Members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force offered some manpower to help build the track to extend the Lake Okareka walkway.
When completed, the 1500m track will link Boyes Beach to the Lake Okareka campsite through the Lake Okareka Scenic Reserve.
Twenty-two members of the material support wing based at Ohakea joined forces with volunteers from the Lake Okareka Community Association (LOCA) and Landcare Okareka for a working bee from 9am to 12pm yesterday, as part of their annual adventure training exercise. They arrived on Sunday and left yesterday afternoon, and also enjoyed mountain biking and tramping through Whakarewarewa Forest while they were here.
Flying officer Blair Theodore said the group enjoyed getting involved in the community.
"It was awesome, we got really positive feedback from the guys. It was a really good opportunity to do some hard work. It is cool to get to different areas out of Rotorua."