TECT Park...

Today's run was a nice 10km loop around part of TECT Park... but as I intend to run a lap of the recent Tauranga Trail Run there with my mate Keith Crook from Auckland and share it with you after that, I thought I would tell you all a bit about TECT Park as outside parts of Tauranga it is a bit of a secret.

About equidistant from Tauranga and Rotorua on the Tauranga Direct Road, TECT Park is approximately 1650 hectares of land that was purchased in 2004 by Western BOP District Council and Tauranga District Council with support from Tauranga Energy Consumers Trust (TECT) and Bay Trust.


The park vision, “to develop a unique recreational venue and regional destination that caters for a wider range of adventure and education activities, in a managed sustainable way.”


Already there are many groups using the park with a myriad of horsetrails, several MTB & motorcross trails and of course forestry roads and a few walking trails.

As a runner I have found this great as firstly; I visit Tauranga pretty regularly and it is a great stop on the way back and secondly; the trails and feel of the environment is so very different to the Whakarewarewa forest where I do the majority of my local running. There are hard dry trails, muddy tight trails and knarly root covered trails.

Below is a map of some of the runs I have done in the Park and I have barely scratched the surface....

 

Click pic to get fullsize

One neat thing for runners with kids is that just recently Adrenalin Forest have set up a fabulous multi-level aerial rope course through an area of trees at TECT Park... so drop them off there for a while and shoot off for a run.

There are several Toilet blocks around the park and at the main base area you can even fill your drink bottle with fresh filtered cold water - for free!

This is a fantastic facility that will only get bigger and better with age, much of the park is bare at the moment as many of the trees have been harvested, but as the new ones grow and the areas of native bush regenerate, TECT Park will be a mus stop for any runner in the Bay.... watch out for my description soon of the trails used for the recent Smith's Sports Shoes Tauranga Trail Run .

* Click highlighted text to link to webpage.