It was a public holiday and I met my sisters in the Manawatu for a family walk. The Manawatu estuary is the most important aquatic and wading bird habitat in the lower North Island and it was declared a Wetland of International Importance in 2005. I wanted my sisters to see the Godwits on our walk and I wasn’t disappointed. They are amazing birds.
I got to know the Godwit bird species when I lived up north at Snells Beach. These birds make a non-stop 11,000 km flight from Siberia. Godwits are not big gliding birds, they flap their wings the whole way. The Godwits arrive in September and leave in February / March.
There are other birds at the Estuary, the Banded dotterill (endemic), the Wrybill (endemic), and Royal Spoonbill (native) winter over here. There’s also the Shag (native), Spur-winged plover (native), Pied stilt (native), Oystercatcher (endemic), and White faced heron (native) that are there all year round. The Bar-tailed Godwit (native) and Lesser knot (native) summer over.
I think there were Lesser knots resting with the Godwits. They have shorter legs and bill and they return to Siberia to breed.
I’d just finished cancer treatment at Palmerston Nth Hospital and decided to celebrate by going for a walk before heading home.
This was one of the more unusual walks from the book. Instead of a walk through the bush, or along the coast, or in the open country, the walk was in a suburb.
Savage Cres is in the book as it’s described as one of the best examples of unaltered early state housing.
Michael Joseph Savage
One of the key promises of prime minister Michael Joseph Savage was to provide good housing for New Zealand’s working population. The election of his government heralded a boom in state housing that lasted for decades.
Unlike other NZ leaders, this prime minister kept his promises. He got it done. He is worthy of respect. His picture sits on a shelf in prime minister Jacinda Adern’s office. He’d be shocked at how our state housing stock has been sold off by successive governments, and dismayed at the broken promises … promises like Jacinda Adern’s KiwiBuild, which was scrapped in the first year.
I didn’t think much of the suburb. The state houses were sturdy and the gardens were all neatly kept, but the people weren’t all New Zealanders and some were noisy. It didn’t seem like a community. A domestic was going on in one house and the police were at another. I decided to cut the walk short and head back to my car. Just before reaching the park I heard a guy yell out the police were there because a car had been stolen. I hurried back to my own vehicle.
The Pettifar and Gilchrist loop tracks lead you down a series of terraces to the Pohangina River. Both walks make use of the Old Coach road, the original horse and cart track that wended its way through the Pohangina Valley.
We chose the Gilchrist loop, which passed through a mixed kahikatea and totara forest. Kahikatea Trees grow in the wetter areas. An abandoned tree nursery on this loop was the source of most of the large poplars now visible throughout the beautiful and picturesque valley.
This is a bush remnant growing on an old river terrace next to the Rangitikei River. The bush had been preserved by E O Pryce and the land was gifted by him to the Rangitikei Scenery Preservation and Tree Planting Society in 1941, on threat of the forest being milled under War Regulations. The Society was dissolved and formed the Rangitikei section of Forest & Bird in 1961.
The reserve is not well frequented and we had the place all to ourselves.
There are some noteable trees in the reserve, including Kauri, which are growing well out of their range. There’s also an enormous Kowhai tree on the red track and Matai on the yellow track.
There’s a lot in the Esplanade, a Forest and Bird walk, which leads on to a walk by the Manawatu River, a rose garden and playground and a wildlife recovery centre. It’s a popular place.
I checked out the Central Energy Trust Wildbase Recovery when I returned to Palmerson North for my next hospital appointment. There are four rehabilitation aviaries on public view, two breeding aviaries for whio and pāteke and a walkthrough aviary which is home to a variety of native birds and ancient tuatara. Entry was free.
Unfortunately the police state has now kicked in and you can now only go in to the wildlife centre if you have a vaccine pass 😦
All in all it’s a good place to visit but blighted by the unjust decisions of local and national govenment.
History: First settled some 400 years ago by Māori, the region is home to three iwi: Rangitāne O Manawatū, Ngati Raukawa and Ngāti Kauwhata. The Manawatū region takes its name from the river than runs through it. The Manawatū River was named by an explorer named Hau who had travelled down the coast from Taranaki, chasing after his runaway wife and her lover. Manawatū meaning ‘Heart Standing Still. Manawa meaning heart, and tu meaning standing still. Source: manawatunz.co.nz
Mangaweka is a sleepy place where the Rangitikei River flows past cliffs of white papa. The very grandly named main street of Mangaweka is now devoid of traffic since State Highway 1 bypassed the main street in the late 1970s.
It’s a town where time seems to have stopped. The unaltered buildings in “Broadway” are from a previous century.
Many buildings stand empty, but Mangaweka still has a school, library, hotel, and a DC3 plane on the main highway which operated as a tearoom.
Manga means stream and weka means woodhen.
Mangaweka was one of the first towns on the North Island Main Trunk Railway to get electricity. The Mangaweka Power Station project commenced in 1911, originally it was intended to serve as a water resevoir.
Little remains of the tiny power station and a small building containing historic photos shelters the site. The walk to the resevoir intake is across the road. The path is through a beautiful small gorge which follows the Mangawharaiki River. The resevoir is intact but the brick-lined intake tunnel to the right is blocked by a log which wedged there in 1937, causing the power station to finally close down.
Broadway, Mangaweka
Walk: Manawatu 22
Mangaweka Scenic Reserve
I think there was supposed to be a viewing point by a Kahikatea tree but we couldn’t find it. The track is not well maintained. The walks are not clearly marked but there’s a good view of the town of Mangaweka from the road by the entrance. Part of the walk is on the old main trunk railway line which is littered with broken pieces of the white papa rock. There’s a large matai and other trees like rimu, tawa and titoki trees in the reserve.
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