Central Southland College teacher Annie Keown says the planting of an additional 4000 native trees on college land will provide the school and community with many benefits.
Robyn Edie/Stuff
Two under-appreciated waterfalls in the Hokonui Hills are now accessible for the passably fit, thanks to a hard-working Winton Rotary Club
Sir Bill English has briefly emerged from a carefully lowered profile to help draw the spotlight to a scarcely-known Southland attraction. The 24.5m Makarewa Falls, reportedly the highest in lowland Southland, and the pretty Staircase Falls have long been celebrated by Hokonui area locals, but access difficulty kept their profile largely under the radar. Now a labour of love and perspiration from a handful of Winton Rotary Club members has opened them up, via a blazed trail offering a steepish six hour return walk, which the former Prime Minister and Finance Minister officially opened on Friday.
The trail can be walked in about six hours, with the Staircase Falls situated at about the halfway point and Makarewa Falls at the top, Sandford said. Fellow club member John Cowie added the trail was 16 kilometres, with 10 kilometres on steep terrain. More than 500 hours of voluntary labour had gone into the project which was first talked about in 2018, he said. The trail will probably be officially named the
Makarewa Falls Trail, club members say. The Department of Conservation owns the land, and it gave the rotary club approval to create the trail, with guidelines including no cutting down trees or excavating.