Te Wahapu Road to Orongo Bay Homestead

This track steps steeply from Te Wahapu Road down through pleasant forest to the mangrove-lined edge of Orongo Bay. From there it skirts the Bay on a succession of board-walks and flat paths to the Orongo Bay homestead in the middle of Orongo Bay and can be accessed from a parking area just as the road from Okiato reaches the Bay.

Location, Grade and Duration

If you are continuing north from Te Wahapu road, this track commences a short distance east towards Aucks Road from where the Aucks Road - Te Wahapu section ended.

If you are just walking this sector by itself, the best car park is on the west side of Aucks Road on the right just past the Orongo Bay Homestead travelling away from Russell and just before the road climbs the hill up to Te Wahapu Road.

Below this park the track goes right a few hundred metres to currently end in the Hirst Reserve near the Homestead entrance and left to Te Wahapu Road. This commences with a long boardwalk over a mangrove shore and then continues along the shoreline before turning into the forest and climbing steeply (220 steps) up to Te Wahapu Road.

The shoreline by itself makes a very pleasant easy stroll as a return trip. The length of the whole track is about 1.2 km.

Restrictions

Dogs are permitted on the track only on a lead.

There are no facilities at Te Wahapu or Orongo Bay and no shops. The nearest facilities are at Russell.

This track passes by private property so please keep to the track.

Interests

Sightseeing, walking, photography. As you can see from these photographs, this is one of the most spectacularly scenic walk sectors on a clear morning.

Forest, mangroves, sheltered shores and bays.

History

On the northern side of Te Wahapu is Pomare Bay, named after one of the chiefs in whose territory it once was. Ownership ended with the Girls’ War and the settlement of utu at its conclusion, when Pomare left these parts and went up harbour to Otuihu (near Opua). In all the little bays there were settlers’ small homes.

You will be walking along the ‘Queen’s Chain’ beside the water. The term originated from Queen Victoria’s instructions to Governor Hobson in 1840.

The "chain" was the surveyor’s measure, metal links of 7.93 imperial inches, with 100 links making a full chain = 22 yards or 20m. Early surveyors adopted various practices but the earliest law reserving the land adjacent to water was the Land Act 1892 for sales of Crown land. Many earlier sales failed to set aside the Queen’s Chain so the popular assumption the Queen’s Chain is a universal right is mistaken.

Pea-stick Bay is a long shallow bay west of the track and mangroves in Pomare Bay. Local children enjoyed its inexhaustible supply of pipi. The less interesting "pea-sticks" were probably gathered to stake pea plants each spring.

Orongo Bay means ‘round bay’. Out in the bay there is a natural hot soda spring bubbling from the seabed beyond the mangrove line. The Orongo Bay Homestead dates from 1860 - built for Irish born, naturalised American Commercial Agent James G White. In 1872 the house became the base of the Tikitikioure mining village, then larger than the nation's capital itself. When the manganese ore and whaling boom died, the building was a sanatorium for American sailors, a school, and then a Methodist Church. Ironically, it was later briefly a hotel, before falling, like many of its p atrons, into disrepair.

The mangrove growth in Orongo Bay is relatively recent and reportedly dates from siltation caused by spoil from cuttings during development of Aucks Road.

Hirst Reserve is named after local landowner, Len Hirst, who farmed livestock and oysters. The reserve was given when he subdivided his property and is maintained by the Department of Conservation.