Wairoa Stream Track Update - Get walking

The track has been extended beyond Te Wairere Waterfall and can now be walked from the St James public carpark (bottom of Kerikeri Rd) through to Cobham Road. Allow around 50 minutes for the walk. Some suggestions for combining it with other routes can be found at this link. The track is now sign posted from Cobham Road.

With the arrival of the winter conditions we found that sections of the track became quite slippery and in some cases, very muddy. This has been addressed by the Friends of Wairoa Stream who have built; four sections of board walk through the muddy areas and steps on some of those steeper sections of track. The 'Friends' have also erected safety fencing around the top of the waterfall while the Council have removed a dangerous fallen tree that had been preventing us from opening the waterfall to Cobham Road section of the walk.

Rotary Kerikeri added an additional step to the smaller bridge just below Te Wairere falls making it easier to get onto the bridge.

Winter and early spring planting of natives have been completed in several sections of the track. One area was undertaken by Kerikeri Rotary and the other by students at Kerikeri Primary School and The Friends of Wairoa Stream have an ongoing programme of both planting and weed control as part of their two weekly volunteer working bees along the stream.

One of the 'Friends' erected an electronic counter at the Jim and May Brodie Bridge over a three week period some weeks back. Despite the wet conditions an average of 330 people were walking the track a week. We expect those numbers to rise now that sunnier weather is setting in. However, the track has been closed over the last week to allow tree maintenance to be completed. It should reopen this week.

Focus is moving to the construction of a final bridge that will allow the walk to be extended upstream from Cobham Road, crossing the stream above Sammarree Reserve. At present you can walk this section of track but need to back-track.