While out on an inspection and maintenance trip on the walking tracks around Te Aroha, Council’s maintenance technician Ross discovered a Totara Box Flume that had been uncovered by a slip on the Water Race Track. Located about 15m below the track, only part of the flume was exposed.

These flumes were used to move water from the Tunakohoia Waterfall through to the water reservoirs at Tui Road, which in turn supplied the old Te Aroha Power Station located at the top of Hamilton Road.

It was known that water had been flumed in this area, but it was unexpected to find such an artifact still in the same location and in such good condition. To help preserve it, and allow more to be learnt about how these flumes work, this piece has been donated to the Te Aroha Museum.

While there was extensive damage to the walking tracks around Te Aroha from the storms earlier this year, staff like Ross have played a critical role in helping get many of the tracks open again.

Ross has been part of the Council team for nearly 20 years and no two weeks, or even days, are the same. Amongst his responsibilities is the inspection and light maintenance of both the mountain and wetland tracks in the Te Aroha area, as well as the river walk and Lockerbie-Fairway Drive track in Morrinsville.

For Ross, a day on the tracks involves “walking the track and inspecting things like bridges, boardwalks, water tables, clearing fallen branches/small trees and tidying up the sides of the track and side drains.”

While Ross enjoys all of the tracks as they each have something special to offer, he is particularly fond of the Te Aroha Domain and Tui Water Race tracks “as they are special, with all of the history behind them, plus they are easy to walk.” It is while out on the tracks that Ross gets to enjoy the real highlight of his role which is “hearing the other walkers on the tracks commenting on what a fantastic asset we have got, especially with the tracks being so close to the towns, and easily accessible.”