John and I went over to Ohope Beach on the East Coast over the long holiday weekend to attend an important birthday celebration for a friend. She'd invited us literally six months ago, so there was no weasling out of it as we are wont to do, since it's hard to leave Struan Farm on weekends!
We decided to travel via nearby Benneydale and stop by Pureora Forest Park and the Timber Trail cycleway. This could be a destination for some of our farmstay visitors, easily. Enroute to Benneydale, we turned off SH4 at Kopaki Road, and drove up Mapara Road South to the Mapara Wildlife Reserve, where the endangered kokako (my favorite NZ native bird) have been reintroduced. Somewhat frustratingly, there is no road sign for Kopaki Road, Benneydale, or the Mapara Wildlife Reserve. I will get onto this! Pureora Forest Park and the Timber Trail are well marked off SH30/Kopaki Road, so no issues with that once you get onto that road, but it might be a challenge finding it in the first place...
There is also an amazing "Totara Walk" here, a short, easy track into beautiful bush with tall native trees. We were pretty much blown away by the size of the trees, so this is worth a visit.
We've had farmstay guests try to find the kokako reserve in the past without luck, so now know how to tell them to find it.
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