Your 2 hour self-guided  walking tour of the Home Bay Valley
volunteer planted native forest and WWII Military sites

While reading the tour guide you might like to check out the route on our google map

Or click here to view our WalkMotutapu_map.pdf  

This loop walk takes you from the Home Bay wharf, past the historic Reid homestead, up the Rotary Centennial Track through the volunteer planted native forest, includes an inspection of the WWII military structures then back down the Home Bay road to arrive back where you started.

Home Bay Forest

• 75 hectares of former farmland replanted by hundreds of volunteers starting in 1994. By 2015 the Home Bay replanting programme will reach the remnant Pohutukawa on the southern coastal headland (behind the camp ground toilet block)
• Motutapu is 1509 hectares. The Trust's intention is to eventually replant 30% of the Island. This makes the project one of the largest long term restoration projects in the nation.
• Your tour starts on the front lawn of the Reid Homestead. Built in 1901 and recently restored by the Trust, it is one of the very last surviving Hauraki Gulf early European homesteads.
• Walk across the cattle stop and turn right. Follow the Home Bay road across the stream and through the farm gate. Continue past the 100 year old 'red' (more a rusty brown!) barn on your left (soon to be restored by Newmarket Rotary as a base for MRT volunteers)
• Look up left and you will see the graves of James and Eliza Reid on Monument Hill (James died in 1908. Eliza's grave is behind James. She died in 1942)
• Stop and admire the exotic heritage Ombu tree on your right. A native of South America. The tree needs to be fenced as the sap is poisonous to cattle. It is fire resistant as the enlarged trunk stores water (sometimes called the elephant tree).

• Continuing up Home Bay road you will see the planted wetland flats (winter 2008) on your LHS. All the area to the right of the fence line snaking up the hill above the flats has been planted out (also winter 2008).
• You will see a set of four water tanks up ahead. There is a kissing gate which marks the entrance to the Rotary Centennial Track. The building of the track was funded by Rotary to celebrate Rotary's International Centennial in 2005
• The walk through the volunteer forest along the Rotary Centennial Track takes around 30-40 minutes. It is an easy walk with gentle inclines. Take time to read the interpretive signage which describe a number of our planted species
• Look out for the sign on the RHS half way up the track that indicates a short side track up to a WWII pillbox. This pillbox protected the approaches up the Home Bay valley in the event of a land assault from the rear on the counter bombardment Gun Battery.

Military Sites

• Presently you will emerge out of the forest at the Northern Junction. Turn right and walk up to the pillbox (LHS) situated at the top of the junction. This was one of 17 built on Motutapu by the NZ Army in 1942 to protect the approaches to the Gun Battery.
• Take time to read the large interpretive panel on the high ground prior to heading towards the sites. It features a photo of the very last test firing of the guns in the 1958 (They never were called upon to fire in anger).
• Go through the gate to the RHS of the panel and head towards the Battery Observation Post complex. Mullet Bay is on your RHS. Note Rotary restoration plantings on the left and Project Crimson Pohutukawa plantings on the right hand side of this beautiful bay.
• Check out the wireless room, radar room, battery observation post and gaze across at the gun emplacements, your next stop on the tour. Take time to read the interpretive panels.
• Leaving the BOP complex, follow the fence line towards the Gun Battery and climb the stile into the adjacent field.
• Please ensure you secure the gate behind you when entering the Battery. Three 6inch Mk21 guns were sited here from 1938 to 1962 (when they were dismantled and sold as scrap). This was ground zero during the tense days of 1942 when the nation was on invasion high alert. Motutapu was a restricted area, 600 men were stationed here during the war years, at times up to 1000 personnel.
• Admire the view out over the Gulf from the top of the emplacements. If you have a torch, take the stairs down into the underground magazine below emplacement 3 (farthest away from the gate). Check out the shell room, the cartridge room and take a prowl along the humidity corridor.  
• Leaving the Battery, don't go back over the stile, instead, carry back along towards the interpretive sign at Northern Junction. The structures on the hill to your right are the miniature range, fortress and battery plotting rooms, engine room and wireless room. If you have time, go over and visit.
• You will also note two tunnel entrances in the gully below the hill top structures. In late 1942 the decision was made to re-site the above ground plotting rooms underground for added security. The tunnels are partially flooded and are in the process of being drained and restored
• You can now decide whether you wish to travel back down the Rotary Centennial Track to Home Bay or take the Home Bay road (quicker route)

This self guided tour should take around 2 hours, slightly longer if you plan to stop for lunch at the Gun Emplacements (good idea if it's a nice day).

Please fell free to approach any of our friendly volunteers in and around Reid Homestead should you have any questions at all about the Motutapu Restoration Trust, its activities and objectives

Or you can always Contact Us