And the dog came too... dog walks in New Zealand
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • Notes for Users
  • Alarums and Excursions!!
  • South Island
    • North-West >
      • Atua Stream Walk
      • Barnicoat
      • Ben Nevis
      • Botanical Hill
      • Boulder Bank
      • Brooklyn
      • Collingwood Beach
      • Collingwood Cemetery
      • Cotterell Road
      • Dellside
      • Dicker Road
      • Dominion Flats
      • Eves Valley Road
      • Faulkner Bush
      • Grampians
      • Great Taste Trail - Richmond
      • Great Taste Trail - Kohatu
      • Great Taste Trail - Wakefield
      • Hacket Valley
      • Hoddy Estuary Reserve
      • Hoddy Road
      • Kawatiri Rail Tunnel walk
      • Kina Beach
      • Maitai Valley
      • Mapua Headland
      • Marahau Beach
      • Marahau Forest
      • Mead Stream
      • Milnthorpe Forest
      • Motueka Inlet
      • Motueka Spit
      • Pakawau Beach
      • Paton's Rock
      • Paynes Ford Tramline Track
      • Pearse Valley
      • Pohara Beach
      • Rameka Creek
      • Red Hills
      • Ridgeview Road Walkway
      • Robson Reserve
      • Rough Island
      • Sharlands
      • Split Apple Rock
      • Stagecoach Road
      • St Arnaud Loop Walk
      • Tahunanui Beach
      • Tantragee
      • Tasman View Road
      • Teetotal
      • Two Rivers
      • Waimea Fish-Out Ponds
      • Waimea River Trail
      • Wairoa River Left Branch
      • Waiwhero Forest
      • Waiwhero Ridge
    • North-East >
      • Archer's Track
      • Blairich Reserve
      • Cullen Creek
      • Cullen Point
      • Davies Bay Track
      • Esson's Valley Tracks
      • Goulter River
      • Grovetown Lagoon
      • Half Moon Track
      • Kotuku Trail
      • Lake Chalice
      • Link Trail East
      • Link Trail West
      • Lower Wairau
      • Mount Baldy and Mount Royal
      • Mount Barrett Walkway
      • Mount Fell
      • Mount Fishtail
      • Mount Richmond
      • Mount Riley
      • Mount Robertson
      • Mount Stokes
      • Mount Takorika
      • Ngakuta Bay
      • Nydia Track
      • Opouri Bridle Track
      • Patutu Walk
      • Pelorus Track
      • Piwakawa Track
      • Rarangi
      • Sawcut Gorge
      • Snout Tracks
      • Taylor's Valley
      • Tirohanga
      • Wairau River
      • Wakamarina Track
    • West >
      • Alborns Track
      • Big Rimu Tree walk
      • Charming Creek
      • Chasm Creek
      • Coalbrookdale
      • Denniston Historic Walkway
      • Denniston Plateau
      • Gentle Annie Point walk
      • Goldsborough Tracks
      • Haast-Paringa Cattle Track
      • Kawatiri Beach Trail
      • Kawatiri River Trail
      • Kumara Community walks
      • Lake Hanlon
      • Larry's Creek
      • Mikonui River
      • Millerton Bathhouse Track
      • Moeraki Valley Track
      • Mokihinui Stopbank
      • Mount Adams
      • Mount Glasgow
      • Mount Haast Route
      • Murchison Tree Walks
      • Murray Creek
      • Old Ghost Road
      • Porika Road
      • Powerhouse and Lookout Walks
      • Progress Water Race
      • Ross Goldfield Walks
      • Skyline Walk
      • Stafford Bay Loop
      • Wanganui River
      • Whataroa Walks
      • Whitcombe Loop Tracks
      • Whitcombe Valley Track
      • Zig-Zag Track
    • Central-North >
      • Balmoral Lookout
      • Bottle Lake
      • Cheviot Hills Reserve
      • Childrens Bay Farm
      • Craigieburn Forest
      • Culverden Domain
      • Diamond Harbour
      • Ellangowan Scenic Reserve
      • Garden of Tane
      • Godley Head
      • Governors Bay
