Rewa Bush Club trip 30th March 2025.
One of the more enjoyable things about being part of a tramping club is in finding areas that haven't come to the attention of the majority of people. One such area is the Rewa Bush Conservation Area located near Ngaumu Forest in the eastern hills of the Wairarapa.
Due to the nature of this area I reached out to Julia Ryan of Friends of Rewa Bush who proved to be a wonderful source of environmental and historic information on the area. We arranged to travel out to Puketiritiri Rd and meet her before heading out along a Public Access Easement that runs into the reserve, which seemed to be in mostly good condition but it was still slow going for the smaller vehicles that were the main method of transport for today's trip.
We traveled along two smaller trails that she and others in her group had marked out with tape, the first of which followed along a stream with some small signs of past track work such as small sections of steps and several footbridges and even several impressive podocarp specimens with attached signage identifying them.
After finding a small spot in the sun to stop for morning tea we turned around and followed the marked trail back out to the roadside.
After getting back to the vehicles we made our way along the easment, stopping briefly to examine the signage provided by DoC to mark the reserve. After this we again moved further along before pulling off to the side of the road, after carefully pushing through a small section of horse bush we reached the second trail of the day, a short walk into an area of beech forest where we settled for a late lunch.
Julia showed us several small trails that can either form a loop track or take you deeper into the basin but as it was getting into the afternoon by this time we returned along the previous path and headed out slowly along the easment.
I was joined on this trip by John Rhodes of the South Wairarapa Tramping Club, Brenda, Jenny, Julia, Christine, Geraldine, Josh and Peter and his partner Shona. I'd like to once again say a massive thank you to Julia for being our guide for the day and to Peter, Jenny and Brenda without whom we literally wouldn't have been able to go anywhere as they'd agreed to take their vehicles out on this excursion.
If anyone is interested in traveling out to see some of the sights out here I'd encourage you to reach out to Friends of Rewa Bush through their Facebook page as it would be very easy to become lost in this area if you were unfamiliar with it or under prepared.
