Wairau Lagoons Walkway

This walk gives an insight into the lagoons and the habitat they provide. The walk is virtually flat. It makes a loop from the carpark along the shoreline of the upper lagoon and past Budges and Moerepo Islands to the lagoons' main channel where the rusting hulk of the Waverley sits in the mud. The Waverley was towed from Wellington by the SS Wairau to the mouth of the Wairau River where she was to be sunk to form a breakwater. Before being scuttled, she was swept up the channel in a flood to where she now lies, in the Wairau Lagoons. Return either the same way or, more directly, across the saltmarsh area, with its salt resistant plants. Alternatively, it is possible to continue beyond the Waverley for a view of the river.