If you grew up around Newcastle Australia, you would’ve celebrated almost every birthday at the Treetops Adventure Park. It was the best place to go as a kid; walking across the bridges from tree to tree, soaring along the ziplines, clinging to the nets. Now I know the Redwoods Treewalk is a little different. It’s a walk. But it brought back that sense of adventure and memories from when I was a kid who didn’t care about anything at all. Plus, this was a really cool walk!
The Whakarewarewa Forest is one of New Zealand’s oldest exotic forests, with 170 tree species planted in the early 1900s. However, only a few of these species survived New Zealand’s climate, including the Californian Redwood. These are the tallest living trees, reaching over 115 metres in height and their trunks measuring 9 metres in diameter in their maturity. Whakarewarewa Forest is now known for its walking and biking trails, as well as the Redwoods Treewalk which is open day and night!
Now, of course we weren’t just going to walk around the forest floor looking at the trees and ferns that grew there. I mean don’t get me wrong, there were some wonderful walks with so much greenery, plant life, and birdlife! But we were on a holiday! We wanted to take any chance we get to take things to the next level, let’s take it to the skies! Well, the treetops at least. I’m actually surprised my mum wanted to do this since she absolutely hates heights and suspension bridges. I was even filming her first walk across the swing bridge expecting to get a funny video to send to my older brother back in Australia. But she just kept on walking? With no fuss? How rude.
Anyway, the Redwoods Treewalk involves swing bridges connected to platforms around the redwood trees, creating a path around part of the forest. The walk itself wasn’t too high off the ground, with 20 metres being its maximum height. But you could definitely grasp how tall the redwood trees are by simply looking up. They also had beautiful lanterns hidden within the branches for the Redwood Nightlights Treewalk! I would’ve loved to do this at night, but it’s been a very action-packed holiday with multiple sights per day, so we’ve had early nights every night. We still got to see the forest and that’s what matters!
I found it pretty cute that they had special strollers for children to sit in along the Treewalk, and every kid we passed in these had not a care in the world that they were 20 metres above the ground. I on the other hand felt very much drunk walking across each bridge. It’s hard to feel stable walking along a swing bridge. I guess that just adds to the fun of it all! We came to an option between continuing with the regular Treewalk or going even further off the ground to higher platforms and bridges. Now at this point, I was leading my parents, so of course I went straight for the higher walk. It wasn’t long until we were back to the lower platforms and the beginning of the Treewalk.
Although it wasn’t as action-packed as I was expecting, I still really enjoyed Whakarewarewa Redwoods Treewalk. I got to enjoy a kind of nature that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to back home. After the Treewalk, we went for a normal, everyday, on-the-ground walk, and even that was amazing! New Zealand’s flora and fauna are stunning and so unique. I could’ve stayed in that forest all day if I had the chance. Apart from the beautiful nature we got to experience, we also learnt some pretty interesting facts! Most platforms had little plaques with facts about the trees or the history of the place, like how Prince Harry and Megan Markle visited the forest in 2018. So were learning while having fun! It’s not just a forest guys. You’ll just have to see for yourself.
All photos in this post are taken by me.
For more information about Whakarewarewa Forest and the Redwoods Treewalk, visit https://www.treewalk.co.nz/the-walk/redwoods-treewalk/
The Travel Journal 
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