Hidden delights on North Shore bush-coast walk

Bob Ussher is a walking encyclopedia of the outdoors. Make that tramping and climbing. The stalwart of the Alpine Sports Club, of which he has had a long and esteemed period as president, has not only spent a lifetime in the New Zealand outdoors, but along the way has collected so much information about people and places that it should be bottled before it is lost.

It was Ussher who back in 1967 wondered why New Zealand, with all its "paper" roads drawn by deskbound cartographers, shouldn't have a public walkway system to equal the ancient bridle paths of Britain.

The result of his wondering was an ASC-inspired initiative by the Federated Mountain Clubs that led to the New Zealand Walkways network and an act of Parliament that envisaged walking tracks stretching from North Cape to Bluff.

The quango killing of the 1980s put an end to the Walkways Commission, and with it any chance that the network would ever realise Ussher's dream. But before the official impetus died we did manage to get one delightful coast and bush walkway near Auckland firmly established.

I say "we" because Ussher gives me credit for a crucial section in the walk, although I doubt the credit is deserved. The accolade arose because the former Lands and Survey Department's publicity on the fledgling Okura Bush Walkway, from Haigh Access Rd at Okura to Stillwater on the Weiti River, had preceded completion of the track.

So with a couple of young children in tow, I set off for a day walk relatively close to home - only to find that the promised bridge across the Okura River was nothing more than an item on a Government official's wishlist.

I wrote a story anyway, referring to the bridge as the nowhere bridge, Auckland's answer to the famous Whanganui edifice. Sometime later the bridge was duly built and in a story in the ASC bulletin, Ussher gave me the credit. It's humbling to get such an entry in the Ussher outdoor encyclopedia, and even more so to learn, on a recent return to the walkway, that the credit is ongoing.

My companion, Joe Scott-Woods, another ASC veteran, was last at Okura on an Ussher-led club walk, and as we reach the wooden footbridge that crosses the Okura River, he refers to it as the "Colin Moore bridge."

Fortunately, there is no sign to that effect, so it can remain as an urban, or ASC, myth. But this is one walkway on which the Department of Conservation, with its limited resources, has given time and money, and it is well worth checking out the result.

Across the footbridge, where we pause to watch a pied shag fishing for smelt and bullies in the Okura River, the track through the Okura Bush Scenic Reserve has been widened and benched through the coastal nikau forest.

In its early days this was a steep and muddy section, but now the standard is such that we share our walk with the training efforts of several multi-sporters and harriers.

There are several large kauris in the reserve but Scott-Woods was shown one magnificent specimen by Ussher that is slightly off the trail. He remembers the spot and leads me to the beauty, which I deem shall henceforth be known as the Bob Ussher kauri.

Along the path the Department of Conservation has labelled many of the trees and shrubs, including the smaller, nondescript species that don't usually get a mention. Their identification is a particularly nice touch to the walk.

The track drops down onto the shelly foreshore of Karepiro Bay, where a Sydney gentleman farmer, Ranulf Dacre, built a one-room brick cottage in the 1850s. Dacre Cottage was in ruins until 1963, when the Historic Places Trust found and restored it. The cottage is now decorated in the style of the 1800s and can be rented by trust members.

The extensive pasture flats behind, now grazed by horses, were cultivated by Maori gardeners who settled on the headlands on either side of the valley.

We take advantage of the low tide to walk around the foreshore to Stillwater and the Weiti River.

One-way walkers could organise a shuttle to the end of Deep Creek Rd, but we retrace our steps, this time climbing over the headland and along the cliff with its extensive view of the bay.

On the tidal flats and shell bank that protects the entrance to the Okura River, numerous wading birds are collecting lunch.

Karepiro Bay and the Okura River are included in the Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve, and with all fish and shellfish totally protected, the sandy shores, rocky reefs, estuarine mudflats and mangrove reaches will in time attract larger numbers of birds.

The Long Bay Coastal Walk reaches the headland opposite Dacre Pt, and the adventurous, who time the tides and don't mind mud on the boots, could probably make a major trip of it and walk the edge of the marine reserve from Toroa Pt at Torbay to Stillwater.

Perhaps I can get Bob Ussher to lead it.

CASENOTES


GETTING THERE: Haigh Access Rd is off East Coast Rd between Browns Bay and State Highway One. Stillwater is also reached off East Coast Rd by following Spur Rd and Duck Creek Rd. Stillwater has camping facilities and a boat ramp. The Okura Scenic Reserve is administered by the Department of Conservation and the walkway to Stillwater is part of the New Zealand Walkways system.

The Long Bay coastal walk from Toroa Pt to Piripiri Pt is accessed from Long Bay Regional Park.