Whanganui in 1920. In 1924 a Cambridge to Port Waikato excursion was being run 2 or 3 times a year, taking 12 to 14 hours downstream and a few hours longer upstream. Manuwai sank at her moorings in 1938, but was taken to Mercer for repair in 1939, where she was converted to a barge. Several of the old steamers remain under, or beside the river, including the Manuwai, Rawhiti (built 1925) and Freetrader on the west bank just south of Mercer. A 1928 article listed 14 boats that had provided river services. To improve navigation, rocks in the Narrows at Tamahere were removed in 1919. Public cruises operate from Aratiatia to Huka Falls, across the river to Orakei Korako, from Hamilton Gardens to Mystery Creek and Fairfield Bridge and, since 2009, from Tuakau to Port Waikato. On 19 July 2021 a ferry service began on the river in Hamilton, linking Swarbrick's Landing and Braithwaite Park with the museum and gardens. Services ended with liquidation of the company in September 2022. Cycle and walk trails Three trails follow parts of the river. Boosted by New Zealand Cycle Trail funding, the Waikato River Trails, a series of connected river cycling trails in the South Waikato. The River Trail has five sections, open to both walkers or bikes, between Lake Karapiro and Aratiatia. It opened in 2011. Te Awa River Ride runs for following the river from Horahora, near the end of the Waikato River Trails, via Cambridge and Hamilton to Ngāruawāhia. Completion was planned for 2017, but the Cambridge-Hamilton section opening was further delayed from 2021 and opened on 9 December 2022. North of AFFCO at Horotiu, the route includes the second longest cycle bridge in the country (after the Timber Trail), a long cable network arch bridge, budgeted to cost $2.6m and to open in August, but opened in November 2017. The section from the Avantidrome through St Peter's School of Cambridge and Tamahere was being constructed in 2019/2020, including an underpass at SH21 to Tamahere Park. Te Araroa (the walkway running the length of the country) follows the Waikato for most of its between Mercer and Hamilton. Ecology Species The Waikato River and its hydro lakes are home to at least 19 types of native fish and 10 types of introduced fish. The introduced species include rainbow and brown trout providing what has been called "the finest fly-fishing in