The Māwaihākona Stream series of caches consists of:
Up 'n Ugly
Rahui Bridge
Branches
Tee Tree
Hole in One
Leg it!
The Cache
The cache is a cammo screwtop near a handy seat, NE of where the path branches. The SE branch leads to a bridged walkway to St Pat's college sports field, the North branch skirts the near banks of the stream and the NE branch takes you to Heretaunga Park playground.
How to get to the walkway
From Heretaunga Park: Park at the end of Kiwi Street in Heretaunga. Cross the bridge to the playground and walk across the field to the ablution block. The walkway is to the right of the building.
From the Hutt River Trail:Park at the end of Country Lane in Silverstream. Walk NE along the Hutt River Trail for 250m to Māwaihākona Stream. Walk off the Trail to the fence on the NE bank of the stream, you'll see the walkway. Follow it to the concrete bridge and cross it.
The Māwaihākona Stream
This cache series straddles the Māwaihākona Stream walkway which runs through farmland beside St Pat's College in Silverstream.
The trails have been created as part of a podocarp forest restoration project by the Friends of the Mawaihakona group lead by Bart Hogan. About 6000 podocarp forest trees have been planted including matai, pukatea, totara, lacebark, and wineberry. They replaced alders, willows, broom, gorse and blackberry, cleared by the group. As the native trees grow they will shade the stream and kill the weeds choking it.
Point of interest: If you take the SE path, cross the bridge, turn left and follow the path down the SE bank of the stream you'll discover a Rahui post which marks the reserve as tapu and a reminder to never take away the trees. The post was carved from one of five totara logs dug out of the stream banks. A second Rahui stands at the other end of the walkway near the Pukeko Bridge cache.
Please look after children around the water.
