Not a „roundtrip“ anymore because one bridge seems to be washed away… poor signing of way, a lot of guessing needed. And most of the time not close to the stony river
A walk mostly over bouldery farmland. Poorly marked especially between the 2 rivers across dairy farm.. a few orange triangles would help. Electric fences in places to cross. The whole walkway is an indictment on DOC as it appears to have had no maintenance for 10+ years. An example of rampant invasive weeds - montbrecia, gorse, convolvulus, wandering willy, honeysuckle, thistles. Stony River is worth the visit though. Take sandfly repellent.
The Walkway from Old South Rd is open however only as a return walk. It used to be a circuit but the Kaihihi River bridge has been removed. A nice walk through regenerating bush, farm paddocks and residential backyards. It's fairly flat although a little undulating in places. One paddock is muddy after rain, and all paddocks are rocky. A few birds, nice trees, and a couple of views of the river and Mounga.
Definitely worth a trip to if you love photographing streams & mountains, 30min drive from New Plymouth, the tracks onto the river bed need some clearing & better marking but I have a feeling there's some better tracks further up the road! I was thinking 4 stars because of the track but with a view like that it had to be 5
Might have been nice, but the Bridge enabling the loop walk is gone and the track now seems to have been fenced off by landowners about 10mins in. Don't bother
