Jo's Monday Walks, Life at No.22, Local Walks, Walks

Local Walk – Puketoki Reserve

Suzanne

This Reserve is only a short distance from Tauranga and not a time-consuming distance, so I have classed it as a walk instead of a hike. At the time of my current walk, as I have been here on previous occasions, the weather was hot and sultry, so I thought it was time to shift my wandering eye from a beach scene to a cooler forest with a freshwater pool. 

Not only is this a pleasant walk, but it’s also one of the oldest reserves in the Western Bay of Plenty, steeped in history.

A Slice of History

The Hidden History is plain sight.

Puketoki reserve consists of 85 acres of bush, donated to the Whakamarama Community by Mr Henry H Sharplin of the Whakamarama Land and Timber Company in 1926. Before that time, it was milled, so the only old surviving trees were those unsuitable for timber. Tramways for transporting logs passed through the Reserve, and in a few places, the location of the tramways can still be seen. There is a parking and picnic area on Leyland Rd, across from the reserve entrance. The Te Puna stream runs past the picnic area. Luckily for us, there are toilet facilities near the reserve entrance. 

Recreation – Walk and a Swim

A pleasure path during a hot day

There are two loop tracks, a short loop and a long loop. Most of the short loop is shared with the long loop nearest the reserve entrance. The long loop is posted as a 1-hour walk, with the short loop at 20 minutes. However, both loops are about 3.2 km long and can be walked shorter if not taking time for photos and reading the information panels.

The short loop is easy, with no steps and only gentle slopes. The long loop has a few steps in various locations, as there are no steep inclines, making this walk wheelchair friendly for those with limited fitness. Both tracks are well-marked and well-formed.

Captured before the swimming

The Te Puna Stream runs through the Reserve with a small bridge for those who don’t want wet feet. For those warmish days, there’s a swimming hole next to the southern branch common to the short and long track.

Trees, fungi and a Toutouwai

The famously three-tunked Tawa tree by the long track is known as the three sisters.
A short side loop off the long track leads to a Rimu with Rata Vines.

The Rata starts growing near the top of a tree, sending down adventitious roots to get nutrition and moisture from the soil on the forest floor. Gradually, the roots and Rata vines encircle the tree and can kill it, leaving a hollow Rata tree. The Rata is a close relative of a favourite tree of mine – the Pohutukawa.

Finally, a rare glimpse of a NZ Robin – the Toutouwai.

Linking to Jo’s Monday Walks

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Published by Suzanne

I'm a lover of creativity and movement, expressed through photography, words, travel and sports. . . . . . .

32 thoughts on “Local Walk – Puketoki Reserve”

    1. Yes, I can imagine it would be the opposite of your snow covered land. Funnily, we got so excited about being in Europe housesitting when it snowed. We loved it, though the novelty of walking the dogs in really cold weather did wear thin. Then the owners came home.

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  7. The fungi photos are very good Suzanne. So difficult to photograph I think. Not to mention see! Woodlands are excellent places for a walk in hot weather. And yours is very interesting. Thank you for the visit.

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  18. I don’t know Puketoki, but the scnery looks familiar. I found myself unexpectedly in New Zealand for three months in 2019, and my youngest daughter dragged me on a number of her favourite walks around the North Island.
    When I and my other children were back there last October for a much shorter period, we visited Zealandia, which my youngest hadn’t visited before, despite having lived in NZ since 2006.
    Zealandia tries to return its area to the birds and reptiles native to NZ before people introduced mammals. (Strange noises your birds make over there!)
    The week after we visited, a news item reported that a weasel had been spotted inside Zealandia’s barriers.
    It wasn’t us that let it in, honest!

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    1. I think many of our tramping tracks look very similar and I have done a few tramps. Wonderful you got to see them with your children. Zealandia is a treasure and sad to hear that there was a weasel spotted inside it’s barriers. I never gave it a thought you had accidently dropped one on your way out.

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