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Kara Mann
and family at the Lake Karapiro section Little Waipa Reserve
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On Saturday
November 22, the Rotary Club of Putaruru, NZ is organizing a new event hosting
a biking and walking event on the Waikato River Trails.
Norm Barker
toyed with it for a while before he approached the club with the idea: “There
are more and more people getting out there doing bike trails, so I thought why
not attract these people to our beautiful district?”
After
making contact with the Waikato River Trails Trust, it was decided to run with
the idea. Initially we had trouble finding a suitable date and kept pushing it
back as it seemed to clash with other events. We now selected a date - set in
stone - and a project team was formed. Working together with the Waikato River
Trails Trust, they are now in charge of organizing the event. The aim of this
new event is to attract people to the area, share the superb landscape of the
Waikato River and surroundings. The purpose is to attract people in such a way
that they want to explore more of the area and come back. We believe sharing
the area with people outside our district will attract people and become
beneficial to the local economy.
“The Taniwha” event celebrates the endeavours undertaken by
the Waikato River Trails Trust over the past 11 years, culminating in around
100 km of top quality trails, most of it on previously inaccessible land along
the mighty Waikato River, so there is plenty to explore.
Putaruru
Rotary’s leisurely 21 km cycle or the 10.5 km walk start at 9am at the Little
Waipa Domain car park on Horahora Road, Tirau. The finish for both events is
around 3pm at the same car park.
The trail
includes boardwalks, swing bridges and great views of Lake Arapuni. After the
event we have a hearty lunch planned to encourage meet and greet between
Rotarians alike.
For more
information visit www.waikatorivertrails.com
or email info@waikatorivertrails.com.
Bookings need to be made via this email before October 30.
The
Putaruru Rotary contact is Boele de Vries Boele.DeVries@nz.waratah.net /
+64 21 506 286.
We have
bigger plans for future years, but because we have never organized such an
event, we wanted to keep it a small project, learn from it and get the right
formula.
