Graeme Simpson: Puarenga a beautiful jewel in our trail crown

Red McHale, building mountain bike trails in the Whakarewarewa Forest since the late 1990s. Photo /Graeme Murray

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the early beginnings of mountain bike trail building in the Whakarewarewa Forest. It all started with Circuit on top of the Tokorangi ridgeline overlooking the city, the vision of Fred Christensen.

Red McHale was around and about in those pioneering days - and he's still out there now at 70-plus, wrangling Department of Corrections community service crews, formerly known as periodic detention or PD.

Walking a dog, again, means finding new places and also revisiting other favourites on foot not a bike.

One of the latter is the Puarenga Trail – riderotorua.com/Puarenga. This runs alongside the stream that gives the trail its name from the Red Stag Timber end of Nursery Rd through to Hill Rd. It's a mellow grade 1, dual-use and two-way. This is a beautiful, tranquil sector of our forest where the running water soothes and cools even on the hottest days, perfect for riding, walking, running… and dogs.

The trail flows along both sides of the stream with bridges - and log crossings for the brave.

It is liberally dotted with seating, places to relax and enjoy the ambiance. Sections vulnerable to high water have been reinforced with rock piles and benching.

Puarenga is a master class by Red and his crews, who've moved tonnes of dirt to make it so. The dog loves it, of course, galloping back and forth, wallowing in mud puddles and washing off in the stream (and sitting and staying on command when any bikes are passing).

She's also attempted high wire, circus trickery by running across some of the log crossings, falling off one of the narrowest and, shocked by submarining, splashing her way vigorously and inelegantly to shore.

If we'd been riding the bikes instead of strolling with her we probably wouldn't have noticed the entrance to a new walking trail on the high side of the Puarenga, wandering for 1.4km up to Larch Rd just above the duck pond. It's still a work in progress, which makes it more challenging and enjoyable.

Puarenga means "flowers of sulphur" in Māori. The stream is called this after the petal-like sulphur particles that sometimes float on the surface.

Some say that a dip every couple of days by a dog in this sulphur and mineral-rich water will get rid of fleas. Rotorua's geothermal waters are world-famous for their curative properties for humans, so why not dogs, as well?

Red is long overdue for an honour of some sort. Queen's Birthday 2019? Come on Rotorua Lakes Council. At the very least he deserves to have a trail named after him – Te Whero? Looking at you, Rotorua Trails Trust. Kia ora…

There is no one who's made a longer (and continuous) contribution to the economic monolith that Rotorua mountain biking has become since those early days.

On the subject of those who've made a very large contribution, today's photo is by Graeme Murray, who's documented mountain biking in Rotorua since the mid-1990s. I've used Graeme's portrait of Red before. It's a measure of the quality and robustness of his work that this can well and truly take a second viewing.