A'Deane's Bush Adventures

In the summer there’s no place better than A’Deane’s Bush.

We pack up a picnic, the kids and our swimming togs and take a quick 25-minute drive from our place in Waipukurau, heading out State Highway 50 to Makaretu Road.

The Reserve is packed with great walking tracks which means the kids can burn off some energy, and on a hot day we always have our togs on hand for the swimming hole on the Tukipo River just at the forests edge.

The Reserve is on a river flat so it’s an easy walk for young kids to explore the native forest, there’s info boards and you can see all of the restoration work that’s been done.  It’s safe for the kids to run ahead as the tracks are metalled and boardwalked in muddy sections.

It’s takes around 30 minutes to walk through the main track and the bush is full of natives - there’s matai and kahikatea and is home to a beautiful Totara Tree which almost 34m high and is thought to be around 700 years old. 

The kids love spotting the native birds, and we’ve often walked in with a late afternoon picnic and waited for dusk so they can watch out for long-tailed bats as they emerge to feed.