Experiences
Our Bush Discovery Walk is a looped trail through the Karangahake Native Bird Reserve.
The Reserve has extensive signage, aimed at educating visitors about New Zealand native trees, birds, and aquatic life. The Reserve also has a replica miner’s camp, set up to tell the story of the Karangahake Gorge’s first miners.
Bullswool Farm lies midway between the Coromandel Forest Park and the Kaimai Mamaku State Forest Park. Its seven-acre reserve was established as an ecological corridor to help native birds move between the two forests. Extensive pest control supports the increasing birdlife, and founder Tony Howse was recognised with a Pride of NZ Award for his conservation and school planting projects.
In the late 1880s, before large-scale gold mining in the Gorge, lone prospectors searched for gold on and around the farm. We still find occasional remnants of their time here, usually in the form of small schnaaps bottles, which were a popular alcoholic beverage at the time. The campsite has been created in memory of these men, and to give a sense of the difficult lives they endured.
