Orewa Estuary - Western Reserve

The weather was superb again on Sunday, the group met at Orewa i-Site for a walk from the Western Reserve on the other side of the estuary, the footpath was open this week after some work had been completed at the entrance of the new walkway and cycle path. The tide was in and the boaties were launching their boats and kayakers were out in force, also despite the warning signs many young people were diving from the bridge into the water.

On the Bridge:
Kaitiaki or protector of the environment
Tangaroa, the Polynesian god of the sea

Not far in along the path on the left we found an interesting section of what looked like soil and shell remnants under a glass display, one of the group told us that this was a *Maori midden.  A midden is basically a dump, containing  waste or left overs, archaeologists use these sites to determine what was in people’s diets, hundreds of years ago.

On our way around there seemed to be quite a few cyclists out this weekend, so we stuck to the left of the path to make way for our biking friends and friendly shouts were made as bikes approached from the rear,  if you haven’t been out to the new estuary path it’s worth noting that the path can get a little congested and it’s wise if you are walking as a group or even as a family sticking to one side of the pathway to make room for passing cyclists.



Picking up the Estuary path on the way back



The path currently runs adjacent to the houses overlooking the estuary and it has been beautifully landscaped, there’s more work to be done but it’s a fantastic facility, the walkway area is concrete and mainly flat, the walk along there and back only takes about an hour if you come back through the residential area. We took our time and wandered as far as the new path would take us, we witnessed some poor lady fall from her bike, concrete is not very forgiving and she sported a bit of a gash to the right knee; she seemed OK and carried on, they’re a hardy lot those cyclists!

Orewa Estuary from Hibiscus Coast Highway Bridge

The path goes past Kingsway school and presently finishes somewhat abruptly just outside Silverdale primary school, you can continue further up the hill on pavement and back around but we decided to double back through the houses, then we picked up the walkway again and had a leisurely Nordic walk back up to Hibiscus Coast Highway and along to the i-Site car park. Kings Plant Barn at Silverdale was the choice of cafe again, they have scrumptious date scones there and everyone loves the water features.

*I Tweeted Auckland council to check that this was a midden site, they have confirmed this and kindly passed on more information via the Hibiscus Matters website:

http://ow.ly/4sf7H