Maitai and Brook Valley Walks

Time: 1 - 2 1/2 hours

Area: East Nelson

Note: Branford Park, Hanby Park and the Botanical Reserve are dog exercise areas.

Start Location: Branford Park car park, left off Maitai Valley Road before Gibbs Bridge.

Download the Brandford Park map.

Route directions

From the car park area, take the track left through the bush alongside Branford Park. Coming out at the southern end of Branford Park*, walk down to the end of the grass by the old quarry. Carry on down the footpath and turn right by the Maitai letter boxes to follow the signs over the lower part of the hill to the Botanics playing field.

Cross the field and head for the Hardy Street footbridge over the Maitai River. Turn left to follow the Maitai River track. You will pass under Nile Street Bridge and Cloustons Bridge**. Follow the track past Hanby Park and Black Hole, a popular summer swimming spot. The other side of the river has barbecues and a picnic area. When you reach Gibbs Bridge, leave the Maitai Track to cross the bridge and the Maitai Valley Road to return to your start point.

Options *A harder option is to head to the summit of the Centre of NZ or head up the track next to the bike slalom course (see optional route marked on map).

**Before passing under Cloustons Bridge, head up Nile Street East and take the short track up the hill and to the left to see great views of the Maitai Valley and Nelson.

Time: 1 hour

Area: Maitai Valley

Start Location: Drive up the Maitai Valley past the motor camp to the 'pipeline bridge'. This bridge is the start of the Tantragee Walkway, and also marked by a sign in the middle of the bridge as the 'Finish of Maitai Walkway'.

Download the Maitai Valley Walk map

Route directions

Cross the bridge and go straight ahead up the hill along the left side of the Maitai Arboretum, following the black piping.This a 13 hectare plantation that has been developed over the last 20 years, turning it into a well-treed area of natives and unusual exotics.

Turn right to walk along the hillside at the point where the Maitai pipeline takes a steep bend uphill. Walk along the top of the arboretum, then veer downhill to come to a 4WD walk track which heads over the Tantragee Saddle. Turn left onto the track and follow it for a short while, then take a sharp right onto a more well-formed forest road. It leads you back down the valley through poplars and pine trees over several small fords, which may make this walk difficult after heavy rain.

You come to a gate at the end of the forestry road, where you join the Maitai Walkway at the lower end of the Maitai Valley Motor Camp. The motor camp swimming hole will be a welcome sight if you are doing this walk in hot weather!

Turn right to follow the river back to your starting point.

Area: Maitai Valley (upper)

Time: 4 hours

Note: As this is a water reserve, no dogs are allowed. Bring a torch for the caves! start LocatIoN: Drive up the Maitai Valley Road and park by the footbridge over the Maitai River just after the turn-off to the Maungatapu. The footbridge is before the Matai Dam and picnic area.

Download the Maitai Caves map

Route directions

Cross the footbridge and follow the well benched track through scrub upstream for 15 minutes. The track then joins a 4WD track. After another 15 minutes the 4WD track ends and becomes another well benched track as you enter bush. The forest at this stage is very open and predominantly beech. There are views from the track of sparkling pools in the south branch of the Maitai.

After another 15 minutes you reach the turn-off to the Dun Mountain Track. Instead of crossing the south branch of the Maitai, cross Solanders Creek. Solanders Creek is a small stream and it is usually possible to keep your feet dry. The track from now on is not as well formed as the earlier stretches, but is well marked. After another 20 minutes the turn-off to Third House and Sunrise Ridge is reached. Continue left and start the steep 10 minute climb up to the caves. The forest is denser here with some magnificent matai and rimu trees and an abundance of rata and other climbers.

After the 10 minute climb there is a small entrance in a limestone outcrop and you can either peer down the cave or venture in if you can handle confined spaces and steep muddy surfaces. The first cave is about 15 metres long with a second smaller chamber behind it. The caves are steep sided and very slippery even in dry weather. Don't remove any material from the caves - these are fragile limestone systems which take many years to build up.

Time: 3 hours

Area: Maitai Valley

Start Location: Head up the Maitai Valley Road to the Maitai Dam, the carpark just past the dam is the starting point.

Download the Rush Pool map

Route directions

Where the 4WD track forks, take the uphill track on the left, climb uphill and then swing to the right as signposted. The track is cut into layers of sandstone deposited on the seabed 250 million years ago. Ignore a right veer straight uphill and then a left downhill turn, and carry on until you come across the signposted Rush Pool track which heads off up some steps on your right. The track follows the original bridle path to Pelorus and crosses the treeless Nelson Mineral Belt with its characteristic reddish brown rocks. The Nelson Mineral Belt consists of heavy ultramafic rocks such as serpentine which once formed the ocean floor and were thrust into the crust of the Gondwana super-continent some 280 million years ago. New Zealand is a small fragment of Gondwana that began breaking apart about 100 million years ago.

Argillite is mudstone that has been hardened by extreme compression. The superior quality of Nelson argillite made it highly prized when manufactured into tools, which were traded by local Maori, while Maori from elsewhere travelled to Nelson to acquire the stone. LBJ is the goat. The early Maori, from around 1500, entered what is known as the Classic Period, leaving behind their Polynesian style of stone tools and adapting to materials available in New Zealand.

Look out for the odd Boulder Bank rock used as a hammer stone. Adzes were only roughly formed at this site and taken to camps on the Maitai River or more distant pa for working into their final form. See Mike Johnston's High Hopes for more information.

You come first to the Rush Pool itself on the right of the track and approximately 50m further up the track is the quarry face surrounded by numerous discarded argillite chips where the rocks were worked. Return by the same route to the car park. No souvenirs please!

Time: 45 - 60 minutes

Area: Brook Valley

Start Location: From the city, head up Brook Street for approximately 2km. After crossing the second bridge, turn left into Tantragee Road where there is a gravel car park and interpretive panel.

Download the Tantragee Loop map

Route directions

Set off from the sign indicating the Tantragee Walkway. Follow the track as it zig zags uphill through native trees planted by school children in the 1980s.

The track levels out where you then go over a stile (the gate is locked) and you have a view back down to the Brook Valley. A sign on your right indicates the Dun Mountain Walkway, but you continue on. Where the road forks take the uphill track to your right and follow it to the summit of the Tantragee Saddle where you can look down to the Maitai Valley. The roads on your right and left lead to Fireball and Fringe Hill - both popular mountain biking trails.

Head back down the gravel road and take the old Dun Mountain Railway track to the right (also known as Old Codgers Track) - watch out for mountain bikers. Further down the track curves through deciduous trees, through a gate and on down the hill. This track is a section of the historic Dun Mountain Railway and you follow it until you emerge on Brook Street just near Brook Terrace. Turn left and take the gravel path along the right of the Brook Stream to the park and beyond to the carpark where you began.

The 38 km Coppermine Trail, is a circuit that loops between Brook Valley and the Maitai Valley and is suitable for bikers and walkers. The Dun Mountain rises to 1129m and is one of the most distinctive mountains around Nelson -due to its unique geology.

Go to the Coppermine Trail page for more maps and information