Wainui Bay Forest Walkway
In Wainui Bay, ancient podocarp trees that stood before Abel Tasman’s exploration now tower over a developing walkway.
“We’re driven by the process of sharing for future generations. For both of us, the forest and its diversity come first, and it's nice to share it with other people and hopefully encourage them to appreciate nature and enjoy the outdoors.”
Chris and Anna Charlton are talking about the walkway they built through a majestic forest on their land on the west side of Wainui Bay, which is nestled between Golden Bay and Abel Tasman National Park.
The walkway traverses through a forest that is a mixture of 70-year-old regeneration and 1000-year-old native forest. In 2016, the Charltons protected the 90 hectares in perpetuity with a Queen Elizabeth II Canopy Covenant. The forest contains rimu, rata, matai, miro, red and black beech, pukatea, kahikatea and nikau . The pukatea is significant because the only other stand in Golden Bay is in Tōtaranui, Abel Tasman National Park.
Since the area has been fenced, along with pest and weed control over the past eight years, fernbirds and robins have returned. Kea and falcons are nesting. Other significant species on the land are the alsophila cunninghamii (slender tree fern), forest gecko, and powellaphanta snails (giant land snails).
“It's awe-inspiring being in the forest and it is very accessible.”
The Charltons approached the Commission in 2016 about creating and preserving public access to the forest. We suggested that a track could be formed, which could be surveyed and registered on their title as a gazetted walkway.
The walkway has the potential to connect Abel Tasman Great Walk along with other linkages to Pōhara and Golden Bay.
The project has support from Manawhenua ki Mohua, QEII Trust, Tasman District Council, the Department of Conservation and local community groups. The Wednesday Walkers Group in Golden Bay plans to visit on an annual basis and is delighted that the Charltons are willing to open their tracks to the public.
The Charltons want the walkway to create a sense for people walking in the forest that it is not a highway, so several tracks give different experiences. One is a walking track where you must pick your path, and it's like walking as you walk in the bush if you were out exploring. The other track is graded to have cycles in the future, as a shared walking-cycling track. There are several other tracks along the walkway. Preserving this experience for future generations is important.
“You don't know what will happen in the future. Although it runs through a QEII Covenant, the next custodian of this land may have different ideas about public access.”
“You walk through a forest that's been regenerating for 70 years and then into a forest that's been there for 1000. We both enjoy it, and going forward into the future, we felt it was important to allow public access because you are only a caretaker for the period of your lifetime.”
The walkway does not have a formal name yet. The Charltons are hoping that Manawhenua ki Mohua can help them name it after one of the early local inhabitants of Wainui Bay.
In the meantime, the Charltons are not resting on their shovels.
“We're actually working on another track on the Ligar Bay side now. That may also become part of walking access in the future,” says Chris.