Signage at the track start offers walkers the protection of the taniwha, Tarakokomako, and names the seven now-vanished ancestral villages and the two existing marae en route.

There's a stile to take you across the first fence to this riverside track which runs parallel to Te Ohaki Rd. On a clear day, you'll see the orange-topped chimneys of the Huntly Power station standing in the distance. That's the destination.

1.5 kms in, past Maurea Marae, there's a monument to the Ngati Naho chief, Te Wheoro, whose personal history embodies the extraordinary stresses of colonial rule on Waikato Maori as they argued strategies to preserve tribal identity. Te Wheoro sided at first with the Crown. In 1857, he spoke against setting up a Maori king and, at the great conference of Maori leaders at Kohimarama in 1860, spoke again in favour of the Government. Governor Grey's British troops invaded Waikato territory in July 1863 and, in November that year, overcame the Maori redoubt at Rangiriri, forcing the Maori King, Tawhiao, out of Ngaruawahia to sanctuary around Waitomo and Te Kuiti. In the years that followed, Te Wheoro acted as an intermediary for the Government's negotiation with the King. As a Maori MP over the next two decades, Te Wheoro witnessed Government decisions he saw as racist and finally became an implacable critic of the Native Land Court. He came to believe local self-government was right for Maori and in 1884, in company with Tawhiao, he travelled to England to petition Queen Victoria for redress of Maori land seizures.

At 7 kilometres, the track comes up to the Huntly Golf Course. It cleaves to the river here, keeping behind a screen of trees, safe from the golf balls that ping up the 16th fairway. At the tee, it's safe to come out. The clubhouse is close by and open most weekends for hot food, maybe even a beer. Walkers welcome.

The track follows the stopbank out to Te Ohaki Rd, to circumvent the Huntly Power Station's ash ponds. It stays on the road verge for another kilometre before ducking back onto the stopbanks, crossing Maori land between Te Ohaaki Marae and the river, then exits back onto the road. For the last 200 metres it enters shady bush to finish at the sculpture park in front of Huntly Power Station.

Look out for the plaque carved with a taniwha and a greeting from Tainui –

Kia tupato kia pai to hikoi - Walk the path in safety
Me te titiro whanui, kia koa - Look deeply and learn
Ki nga taonga kei mua i a koe - From your surroundings

A short detour beyond the southern trailhead, hidden from sight, is a modernist sculpture — an immense and strikingly Maori figure —with poupou standing up from a reflective pool. This depicts the 1995 settlement of a grievance dating back to the 1860s when the largest land confiscation of any tribe was imposed on Tainui.