Ten of us left Wellington Train station at 9am on a Sunday morning for the approx 2 hour drive to the start of the track. We took 2 cars – one group started at the Ashhurst end and the other group at the Woodville end. The plan was to meet in the middle and have lunch together, swap car keys, and then carry on to finish the track. The group finishing at the Woodville end would then drive round to meet the other group, who would be finishing at the Ashhurst end.
Starting from the Ashhurst end carpark, there was a lot of construction going on – a new bridge is being built across the Manawatu River and we could also see the beginnings of a new highway being built a bit further in the distance. There is a kiosk at the start of the track (there’s also one at the Woodville entrance too), providing a lot of interesting information about the Gorge, the history and the flora and fauna in the area. You then walk alongside the Manawatu River for a short distance, on the old, closed, SH3 road, until you come across DOC signage directing you to head into the bush on the right, to start the Manawatu Gorge Track proper.
You start walking uphill straight away – and this is the case if you start from the Woodville end too. However, I was surprised at how easy and wide (like a footpath) the track was. It was also a nice surprise to see how pretty the bush was – you felt like you were somewhere very remote that was not frequented very much by people. You walk in the forest for almost all of the track.
However, there are a few sections along the way where you can deviate from the main track to a lookout point, where you can either see views of the Gorge and Manawatu River or the nearby wind farm and surrounding paddocks.
Being called a “Gorge Walkway”, I had expected we’d be walking right alongside the Gorge and be able to see it the whole way. Instead, there are only a handful of times where you’re able to come out from underneath the tree cover and see the Gorge and the Manawatu River.
After we’d walked quite a long way in along the track from the Ashhurst end, we started hearing a whirring sound that we thought might be a river that we were approaching, or high winds in the distance. The sound was there for a long time while we walked through the forest. We then realised it might be the sound of wind turbines in the nearby wind farm. There is a path that deviates off the track at one point, taking you right up close to the wind turbines, which are located in a paddock of cows. There is also a toilet located here.
I had read online about the Giant Maidenhair fern – a type of fern that only grows in the wild in NZ in the Manawatu Gorge area. Luckily there was cell coverage on the track, so we were able to find a picture of it online, so we’d know what we were looking for. Not long afterwards, when we were nearing the Woodville end of the track, we spotted a lot of this fern growing on the banks either side of the track.
There are information boards located all along the track providing information about the birds and various plants found in the area, which were really informative.
Close to the Woodville End of the track there is also a side path which leads to a boardwalk and an enormous Totara tree. The boardwalk is there to help protect the tree roots, which are sensitive to damage if walked over.
All in all the walk was a nice, gentle, Sunday stroll with good company and a nice trip away from the City for the day.