Gums Loop is an easy walk that spans 2.8 kilometers. It takes an hour to complete the round trip.
Gums Loop is mostly flat and is graded as an easy walk. It passes through both native bush and a plantation of gum trees. Just over half the walk is a track through forest and less than half is a straighter route / private road (Reservoir Road). You are not likely to encounter any vehicles however. On the rare occasion you do, it will be staff who work at the waterworks or the regional park, who tend drive carefully. As a result, the walk is wheelchair and pram friendly. The full loop is an easy walk and is suitable for bikes. It’s also open to dogs, but they must be leashed.
Featuring mostly flat terrain, it is positioned at the foothills of one of the largest and most unspoiled lowland forests in the lower North Island. This track also passes through a small eucalypt and pine plantation. Hence the name ‘Gums Loop’. The walk includes a swing bridge over the Wainuiomata River that leads to the historic Mackay Cottage site. From here, there are opportunities to extend the walk to also include Sledge Track and Tana Umaga Track, which together form a challenging loop walk. Further, you can branch out and add on the rest of Lower Dam Walk if you follow the road east after the swing bridge.
Gums Loop can accessed from either the main car park on Reservoir Road or the Hine Road car park.
History of Gums Loop
Before it became an official walk within Wainuiomata Regional Park, some form of track ran through Gums Loop Meadow as early as the 1880s. Also. Reservoir Road, which now makes up part of the loop, was also already in use at that time as a tram which was used during construction of Lower Dam in the early 1880s. If you click the photograph to the right and zoom in, you can see the track running below the hills with fencing in the background. Today, the surrounding eucalypt forest in Gums Loop Meadow still contains remnants of old fences and sections of the former farm track. Learn more.
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