Bush Walks:
BUSH WALKS:
Sapphire Springs Holiday Park and Mineral Pools has several bush walks on offer. There are four in total ranging from 20 minutes to an hour in duration. Maps of the walking tracks are available at Reception.
While exploring the bush walks keep an eye out for some of New Zealand’s native trees, plants and fungi that abound the area – kauri, rimu, totara, tawa, punga, miro, puriri, nikau palms, liverworts, lichens and native orchids, ferns and mosses. The giant NZ kauri can grow to a girth of many metres and an age of hundreds of years and is now on one of New Zealand’s protected icons list. These majestic New Zealand native trees can be seen on the many bush walks at Sapphire Springs Holiday Park and Mineral Pools.
In addition to the native trees, plants and fungi, you will often see, flitting above your head, the wonderful little fantail, or the iconic tui singing in the trees. Night time at Sapphire Springs Holiday Park and Mineral Pools brings the moreporks and their haunting melancholic call, along with a number of spots along the river banks where you might find a slippery eel or some magical glowworms.
When exploring the bush please keep to the designated walking tracks and signs for your own safety and the safety of our environment. And please remember to take your rubbish with you, and leave only your footprints.
Sapphire Springs Holiday Park and Mineral Pools is also set around a sparkling clean river that can provide hours of entertainment on those hot summer days. Perfect for a cool dip, or just relax and watch the children splashing around in the many water holes. A game we often like to play is to make sail boats and watch them float down the river to see whose is fastest!
The Bushwalk tracks include:
Puriri Track: Blue Markers – Estimated Time = 20 Minute Loop:
This track starts at the top of the motels hill and leads you down through the paddock. On your left you will find the wash-station to clean your gear before entering the main part of the track, where you will see the great Puriri tree, estimated to be between 500 and 600 years old. This mammoth tree has started its own miniature Puriri forest where, over the centuries broken branches have fallen and started new trees.
Not too much further along you reach the end of the track where a beautiful sitting area has been created to sit and contemplate the Te Rereatukahia stream and a large Kauri tree estimated to be 400 to 500 years old. Return the same way as you came.
Kauri Loop Walk – Yellow Markers – Estimated Time = 30 minutes:
This track is a loop that starts and ends off the Nature Trail, a short distance after the main track entrance at the pools carpark. This is the most accessible of our tracks, with raised walking platforms to protect the roots of the many Kauri trees that you will encounter along the track and a stunning platform where you can enjoy spectacular views over the Kauri Grove.
About half way along you will come to a superb stand of about 30 young Kauri’s on top of a very steep cliff. We recommend that you take sometime to enjoy the Kauri’s and the excellent views, but PLEASE SUPERVISE YOUR CHILDREN CLOSELY and don’t let them venture too close to the edge of the cliff. Please keep to the track at all times to protect our Kauris.
Keep going in the same direction and the yellow markers will take you to the exit.
Nature Trail – Pink Markers – Estimated time = 1 hour:
This track starts at the pools carpark and it’s the longest of our walking routes. There are a couple of steep and slippery sections along this trail, as well as some unbridged stream crossings.
We therefore suggest to always wear appropriate footwear and we recommend this walk only for those who have a reasonable level of fitness.
Central Ridge Track- Red Markers – Estimated time = 10 minutes:
This track connects the Nature Trail with the Kauri Loop Walk and combines the best features of both tracks for an alternative walking route.
Click here to find out more information about the walks, and to see the: Bushwalk Map
If you are interested in more walks around Katikati, check out these pages: