Who needs Old Man River, the ochre blemish of the Yarra in Melbourne or a rolling Thames?

The Utuhina Stream is all of the above, in its meandering, mainly twisty, corkscrew course.

With a steady incline from Lake Road towards Malfroy Road along its northern banks, an older age intermingles with modernity.

It has also been a stream of intrigue. Some 40 years ago, a chase following an armed holdup in which a security guard was killed and eventually forced bank guard Mark Gould into politics, hit headlines.

The killer was never found. Three years ago, police re-opened investigations following the search for a weapon along the stream.

Boulder bank.

They seemed certain of a result, then, as two aging brothers of the slain security guard were present at the subsequent press conference at Rotorua's Bay of Plenty HQ.

My walk, hardly a gambol for I'll wager I'm not a gambolling type, was a long time coming and even longer to reach the topside of undulating terrain and tidy track which looked surprisingly unused but not entirely neglected.

A grocery trolley from The Warehouse had been tipped on its side into the stream, its wire-netting a catch for weeds.

Normally, trollies are removed Pak n Save.

Aqua trolley derby?

Some care and attention have been accorded this quiet repose of a Rotorua walk.

The start at Lake Road overlooks what in context be construed as rapids.

The water falls towards the northeast as it gurgles past nearby Medical Officers Reserve (were rugby league hardman and Kiwis coach Tony Gordon started his coaching career), back but in a parallel line with Tawera Road, widening to under the traffic flow constant of Lake Road and into Lake Rotorua.

Footpath traffic begins on the road bridge on Old Taupo Road. It heads upland towards the Hunt Farm area.

New bridge.

Because the terrain corkscrews, the walker can become disoriented on exit. Or entry if one starts on Malfroy Rd for a pleasant descent.

Almost immediately, the stroller who is of the sidewalk and no longer a pedestrian faces a sign, 'Keep it clean people”. No one I came across told a foul joke.

And there are two exits – one which leads into a common but which is guarded by rocks as if tossed in arrangement with Polyphemus. Such a gateway rod 150m away, too as a protection against four-wheeled vehicular traffic. The second, at the end of the walk, at Malfroy Road, by Clyde Street.

The walker emerges onto this third or fourth busiest road in Rotorua.

The track ends with a sign.

Properties turn their backs for some 3kms, felt longer given the mild ascent, over some of the uncluttered beauty spots.

Ignoring this, though, one is transported to look over the stream to tidier backyards. The walker sidles with backyards on the northern banks.

Occasionally, the stream ripples or corrugates like potato crisps, at others as still as a potion in a laboratory.

Rapids under Old Taupo Road bridge.

S bends become W bends, too, and even a U bend. It's that kind of course. We could other letters of the alphabet, but three is enough.

The authorities have done their bit. Three quarters through a council shed is locked, with signs of recent activity. Two relatively new foot bridges, clean pathways, trimmed foliage and at times an asphalt pathway reassuringly deliver care and permanency.

The walk took this correspondent close to 90 minutes, but it was uphill and little down dale.

Thanks goodness for Malfroy Road, and the bus stop several metres along the road.