The Tauranga City Coucil, Ngāti Hangarau and Tourism Bay of Plenty are to be congratulated for the wonderful development of the Omanawa Falls Walkway. 

The access to the falls is enabled by the engineering feat that includes 480 rock bolts and soil nails, 750 steps and the three lookout platforms. Safety issues are attended to with the provision of wooden handrails and a defibrillator.

The interpretive panels containing te kupu tuku iho (the history) of Ngāti Hangarau and that of the first underground hydro-generating power station in the Southern Hemisphere are informative. Ngā whakairo (carvings) add to the experience. The co-governance that achieved this is to be commended. 

In the early 1900s there were around 40 men employed to service George Gamman’s sawmill adjacent to the falls. I understand that the village also had a general store, butcher’s shop, post office, billiard room and the upper Omanwa School, which was staffed two days a week. Maybe an additional panel at the start of the track with some details of the early settlers would be of added interest. There remains extant a few Tauranga people in their eighties who lived in the district, who have a repository of such knowledge and who could verify this and other relevant information.

Marlene Ware, Otūmoetai.