Wesley Church Group Walks

Te Waihou Walkway & Waikato River

August 2008

By Maurice Boniface

The weather report for Monday was occasional showers, heavy at times. Ken couldn't go again so I talked to Dave and we decided to do the Te Waihou Walkway near Putaruru and one of the Waikato River Trails from Arapuni Dam to Jones Landing. I picked up Neil and Dave in Cameron Road and we drove over the Kaimais to the car park of the Te Waihou Walkway in Whites Road. When we got over into the Waikato it was foggy everywhere but not very thick which was better than rain. We put on our gear and set off along the track. The track at the beginning, across some paddocks, had been covered in shingle which made it great for walking on instead of muddy paddock. There are quite a few boards erected along the track to tell you about the history of the area and the river. The name of the river means "New Water" and was used by the early Maoris as a main travelling route. The water is very clear and along this first part it is very swift. When we first went along the Walkway some years ago, there were a whole host of wooden stiles to cross all the fences which went down to the river but a lot of the fences have been changed so that there are not many stiles left to climb over. The Walkway was opened in 1999 and about 400 children and adults were involved in planting a lot of trees along the route. There are picnic tables and toilets at various spots. One of the gates that we went through was made of zig zag pipes from an old herring bone milking shed and looked very odd in its new position. Part way along, the track divided into two and a bridge goes across the river so you can walk along the other bank. The first section of this side is along a boardwalk but there was no netting on the wooden slats so you had to walk very carefully because they were still wet and slippery. We heard a lot of honking and a pair of Paradise Ducks flew overhead, we must have disturbed them. Dave said they are unusual in that the female has all the colour whereas for most birds the male has all the colours. The track comes to another bridge and rejoins the original one. A bit further along there is a picnic table with a roof over it but we didn't stop here. The river then forms a small gorge and the track is very close to it. You can see the turbulent waters just a metre or so away from the track. At the other end of the gorge the river is much wider and looks very calm and peaceful and is a lovely blue green colour with green drifts of vegetation floating dreamily below the surface. On the other side of the river and up on a hilly pasture were five sheep - Dave said the top one was cast and couldn't get up because of the weight of its wool. We just hoped the farmer would find it soon. We came to another board walk which was just as slippery so we trod carefully along it. It led us to the Blue Spring where the Putaruru water supply comes from and the track passes the pump house. To our right there was a wooden staircase up to a lookout, so we climbed up and stopped for morning tea. The view from the top was lovely and peaceful - I will attach a photo I took from there. The blue alcove on the other side of the river is where the spring is. A sign board said that pure water absorbs the red colour leaving only blue and some green to be transmitted to the human eye. The water has come to the spring from the Mamaku Plateau and it takes 50 to 100 years to get here so it has been purified on the way. Putaruru is lucky to have such a pure source of water. I rang Mum and it was marginal. While we were up here the sun came out and it was very pleasant.

We continued along the track until we came to some trees on the left. Under the trees was a ring of five boulders on which were five brass tablets. The first one was a memorial to Linda Pearce who died aged 36. The other four each has a verse of a poem called "Dust If You Must" and talks about all the other things in life which are important and ends with the lines "And when you go, and go you must, you yourself will make more dust." A group of people arrived there at the same time as us, coming from the other way. The leader said that when he was here a few days ago the track was closed because of a slip. We went on down to a bridge. We could have gone on and walked back around on a road but we thought it would be more interesting going back the way we had come. We had a very pleasant trip back in the sun. The other folk were up at the lookout when we passed there. On the side of the pump house there was a plaque to say that it was commissioned in 1991. The sun had dried the board walk quite a bit so it was much easier going. We passed an old bridge which was no longer used because it had a fence across the front of it. We stopped at one of the tables and took off some of our cool weather gear because the sun had warmed up the atmosphere quite a bit. We came to a group of birds on the other side of the river who were kicking up an awful commotion. Dave said they were Turkeys and they were letting an even bigger flock up the hill from us know not to come over their side. The males had their tail feathers out like a fan. We didn't cross over on the bridge but stayed on the old track and got back to the car at ten to twelve. There was a road sign maintenance truck there and the chap was having an early lunch too. I rang Mum and sent a text. Laurie replied telling us about the purity of the water in the river etc. Neil said he must have looked it up on Google!

After lunch we got in the car and drove through Putaruru and on to the Arapuni Dam to the car park at the beginning of this section of the Waikato River Trail. There is a peculiar building with a small tower beside it next to the track and has a tall wire mesh fence with about twenty electric fence wires going all around the building area. We couldn't work out what would be there to require such high security. We walked along to the start of the walkway which goes along the side of the lake upstream from the dam. It was a nice afternoon with no wind and the views across to the other side were magnificent, with the reflections of the clay banks and bush on the other side making some lovely pictures and I couldn't help taking photos of them. We came to a small shed on the side of the track which turned out to be the local farmer's pump house and we could see his pipe down in the lake water below us. Further along the track, which has trees on both sides, we came across several of the those basket fungi that I sent you a photo of a while ago. These ones still had the remains of what looked like puff balls at their base so the basket part must grow out of the ball. As the track began to climb we came to a notice saying "Danger - High Bluffs - Keep to the Track". Dave said that the water will have eaten into the side of the cliffs and they would be concave so the edge is liable to fall away if you stood on it. He said the trees on the edge will finally fall in. We came to a Plaque for Allen Johnson who died in 1995. It said "Steward of this Land from 1955". The track goes up and down, through trees and farmland until it comes to a sign "Lookout - steep track with viewing area at the top". Dave went straight up so Neil and I followed at a much slower pace and found him sitting patiently at the top waiting for us to catch up! The views certainly are beautiful. The lake looked so calm and peaceful it made you feel the same. We spent some time enjoying all the views and then went on. The next part is a track cut long the face of a high bluff with a wooden fence to stop you falling over the edge. At the beginning of it a Koru has been carved into the soft rock. Last September several our group had done this walk and at the beginning of it there had been a notice that it was closed so they went to see why and had got along to a point where there were workmen building a bridge so they had to turn back. When we got to the spot we found they had built wooden steps down across a small swampy patch. We then came to a wooden walkway across a large swamp with trees and swamp plants all through it. In amongst it we could see some red patches which turned out to be Black Swans in the middle of it. Dave said they were probably looking for nesting sites. The track comes out onto the Jones Landing picnic area where we have had lunch on a picnic table down by the lake on previous walks. We stopped for a while then headed back the way we had come. Just before we went onto the track, Dave pointed to a high hill with trees on the top and said that is where the Lookout, we were at earlier, is! No wonder we had had to puff our way up. On one of the rock walls that we passed there was a plaque to celebrate the opening of the first section of the Waikato River Trail in December 2004, so it hasn't been here very long - less than four years. We made good time on the way back, passing the only other person we saw on this track who was a portly chap, going the other way and dressed all in white. We got back to the car shortly after three and had afternoon tea. We noticed on the other side of the road another fenced in area with pipe work in it. Dave said it was part of the underground gas pipe that goes from Taranaki to Taupo. We set off for home and I got there at 4.30 p.m