Tarawera River walk 6.6km

I was back in Kawerau to meet up with some ex-co-workers, now friends, for the evening, but it was mid-afternoon and I was early.  I had planned on doing a longer walk, circumnavigating both sides of the Tarawera River, however things did not go according to plan, so I will walk the rest another day.  The part I did walk is mentioned on the Kawerau information website here.

 

In researching this walk, I had found a post on the motowalknz site covering the entire loop (but as I discovered while walking this, that post is misleading giving a route through an area that is not accessible to the public), and I similarly started at the car park near Firmin Lodge heading north.

 

After crossing Waterhouse street, I walked northward through the riverside reserves with intermittent views out over the river.

Arriving at the high school boundary, I didn't see a little entrance to the left of the gate, and instead squeezed between some boulders off to the right.  Along this section, you can keep away from the school for most of it, but a couple of times you need to walk alongside the school fence.

Opposite an interesting bank on the far riverbank was a swimming hole that a few locals were making use of.  I didn't take a photo of it or them, but of the area to the right.

At Boyce Park, an area of ground was covered with so many dandelion seed puffs it almost looked like snow.

At Tamarangi Drive I turned right and crossed the river via the bridge.

Immediately after crossing, and back on the south side of the road, I encountered a closed gate with a pretty severe sign.

 

I was sure that this was the route the person on the motowalknz site had taken (and it was, when I looked back at their post - I do wish they'd pointed out it was a restricted path) but I wasn't about to risk being told off, or even charged, because I'd entered a restricted area, so I carried on up to Manukorihi Drive where I turned right into the industrial section, thinking I would eventually find a way through and back to the river's edge where the trail would continue.  However, I ended up finding lots of private signs and no way through and wasted a fair bit of time beating the pavement, sweating in mid 20s degree heat.

Overheated and frustrated (especially at the person who'd posted this route), I turned around and returned along the way I'd come.  Other than a couple of slightly different perspective photographs, the views were the same.

Somewhere near the end I stepped into a depression in the path that I had not noticed and jarred my lower back, causing me to emit a yelp.  I was hoping that some hiking would help strengthen it, but suspect that the degenerative disc disease I was diagnosed with earlier in the year (likely brought on by some recent hereditary arthritis) might have other plans for me. At this point I'd run out of time to attempt to go further, so I'll have to leave the Tarawera River and Forest Walk until my next visit to Kawerau.