In April the Hiking Group 1 had the opportunity to visit the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail situated near Snells beach Warkworth.

The trail is combined with a vineyard and cafe housed in a large glass house. Most of us had not heard about this unique outdoor gallery, where sculpture is placed along the trail that meanders past lakes, swamp, vineyard and native forest.

When we arrived at this vineyard we had coffee in the outdoor seating area, ( the lunch menu looked very inviting) then set off to view these large pieces of art work, using materials such as steel, aluminium, carbon fibre, bronze, resin, granite, wood, paint, brick, stainless steel, rubber, rope and bells. There seems no end to the imagination of these talented New Zealand artists. All of these works of art are for sale or commission, the prices being  advertised in the trail map you get when you pay the $10 entry fee.

The 2 km trail has well made paths and sinuous board walks to ensure accessibility even in wet weather. There are pockets of beautiful original native bush, consisting of large kahikatea (some were flowering), rimu, puriri, lancewood, totara plus tree ferns, cabbage trees and nikau. Truly a bush walkers delight. This park certainly deserves a repeat visit.

In explaining the purpose of the park the brochure states “ Outdoor sculpture entails considerable expenses, the materials, the scale and technical support frequently are beyond the resources of many artists. The Brick Bay Sculpture Trust therefore operates as a charitable trust with surplus revenues being available to assist selected artists in meeting these initial production costs”   

Barbara Procter

Tap or click an image to view it full size and other options.