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Brand New Revised.... Woodhill Forest Reserve
Let's say, you've read all the above and you still want to check out the Nature Reserve Turn off SH 16 at Restall Rd just south of Woodhill School. Besides the roadsign there are a bunch of other signs advertising various forest-related recreational activities. About 200 metres in, the Forest Headquarters road branches off to the left. Carry on straight ahead through the gate and up the hill until you get to crossroads where Boundary Rd intersects to right and left. Hang a right and continue a little over a kilometre, and you will find the carpark on the right. (The old walkers carpark was about 200m along this road on the left.) Note. With regard to maps, the recreational map supplied to me a year or two back by CHH was not easy to interpret if you were new to the forest and contains one or two outright errors which can throw you. It may have been upgraded since. The forest is a maze of roads, paths and tracks. Some are formed gravel roads. Some are dedicated to mountain biking, some to horses, some to 4x4 bikes, some to pedestrians and some are shared. The fact that a road is marked on a topographic map or any other map is no clue to its quality, or even its continued existence, and dozens of pedestrian, horse and vehicle-capable routes exist which the topo sheet does not show.
WARNING
Me - I'm just here to check out the reindeer..... As a matter of fact, sooner or later you will come across a deer — in about six months I've seen nine — five of them in one day — and there are fewer animals more graceful as they leap off into the bush and away. Second warning. Treat everything that looks as though it might be an electric fence as LIVE. Mostly it won't be but in the winter, stock are often brought in to graze the available feed, and the power will be on. Enjoy! Woodhill Diary Dave's Modified Short Loop Track 1 Dave's Modified Short Loop Track 2 Dave's Modified Short Loop Track 3 Dave's Modified Short Loop Track 4 Dave's Modified Short Loop Track 5 Dave's Modified Short Loop Track 6 Paper RoadsPublic right of access along marked roads such as these is at times contentious. CHH are frequently involved in tree felling and pruning, activities which can be dangerous to members of the public, and there are many groups - motocross, BMX, quad bikes, horse trekkers, deer hunters and so forth- whose activities are potentially hazardous in the presence of casual pedestrians. For this reason, many areas of the forest are limited to specific activities and certain hours of access. Forest roads are not strictly public roads, even though they are likely to appear as such on your 1:50,000 topo maps, and may originally have been public roads. They are open to the public at the discretion of Carter Holt Harvey when the absence of logging or other forestry activity makes the area safe for public access. Some roads have locked gates, or even large ditches bulldozed across them to prevent public access completely. Unfortunately, unmonitored public behaviour in isolated areas is not always compatible with forest safety. Bear in mind the designation of forests - and farms - as "workplaces" by the Health and Safety in Employment Act, and the consequent responsibility placed on management to ensure hazards are eliminated, minimised, or managed to avoid harm to workers or visitors, and please observe signposted restrictions, (at least where the staples are not totally rusted through.) (Once upon a time, for example, after an area had been logged, local Lions used to organise chainsaw and trailer gangs to convert scrap pine into firewood for senior citizens. Not any more. Too dangerous (!!) and CHH is likely to be liable in the event of an accident.) Modified Short Loop Track. The original Short Loop Track as laid out by white marker poles - and as defined by the present official track - spent much of its length in pine forest at the beginning and at the end of the walk. Pine forest in small quantities repays investigation but in large quantities it's a diet of porridge. The modified track which I describe here reduces to a minimum the amount of time spent in pine forest and includes an extra stretch of bush officially part of the Long Loop Track. |
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