Walk or bike this cool trail next to the Motueka River this school holidays!

Following on MCC’s September newsletter article about two good walks you can do in the Motueka Catchment, here’s another great one you can do with the whole family. Of course, you can bike it too. Why not do it this school holidays?

Ngātīmoti to Pokororo Swing Bridge – Great Taste Trail.

The Great Taste Trail has recently been extended for approximately four kilometres between Peninsula Bridge, just east of Ngātīmoti, and the Pokororo Swing Bridge – see the map below. The project was in the planning stages since 2021 and involves four bridges, an elevated boardwalk and some technical trail building!

Here’s the extract from the Great Taste Trail map

The MCC team of Shannon, Lucy and I decided that instead of meeting on zoom, that we would instead do a “walk and talk” meeting to check out the new track. We started at the Ngātīmoti Esplanade Reserve, just along from Ngātīmoti School and Community Rooms and headed south towards Pokororo.

We walked alongside the road for a bit, then dropped down along the path and came across one of the very newly installed MCC picnic tables, pictured here, built by Menzshed. This is one of a few picnic tables that you can expect to see along the river being installed by MCC.

After sitting at the very comfy picnic table, we continued walking along, finding a new bridge, and after it some native plantings.

Just past the bridge we saw some workers putting up strings for the hops.

We didn’t quite make it to the Pokororo Swing Bridge. I’m planning to bring the bikes and go with my children in the school holidays as it is a very easy, scenic accessible track. We might stop for a picnic at the Peninsula Bridge beach on the river.

This new section of the Great Taste is well worth either a walk or a bike ride, including with children. Click here to get some more details about it ( external PDF). Give it a go!

By Dana Carter, MCC