The track is already well used by walkers, joggers and dog owners. Photo / Peter de Graaf
The track is already well used by walkers, joggers and dog owners. Photo / Peter de Graaf
An upgraded section of the popular Te Araroa long-distance trail is already proving popular with Kerikeri residents seeking a place to exercise or walk their pets.
When the Advocate checked out the 3km Upper Kerikeri River Trail last weekend it was busy with walkers, joggers and dog owners, despite beingofficially opened only three weeks earlier.
The trail is now new but in the past users had to push their way through waist-high weeds in places or shimmy around electric fences.
The almost $100,000 upgrade includes gravel surfacing, new bridges and "kissing gates".
The trail follows a public reserve beside Kerikeri River from the Rainbow Falls lookout to a lay-by on State Highway 10 near Waipapa.
It skirts farmland, backyards and passes through shady totara groves, and forms part of the 3000km Te Araroa trail from Cape Reinga to Bluff.
The Upper Kerikeri River Track upgrade work included installing steps and replacing bridges. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Mark Williams, of Te Araroa Northland Trust, said the volunteer group was grateful to the Northland Regional Council for using about $100,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade the unformed track.
"It's money well spent. There has been positive feedback from the many members of the public who use the track," he said.
Williams said the Upper Kerikeri River Track was originally championed by Te Araroa founder Geoff Chapple as a route into Kerikeri as part of his epic vision for a length of New Zealand walk.
The work was done by Johnson Contractors with support from Frame Group.
"The quality of work, and attention to detail of the small bridges and gates, is for all to see and admire," Williams said.
DoC and regional council staff, Te Araroa Northland Trust volunteers, Ngāti Rēhia representatives and contractors at the opening of the upgraded Upper Kerikeri River Track. Photo / supplied
The upgraded track was blessed by Kipa Munro, of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rēhia, on April 4.
Jack Craw, who chairs the regional council's Biosecurity and Biodiversity Working Party, said three more Te Araroa tracks were under construction in the same area, and would be open in the lead-up to the 2022 Te Araroa walking season starting in spring.
"Kauri protection work is happening across Northland by way of trail upgrades, pest control, fencing, soil sampling and kauri sanctuaries like the one Ngāti Rēhia is developing. All this work is aimed at safeguarding our national taonga — kauri."
Craw said the Far North District Council had agreed to maintain the Upper Kerikeri River Track where kikuyu, gorse, paspalum and wattle are among the challenges.
Te Araroa Northland was looking into ways of ensuring ongoing maintenance of other sections of the trail.
The first off-road section of Te Araroa to open, back in 1995, was through Waitangi Forest from Kerikeri Inlet Rd to Paihia.
■ The upgraded Upper Kerikeri River Track can be accessed from SH10 near Waipapa (from a lay-by used by a coffee cart and produce stands, next to a bridge over Kerikeri River); Waipapa Rd (opposite Chang Siam restaurant); Waitotara Drive; or Rainbow Falls car park. Dogs are permitted on a leash but owners must clean up any dog poo. It connects with the existing Rainbow Falls Track, making a combined walk of about two hours from SH10 to the reserve at Kerikeri Basin opposite the Stone Shore. Dogs are not permitted on the DoC-administered track from Rainbow Falls downstream to the Stone Store.
