Bush Walks:
BUSH WALKS: CLOSED AT THIS STAGE:
If you are interested in more walks around Katikati (that are currently available), check out these pages:
5 Katikati Walks You Shouldn’t Miss
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:
Closed – Puriri Track: Blue Markers – Estimated Time = 20 Minute Loop:
The Puriri track starts at the top of the motel hill and leads you down through the paddock towards the river. Head left at the bottom and a short way along the track you will find the great Puriri Tree, estimated to be 500 to 600 years old. This mammoth tree has started its own miniature Puriri forest, as over the centuries, many fallen branches have started new trees.
Puriri wood is New Zealand’s strongest timber and has been used for piles, fence posts, bridges and railway sleepers. It is so difficult to split, that timber workers often resorted to dynamite.
Continue the walk by crossing a tiny stream and you will come to a large Kauri, approximately 400 to 500 years old. A short distance further on will bring you to the Te Rereatukahia Stream, which is the end of the walk. Return the same way as you came.
Once back to the paddock another track heads off to the left, taking you to the River Crossing which will join up with the Nature Trail.
Closed – Kauri Loop Walk – Yellow Markers – Estimated Time = 30 minutes:
The track starts at the end of the driveway near the back of the Hall. After 75m you come to a T-junction where you can carry on straight ahead or turn left. This is a loop track so you will return to this same T-junction no matter which path you take.
This is a gentle walk through a wide variety of bush and trees (the track is wide enough for pushchairs).
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.
Keep going in the same direction and the yellow markers will take you to the exit.
Closed – Nature Trail – Pink Markers – Estimated time = 1 hour:
The starting points are either at the end of the carpark in front of the pools, or at the end of the driveway near the back of the Hall.
There are some steep and slippery sections on this trail as well as a couple of unbridged stream crossings.
We therefore recommend this walk only for those who have a reasonable level of fitness.
Closed – Central Ridge Track- Red Markers
This track connects the Nature Trail with the Kauri Loop Walk and combines the best features of both tracks into an easier 45 minute walk
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: