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SUSPENSION BRIDGE WALK TO THE WAIROA RESERVOIR
For second walk of 2011, Mr and Mrs Massari took us to the Hunua Ranges. The drive was about 45 minutes from school. When we arrived we walked to the point where the walk began, here we had to cross a suspension bridge (a bridge that has nothing supporting it from underneath). After we all had safely crossed the bridge, three at a time, we took a short walk and came across a sign that asked us to clean our shoes before going into the forest ahead, this is done to prevent the spread of a disease that causes kauri (one of our NZ native trees) dieback.
After we'd disinfected our shoes, we started our walk through the forest...the route was challenging and soon we became quite weary. About 20-25 minutes into the walk, we spotted a man-made structure, a look-out tower, which we climbed up and observed our surroundings from the top. The views were amazing, we could see across the Hunua Ranges, over the hills to the farms and of course we were surrounded by tall trees. Mr Massari gave us a map of the area we were in and the route we were walking...we had to try and figure out where we were...this is where man-made objects such as the tower come in useful. We tried to locate where North was, and after much discussion, using our prior knowledge of where the sun rises and sets, we were successful in figuring it out!
Once we'd had a little morning tea up on the look-out tower, we continued our journey and stopped at an intersection, here we decided to take a short walk along the Cossie Track (usually a 3 hour walk), and after about 15 minutes we turned back to continue along the Suspension Bridge Walk. On the way back, one of the questions Mrs Massari asked us while on the Cossie Track was why we thought this section was so much more slippery than the previous section. She reminded us about the different parts of the forest, the forest floor and the canopy and so on. This got me to thinking about the canopy (which is the top layer of the forest), and how the foliage blocks out the sun's rays preventing evaporation, which of course means that the forest floor will remain quite wet.
We rejoined the original route and after about twenty minutes we came across another viewing point from where we could see the Wairoa Reservoir. The dam was built in this location because it is on high ground, in a forested areas, which when you think of it makes sense, because this is where the rainwater will reach first and it won't be evaporated quickly either. We also learnt that the long cylindrical structure in the middle of the dam indicates the water level, as well as having 'intakes' spaced out along the way, these 'intakes' draw water in from the dam and take it down along pipes to water purification plants, where it is cleaned, ready for us to drink. After reading the information board, we learnt a lot, such as when the dam was built (from 1971-1975), how it was built and where the water is sent.
Finally we walked along the road that runs alongside the dam, round and down to the picnic area, where we at our lunch. Once we'd satisfied our hunger we took a short walk back the car and headed back to school.
A great morning out... if you want to find our more or go there with your family...just click on the following link
