Uretara Estuary and Yeoman Walkway

August 2016 & February 2020

I spent my high school years living in Katikati; well, on a farm a few kilometres out of town on the side of the Kaimai mountain range.  My parents and my sister’s family still live there.  In 2016 I returned there and in helping my parents with purchasing and developing their retirement home, I ended up spending over a year living there again.

There are a few rather short walks close to town (like the Haiku Pathway), and one much longer (15km) loop that can be made that I have walked several times while living there.  The Uretara Estuary and Yeoman Walkway is part of that longer loop.  One day I had my camera with me while walking the stream’s edge and took a few shots of the birds I saw.  These are those photos.

Addendum.

On a hot summer's day in February 2020, when the grass of most properties was short and brown, and the landscape looking more like something from a post-apocalyptic movie, I wandered the Uretara Estuary & Yeoman Walkway again.  I started at the small park on the bottom corner of Beach Road (just off the main highway).

Leaving the road, I looked at the metal sculptures of birds that were placed along this part of the trail, wondering (other than the case of the Moa), why sculptures would be needed if the birds themselves were alive and could be spotted, if you were lucky enough.

Wandering the edge of the stream at first, and then along the side of the estuary, I took a few more pictures.

Exiting the walkway, I wandered through the small park around the North end of Park Road, then following a newer short extension that loops around the coastal side of the Summerset retirement complex.

The new track connected to a short existing track that lead me to Preston Drive Esplanade Reserve, where the track no longer followed the estuary.  There was a little more reserve land ahead, but it was clear this was where the access along the waterfront ended.

Completing the loop walk.

An access path allowed me back in toward Cresta Drive and, eventually, Park Road.  Should one want to (and I have a number of times), you could walk back South West (then South) along Park Road, take the dog-leg of Polley Crescent (to avoid the college students hanging out at the shop on the main intersection), go East along Beach Road, then left onto Pukakura Road and right to the end.  At that point, you can follow the coast again along a track that takes you through the MacMillan Reserve, past the end of Beach Road, and along the Tamawhariua Reserve/Foreshore Walkway.  Eventually this loops back inland, going around the end of, then coming back in to connect with, Church Street (strangely enough, there are 2 Church Streets in Katikati), where a short walk brings you out to Beach Road.  A left turn and walk back along Beach Road (back past the point where you turned into Pukakura Road), then a left down Prospect Drive brings you to another section of estuary walkway that skirts the backs of a few houses, then the walkway crosses Wills Road and veers right to cross over Gilfillan Drive, goes through the Gilfillan Drive Recreational Reserve (and the Kai path), over Fairview Drive, then eventually finishes at the Dave Hume Swimming Pool.  From here, you can walk up to Carisbrook Street, turn right, then an almost immediate left on to Jocelyn Street.  Turn left at the main road and cross over when safe enough to do so.  Just before the Robert Harris coffee shop, you can turn right down the lane way and walk down to the Haiku pathway, which follows the banks of the Uretara Stream back to the point at which I started this walk.  Hopefully, someday soon, I will walk the full loop and add further photos and commentary (maybe in a separate post).

Note: the map below is NOT oriented to North (the top is almost due West).