Ahuriri estuary walk

Ahuriri estuary walking track Ahuriri Estuary Walking Track is a leisurely flat boardwalk stroll, ideally at dusk to check out the local birdlife. Wading birds include shags, kingfishers, grey herons, royal spoonbills and pied stilts, estuary dwellers and the life between the water and land is on full view. Your walk follows the footsteps of people over hundreds of years harvesting the bounty of the sea and land. Up until the 1931 earthquake the area was a large tidal inlet which was immediately raised 2.7 metres above sea level draining 5510 acres of the lagoon. Original wharf structures, still visible, are high above the waterline – a measure of the severity of the 1931 earthquake. A boardwalk bridge leads onto the flats adjoining the tidal inlet where carved pou pou (or potokowa) posts stand guard over the estuary.

NOTE spring tides can flood parts of the boardwalk. Signposts will guide you if this is the case.

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