Echo Walking Festival Records Its Biggest Season Yet

The Echo Walking Festival has wrapped up its most successful year since it began in 2003, drawing large crowds and expanding well beyond its traditional boundaries. Chairwoman Vicki Lambert said the festival grew to encompass 45 walks and outdoor experiences graded one through five, stretching from the Kaimai Range to the Coromandel — with a particular push further into the Western Bay of Plenty.

Several new walks debuted this season, including the TECT Park Walk, which took first-time visitors along the Te Rerenga Tunnel Track with park rangers identifying native species. Walkers got to step inside the historic 60-metre Te Rerenga Tunnel, hewn entirely by hand in the 1930s using picks, shovels and wheelbarrows to divert the Te Rerenga Stream beneath what is now SH36. Other new additions included walks at Ōtanewainuku Trig, Sapphire Springs, Aongatete Forest, Waitekohekohe, and a new event at Ōtawhiwhi Marae in partnership with the Flavours of Plenty festival.

The planned 22-day programme was extended by several days after Ex-Tropical Cyclone Tam forced postponements. A debut fungi walk in Aongatete Forest proved a highlight — Lambert noted that the slower you move on such a walk, the more you discover, from tiny treasures tucked under leaves to towering toadstools. She said feedback from participants of all ages had been overwhelmingly positive, pointing to a growing appetite for outdoor experiences in the rohe. The core organising team included Lambert, Jo Heath, Kylie Watkins, Max McLean, Jim Cowan, Doug Longdill, Gary Dwyer, Matt Nicholson, Ali Vander Heyden, and many volunteer guides.

Originally published in Katikati News (Sun Media).