RIVER WALK: Stuart Salde, care group treasurer Anne Robin and Kelly Hughes at an interpretation point on the two-kilometre Cheddar Valley Walk, which is proving popular with visitors. PHOTO: Geoff Mercer C5020-12
CHEDDAR Valley Walk is proving an attraction for tourists travelling Wainui Road.
The two-kilometre walk, opened in October, starts at the salt marsh viewing area near the intersection with Burke Road and runs between the river and road to the S-bends east of Cheddar Valley Pottery.
Reeds and raupo fringe the path in many places.
“We have a lot of overseas visitors taking the walk,” Nukuhou Salt Marsh Care Group member Stuart Slade said.
The mostly gravelled tracks are linked by sections of boardwalk running alongside the lower end of Nukuhou River.
Mr Slade said Bay of Plenty Regional Council contributed $5000 to digging whitebait spawning ponds in one section and planting them with native grasses.
Three thousand dollars in prize money the care group received last year for winning a national best community initiative award was spent on timber and rock for the paths.
Care group member Kelly Hughes said the paths stood up well to flooding over the past month, when at times they were under water.
The walkway had proved an asset for whitebaiters, making access to the river easier.
Mr Hughes said 98 per cent of the country’s whitebait spawning areas had been lost to land drainage activities and the remaining 2 per cent was degraded.
Mr Slade said the care group’s next project would be laying rat bait on Ohiwa Harbour’s Uretara Island.
