I decided to take a nice long walk on one of the Saturday last weekends that I was there to see several of the beautiful spots around town that are all linked with a trail. I started out at the top of Whangarei Falls and enjoyed a nice path from the top of the waterfall all the way around to the bottom.
It was a little bright to try and blur the water but it was fun to try and there were a lot of good spots to try.
Once I got to the bottom there was a trail along the stream that led towards town. Along the way I found some boys trying out the local swimming hole.
What I didn't get a picture of were all of the "No Swimming" signs!
I really loved how this path followed the stream all the way down and from the area around the falls went into the A.H. Reed Park that had very nice native forest areas. Including a large area of Pongas, or as I like to call them Palm Ferns.
The A.H. Reed park also has a really unique portion of the trail that is elevated so that you are actually walking up in the canopy of the trees. It gives a very different perspective than most trails.
From the A. H. Reed Park the trail worked into Mair Park. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and there were quite a few people taking advantage of the day.
After leaving Mair Park I walked through a little area that linked the park to the Mangrove Walk.
At the end I reached the city basin and was able to walk along the boardwalk through the mangroves. It was a pretty good walk all the way down so I decided on the way back I would climb up to the top of Parihaka.
It was a big climb after a long walk but the views from the top were worth it. The whole town is pretty much visible and the hill to the right on the horizon is the Mountain that I was calling "home". I think all together I ended up walking 9 miles that day and kept thinking that was the kind of trail that would be perfect for long training runs, except for the Mount Parihaka part!
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