      • Halswell Quarry
      • Hanmer Forest Walks
      • H W Hart Arboretum
      • Ka Whata Tu o Rakihouia
      • Kaikoura Trail
      • Kowai Bush Reserve
      • Kowai River
      • Lyttleton Coastal Walk
      • Lytteleton Hills
      • McCleans Forest
      • McHughs Forest Park
      • Mears Bush
      • Mount Grey
      • Mount Oxford
      • Mount Richardson
      • Mount Thomas
      • Newton Falls
      • Ngaio Point
      • Panama Rock
      • Pegasus Bay
      • Rakahuri River
      • Sign of the Bellbird
      • Sign of the Kiwi
      • St James Conservation Park
      • Tutakakahikura Scenic Reserve​
      • Victoria Park
      • West Melton Forest
      • Woodills North
      • Woodills South
    • Central-South >
      • Ahuriri East Branch
      • Ahuriri Valley Tracks
      • Ashburton River
      • Benmore Peninsula
      • Centennial Park
      • Cowan's Hill
      • Dingle Burn
      • Double Hill
      • Freehold Creek
      • Greta and Dorcy Tracks
      • Gunns Bush
      • Hook Bush
      • Huxley and Hopkins Valleys
      • Kelceys Bush
      • Knottingly Park
      • Lake Emma walk
      • Lake Emily Tracks
      • Lake Hood
      • Lake Ohau Track
      • Lake Opuha Walk
      • Lake Tekapo Lakeside Walk
      • Lake Tekapo Regional Park
      • Lake Wainono
      • Lower Opihi River Track
      • Macaulay River walk
      • Methven walkway
      • Mount Barrosa
      • Mount Sunday & Mount Potts
      • Opihi River Walkway
      • Orari River Mountain Bike Tracks
      • Pareora River
      • Pioneer Park
      • Potts River Walks
      • Quailburn Track
      • Saltwater Creek
      • Snowy Gorge
      • Talbot Forest
      • Temple Valley Tracks
      • Waihao River
      • Waihi River Walk
      • Waimate Creek walks
      • Waitohi Bush
    • South-East >
      • Alexandra Anniversary Walk
      • Arawata Bridle Track
      • Arrow Gorge Loop
      • Arrowtown Millennium Track
      • Bannockburn Sluicings
      • Bob's Cove and Twelve Mile Delta
      • Boundary Creek
      • Bull Creek
      • Bullendale Track
      • Butcher's Dam
      • Central Otago Rail Trail
      • Chrystals Beach
      • Clutha Riverside Track
      • Commissioner's Track
      • Conroy's Dam
      • Cromwell-Pisa Walkway
      • Crystal Battery
      • Deans Bank Track
      • Diamond Creek Track
      • Dunedin Walks
      • Earnscleugh Tailings
      • Flagstaff Hill
      • Frankton Arm Walkway
      • Gabriel's Gully
      • Gibbston River Trail
      • Gladstone Track
      • Glendhu Bay Track
      • Glenorchy Boardwalk
      • Grovers Hill
      • Hawea River Track
      • Huriawa Pa Walk
      • Kanuka Loop
      • Lake Alta Track
      • Lake Hayes Trail
      • Lakeside Walk
      • Leith Saddle
      • Long Beach
      • Mapoutahi
      • Mosgiel Floodbank
      • Mount Cargill
      • Mount Crichton Loop
      • Mount Iron Track
      • Munro's Gully
      • Naseby Forest
      • Nevis Valley Tracks
      • Newcastle Track
      • One MIle Creek
      • Oteake Conservation Park
      • Outram Glen
      • Quartz Reef
      • St Bathans
      • Trotters Gorge
    • South-West >
      • Blair Athol Walkway
      • Boyd Creek
      • Manapouri cycleway
      • McLean Falls
      • The Bluff
  • North Island
    • Auckland & Waiheke
    • Coromandel & North Waikato
    • Wellington
    • The North
    • Manawatu & Wairarapa
    • The East
    • Taranaki & Central
  • Useful Links
  • Progress Water Race
  • Rock and Pillar Conservation Park
  • New Page
  • New Page
  • New Page
  • New Page
  • New Page
  • New Page

