Let’s just go for a little walk, we said. Let’s go up the hill a little bit, we said… If you know me it doesn’t take much to convince me to keep going a little further, which is just what we did today on the Fern Walk. The Fern Walk is about twenty five minutes from town up into the Pohongina Valley. Easy drive but you have to be careful not to miss the carpark on the right hand side of the road. It’s just past the Totara Reserve signage. The track is lovely and wide, lovely and flat. It’s pram appropriate till the first bridge, which is narrow to cross and has a couple of stairs at either end. Then, up until the start of the loop, it’s an easy amble with lots of spots to explore including weta hotels and various points of entry to the stream. The whole track is great for a baby carrier and for little adventurous legs. When the track turns into a loop we thought “we’ll go a little way up and then turn back…” but then it gets a little more difficult. If you don’t want to do the full 2.5 hour loop, stop here of just wander up the right hand loop at little way. Once we had started up the left hand loop, we realised it was easier and safer (not that it was dangerous per sae, just a little steep and stoney in spots) to carry on up and around - as per the sign’s suggestion. Toddler managed most of the uphill without falling off the edge... Well, of course he didn’t fall off the edge at all but half way up he began to get a bit too daring and oblivious to the edge so up into the backpack he hopped. He did really well at navigating the various sets of stairs and zig-zags. Near the top, there is a fallen tree that requires a few metres of crawling - or limbo if you’re game and bendy. Mr 2 and his mama managed to do it without taking the backpack off. He has just learned that treating his mum like a horsey is pretty fun so a horsey ride through the bushes was a great adventure (except for the bit where his head got a bonk on the way back to standing, whoops mama). Miss 11 was aggrieved at having to go all the way up. Her disgust was slightly moderated by Whittaker's 100 and 1000s chocolate (wow, amazingly amazing, imo!) but the harrumphing did continue until we reached the top. Then she bounded off and we didn’t see her until we got back to the start of the loop. At which time she let us know she’d been waiting basically for ever... love my tweenager. Once at the top, the track wanders along the ridge offering lovely glimpses of the valley’s beautiful podocarp forest - full of all the beauties: ponga, mamaku, kahikatea... the list is long - and a little side trip to a huge beautiful specimen of Northern Rata. This part of the amble was long but very easy. You could spend a lot of time up here but today we needed to be back in town for the afternoon.
The way down was similar to the Tawa Loop - pretty easy for little legs to navigate, wide formed track, a few sets of stairs and a little gravelly in spots but nothing terrible. In all the Fern Walk is a long one and next time I’d like to make sure we have all day free to take it easy and explore more slowly. Everyone had tired legs at the end and enjoyed a restful afternoon (and this Mama let the tech time happen guilt free!). I love being in the bush, it's real, free and a beautiful way to spend time.
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AuthorI'm Kate. I have 3 children - 2 bios and a steppie, 1 under 5 and 2 tweenagers. I am determined to spend more time outside this year and share more of Palmy's wonderful places and free play activities. Categories
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