that they would be on it! (one in 139 this week). Afterwards Ken took us on a side track out to Winiata Street because he had read in the paper that they had done it up. We passed a Palm Tree and June said it was about to be made a Noxious Weed because it is a vigorous grower and spreads everywhere. We passed a grove of tall Ponga Trees and another one of Californian Redwoods, one of which had blown over and was lying on the ground - what a crash that must have been!. The track certainly was much better with new wooden steps and drains down each side. We came across a board with a painting of The Mount on the side of the track, along another boardwalk then to the spot where the 'road" goes out to the island but Ken said we wouldn't go there today. 

We continued on and eventually came out onto Waihi Road which was as busy as usual. We crossed over the bridge and onto the second half of the Walkway which goes alongside the expressway. We went over the overhead bridge onto the other side of the expressway past places where they are going to build more blocks of units, over the Elizabeth Street roundabout , through some more bush then up an alleyway to the lights at the corner of Chapel Street and Marsh Street. At this point Allan decided to go back to the cars and go home because he had sprained his ankle a few weeks ago and it was beginning to get painful. We crossed over to the other side and walked along towards the railway bridge. We stopped to watch a machine knocking down the building on the opposite corner - Ken said it was to make way for the Flyover which is to be built over this busy corner to meet up with the new Harbour Bridge. We turned onto the pathway that goes under the railway bridge on its way to Sulphur Point. By now it was after twelve so Ken said we would have lunch under a tree on the side of the track. There had been a cold wind blowing all morning and we had put on jackets etc and every now and then it had clouded over but we usually only got a smattering of drizzle then the sun would come out. This spot was right beside the harbour and we got a great view of the Mount and while we were sitting there a big container ship went out through the channel between The Mount and Matakana Island on its way to somewhere else in the world. Some workmen came along in a little boat and stopped under the railway bridge and did something to some of the supports.

I rang Mum and sent my text message - Ken suggested I say that we were at the Nautilus Boat Stack! We walked along the track to the new Nautilus Apartments which are being built and are nearing completion, they are five stories high and are very big - there are only twelve but it looks like twice that number. At the back of them is a building equally as high and is where they are going to stack two hundred boats. You take your boat along a canal and hand it over to the attendant -they will wash it down and stack it in this building until you want it again. You give them an hour's notice and they will get it out, fill it up with fuel and you just hop on, take it out of the canal and sail off! There was a new zig zag ramp which goes over the canal and zig zags down on the other side. While we were having lunch some chaps had been wheeling barrows over this zig zag and tipping it down onto the end of the canal wall which they were finishing off. The path goes alongside the apartment front and there is a small garden with brightly coloured crushed shells in the shape of a fish, a seal, a whale and a dolphin. We then went past buildings with shops and offices, one of them was called Dreamboats! We were now on the Sulphur Point which is reclaimed land - it is called Sulphur Point because this is where they used to bring the sulphur they mined on White Island, but after there had been several eruptions of the volcano during which everyone on the island usually got killed, they closed it down. We passed all sorts of buildings to do with boating and fishing, usually with a restaurant attached. Over near the wharves we could see great piles of containers. Looking over towards the railway bridge we could see a train going over it - Ken said it was a coal train with coal from Indonesia, apparently a special sort of coal. On a big grassy area there was a huge circle of white wooden poles with four red carved Maori poles at each quarter. In the centre was a circle of reddish concrete tiles with a slightly raised bit in the middle - what it was for we didn't know

We got to the Yacht Club building at the end of the Point and sat in the sun out of the wind and just enjoyed the scenery. The Mount was right in front of us and to our right the ferry "Forest Lady" was sitting alongside the jetty. Out in the harbour we could see another ferry sailing to Matakana Island - in no time we could see it coming back so we looked at it through the binoculars and by the time we started to go back it had come quite close and was my last photo for the day. We made our way back to the cars and set off for home. I got there at three o'clock, just in time for afternoon tea. 

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