Batley

A stroll by the Kaipara, starting at the lost settlement of Batley.

Dowload pdf

Batley

Today, Batley comprises one beautiful balustraded house, perched on the hillside, with sweeping views of the Harbour.  In the past, however, it was a thriving settlement with two wharves, a school, church, flour mill and two fish-canning factories - and the house that now stands there was a hotel.

From the small grassy parking area, behind the remaining two boat-sheds, we can walk in either direction.  Straight on, past the end of Batley Road, takes us to a shingle spit that juts out into the broad Otamatea River (more a branch of the sea here than a stream).  On past that and we walk below shaley white cliffs and sweeping fields, to a small dry lagoon trapped behind the storm beach.  After about a kilometre, we come to another headland (Ngaupiko Point) from where we can look south-west past the Tinopai Peninsula towards Pouto Point and the open sea.  Continue on, beneath the cliffs, and we are soon heading north up another tentacle of this complex octopus of a feature that's called Kaipara Harbour.

Starting off in the other direction from where we parked the car may seem less enticing, for that way the Otamatea narrows in on us, and the views are constrained.  But there are two reasons to do so.  We meet one within a few hundred metres, when we come across large round boulders, some as tall as ourselves.  They seem odd things to find in this quiet backwater: not storm-tossed and rounded by waves, surely, so how did they get here?  

Boulders like these are rare, but there is a scatter of famous examples across the world, including some spectacular ones in Argentina and the USA (see photographs at http://irna.lautre.net/Tout-ce-que-la-nature-ne-peut-pas,45.html).  In New Zealand the most well-known are the Moeraki Boulders on the east coast of South Island, though some interesting examples also occur at Sandspit.  Despite detailed study of many of these examples, the processes remain uncertain. The most likely explanation is that they form through the slow accretion of calcite and other chemicals from the water, around an obstacle such as a fossil or mud-ball.  This occurred not on the sea-floor, but at some depth in the mud that lay there there millions of years ago.  The process is slow, so the boulders at Batley probably took a million or more years to form.  Millions of years later, long after the mud had become compressed into rock and lifted up above sea level by geological forces, they were uncovered by erosion.  

The other reason for walking this way is to visit the church at Tanoa, about two kilometres further on.  The church was built in 1874 by William Gittos (or more truthfully, by the local Maori population on his behalf), an early Methodist missionary.  Probably not accidentally, the site chosen was that of the last cannibal feast in the Otamatea area. The church survived in its original location until 1936, but then was damaged in severe storms.  When it was rebuilt, it was shifted away from the river and turned ninety degrees to help protect it from the wind.  By the early 1960s, it was in a poor state of decay again, and this time it was made smaller and the roof lowered to keep the costs down.  The latest restoration took place in 2010. 

There's much more to the story of this area, and Batley is a good place to dip into it.  To find out more, you can do no better than read the fascinating book called Love at the end of the road, written by Rae Roadley who lives in the house today. 
 

Summary

Location: End of Batley Road (extension from Bickerstaffe Road), ca. 17 km south of Maungaturoto 

Access: Small parking area near Batley House 

Length: up to 2km one-way (east towards Tanoa or west round the headland)

Configuration: There-and-back

Grade: Flat; shingle beach  

Status: off leash (under control) 

Cafes and restaurants: Sugarbelles and Beejays cafe in Maungaturoto, 17 km north.

More information: Rae Roadley 2011 Love at the end of the road. Penguin
Picture
If you've found this website helpful, you might also want to look at some of my novels and poetry. These, like my dog-walking, are drawn from a love of nature and the countryside. To learn more, click here.