Orewa - Alice Eaves Reserve

Before I met with the intrepid North Shore Nordic Walkers on Mothering Sunday, I was presented at 6.00 am in the morning amid lots of clattering in the kitchen, a beautifully made cooked breakfast consisting of two hard boiled eggs, bacon, beans, two crumpets and a toasted teacake by my two beautiful children.  Needless to say by the time I met the group at Orewa Surf club at 7.30 am I was fit to burst!

Orewa Beach and Surf Club

Orewa is a small town North East of Auckland city centre, the beach is ideal for Nordic Walking. It is 3 kilometres of long sandy beach situated on the Hibiscus coast, home to surfers, kayakers, kite surfing, wind surfing and swimming.  You can also catch the Orewa Surf Club life guard training and events down on the beach on a Sunday. The clubhouse was originally first built in 1960 although the club history dates it back to the 50’s. It was added to in the 70’s but  in 1990 the clubhouse was finally finished and is now located in pole position adjacent to the beach at the South end.


Road to Alice Eaves Bush

The morning was cold but sunny and ideal Nordic Walking weather, so we wrapped up and ventured forth.

We walked to the North end of the beach and crossed over the Hibiscus Coast Highway to The Old North Road and into the entrance for Alice Eaves Reserve.


Kauri Tree over 300 years old

There is a massive Kauri in this reserve over 300 years old and the area is brimming with native trees like Puriri, Rimu,Totara and Nikau, you definately get the sense of history walking amongst some of these ancient trees.

There is a Pa not far from the Hillcrest boundary; apparently it has a few middens that indicate it was previously used as a living area by Maori tribes people in the area and was lived in until around 1827. The land was taken over by European settlers and was eventually purchased by Mr & Mrs Eaves in 1919. When Alice Eaves died in 1955 she bequeathed the land back to the nation.


Nukumea Stream Walkway

The reserve is maintained by the Lions club, they have signage on the gates and signposts at some of the trees.

We walked through the Reserve on the lower track which takes you along a wooden walkway that runs adjacent to the Nukumea Stream and the Kensington Park development.

The Blue Footprints for the Millenium Footpath

The track does go on further but there is no walkway and can be very slippery underfoot, we continued along until we came to the point where the track became unsafe.  We then headed back to the stream and the crossing at Kensington Park. There is a higher track that leads onto the Pa area but we'll leave that for another day.

We then walked through the new housing area and back onto the millennium path at Puriri Ave continuing along the road and back across the highway onto the beach.

The Clock Tower on Puriri Ave

The group unzipped and de-coated feeling very warm, some of us made it over to the King’s Plant Barn for coffee.  I really couldn’t face another breakfast so I ordered a berry smoothie again.
Information & Sources:

http://www.orewasurfclub.co.nz/history.html
http://www.rodney.govt.nz/DistrictTownPlanning/plans/ReserveManagement/Documents/Alice_Eaves/AliceEaves_Amended_Plan_March08.pd

Te Ara Tahuna Estuary



Estuary Cycleway and Walkway

Sunday was a wet day and I debated as to whether or not the walk should be cancelled.  I had arranged to meet some of the North Shore Nordic Walkers locally and others at the i-site at Orewa. Very often the weather can be atrocious in Auckland overnight then in the morning it can clear, at 6.30 am it was still bouncing down and rather cold.  I decided to carry on and the weather was fine, although still damp and colder than recent but the rain held as we walked around the estuary.

We started the estuary walk from the i-site car park and worked our way inland along the path, it’s a great walkway shared with cyclists and dog walkers.  The path is skirted by houses, some of which are big with spectacular gardens and views overlooking the water.  The concrete path is divided into a cyclist section and a walkway for pedestrians and cheerily shared by all.  We often stop and talk to people on our walk around as  the path is easily negotiated and reasonably flat, it’s also used for many walking and running events.  After a circuit of the estuary the path leads under the road bridge to the sea side where you can carry on past the camping grounds and walk down to the Surf Club and beach.  Today we walked along the estuary only and we had a new walker join us who already knew one of our regular walkers and she slotted in quite easily.

Garden at Orewa Estuary

We poled our way around the far side of the estuary past one of our favourite houses where the owner obviously takes great pride in their garden, it’s extremely ornate with lots of ornaments and little features dotted around the open garden.  We walked across the bridge, the native flax and lillies are starting to fade now but still dominate the water's edge.  We walked past the new housing complex, continuing along the path past Silverdale PrimarySchool and onto the bridge just outside Kingsway College. A little further along this path we bumped into June and Paul Stevenson taking the ‘Nordic Edge” class along the estuary.  It’s a great location for training, parking is easy and simple to measure your time and distance; if you get a chance to take one of the training classes I do recommend them.

Cycleway and Walkway

We continued along on the Southern side of the estuary past the new houses to the bridge and up onto the road bridge where we watched the tide coming in for a while as it came in really quickly.

The third bridge here was built in 1999, on the site of the first original wooden bridge that was built around 1881.  The second bridge was cleverly designed some fifty years later, there were no roads as such and water transport was used extensively which was a problem at Orewa river mouth.  The engineers however designed a turntable which allowed boats with masts to pass through.  Then as time progressed and road transport increased, the bridge became unsafe, a sharp turn caused many accidents off the road onto the bridge, so the larger bridge that is here today was developed that removed some of the dangerous curve out of the road. We walked back to the i-site car park, altogether this walk takes about an hour and a half and is roughly around 7.5 km; an excellent way to blow the cobwebs away on a Sunday morning!

Lillies along the Estuary

As I packed away my poles I noticed a lady unpacking her poles, they weren’t Nordic poles so I asked her if she had been walking long. In fact she hadn’t as she suffered a broken ankle in December and was still struggling but had read about Nordic Walking and decided to have a go to see if it helped with her recovery. Not one to miss an opportunity I instant whipped out a card and invited her to walk with us sometime and to take a class.  It’s amazing how many people actually buy tramping poles, I hope she was OK they looked way too tall and heavy for her!

Bank of the Estuary

We decided to try the cafe in the Estuary Art Centre, it was a bit slow as they were only able to make one coffee at a time and that meant we all drank at different times, but I did have the smoked salmon bagel which was rather tasty and I didn’t have to wait long at all.  We didn't have the chance to take a look around the exhibition, I was told that the centre was originally a Kentucky Fried Chicken emporium.  It certainly was a great venue for an art gallery, set on two floors with the upper floor immediately accessible by the entrance and the cafe occupying the space by the entrance.

We will have to have an explore of the gallery sometime!