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Whanganui to go
Annette Main was elected chair yesterday of the newly formed Te Araroa Whanganui Trust.
It's the eighth Te Araroa regional trust, and has a brief to advance the trail route through the Whanganui region. Annette is an Horizons Regional Councillor and runs the well-known Whanganui River hideout, The Flying Fox. The deputy chair, David Scoullar, is a chaplain and a member of the Wanganui Tramping Club. Trustees Brian Doughty and Ridgway Lythgoe are both ex-presidents of the club. Brian is president of Wanganui Federated Farmers, and Ridgway brings to the new trust an experienced ranger's set of river and tramping skills.
From National Park settlement at the foot of Mt Ruapehu, Te Araroa's route is presently planned to connect through to the Whanganui river at Pipiriki, where there'll be an option to walk the little-used River Road, as New Zealand's best-known poet James K Baxter once habitually did, or to cycle it, or once iwi groups are consulted and in agreement, to canoe the river.
The upper reaches of the river, from Taumarunui to Pipiriki, are already listed by the Department of Conservation as a New Zealand Great Walk, but done by canoe. The lower Whanganui River is less travelled, but is canoeable when the river is not running high, and runs past historic settlements like Jerusalem, Koritini, and Atene. It has backpacker accommodation and campsites. The Whanganui is New Zealand's most scenic navigable river.
