The Greytown Trail An Idyllic 5km Walk

The Greytown Trail in the Wair-arapa is a scenic 5km walking and cycling track connecting Greytown’s quieter streets to the nearest train station at Woodside.

 

There is a small carpark at the end of Cotter Street, South Greytown. The beginning of the trail is marked with an overhead sign and an information board.

The track fenced on both sides, winds between old oak trees on one side, and flaxes on the other. Then a straight bit runs between two mounds or stopbanks, and is edged by trees.

The limestone track is completely flat, but looking east down the track, and you see the dark green bulk of the Tararua Ranges in the distance especially in the afternoon.

Greytown is 60m above sea level while Woodside is 91m, so it is a slightly an uphill walk or cycle to Woodside Station and some people seem to have noticed the difference when going both ways.

According to a local it can be fine at Greytown and raining when you get closer to the hills at Woodside and when you return to Greytown the weather is fine again.

Some of the time the trail runs through or along open paddocks, other times it meanders between rows of magnificent old oak trees. According to the information board, these trees were planted alongside the rails when the railway line was built in 1880, for future use as sleepers, but have never been used due to the line closing in 1953.

The trail runs between farms, some with sheep, others with cattle. Sheep can been seen grazing in the paddocks. There are bench seats along in the shade under the oak trees.

At the 2.5km mark the trail crosses a country road that also happens to be the half way mark. There is an information sign showing the history of the track.

The trail now crosses a stream with a bridge and runs alongside a row of pine trees, before entering open paddocks again.

The end of the trail is near Woodside station where a small section of the original railway track with the old sleepers is displayed by the side of the trail. The rails were made in the UK in 1874.