KEY POINTS:
The Far North has lost a popular visitor and bushwalk attraction as a result of the storm that battered the district earlier this month.
Huge slips, the result of torrential rain, have damaged the Wairakau Stream track which gives foot access from Totara North to the western arm of the Whangaroa Harbour, the Duke's Nose rock formation and the Department of Conservation's Lane Cove hut.
The track is a well-known Whangaroa attraction that attracts thousands of visitors throughout the year.
Guided walks and local tourism operator Tony Foster said the slips had moved down the Sherman stream, leaving the area resembling a bombsite. The eroded track to the Duke's Nose cliff and the DoC hut is hazardous and has been closed while work priorities to restore storm-damaged areas are assessed.
"Until the track is made safe and reopened, I haven't got a business," says Mr Foster who runs guided bush walks and picks people up by boat from the harbour's western arm after they "freedom walk" the track.
The slips in the bush-covered valley with waterfalls and pools had left the area an open, boulder and mud-covered mess.
"Trying to make a positive out of a negative, it now has a 'wow' factor due to the power of nature," said Mr Foster.
The DoC Bay of Islands programme manager for visitor services, Katrina Upperton, said the track had recently been upgraded and, although it had held up reasonably well, the area was badly damaged.
"Everything is still saturated. We have to wait until the ground settles. We can't do anything before that," she said.
Ms Upperton said DoC was having to deal with a lot of damage in the Bay of Islands area due to two storms - the earlier one in March as well as the latest one. Priorities were being assessed as to where restoration work would start.
