The New Zealand Site

There are many huts throughout the park and numerous great tramps, but the most popular is the 46 kilometre Waikaremoana track around the western and southern sides of the lake. This track around Lake Waikaremoana is one of the ‘Great Walks’ of New Zealand. Because of this status the quality of the tracks and the huts is excellent.

View of Panekiri Bluff

We chose the week before Christmas as a potentially quiet time, drove down from Auckland via Rotorua (7 hours) and stayed overnight in a cabin at Aniwaniwa before getting a water taxi across to the Hopuruahine Landing at the northern end of the lake. Most people start with the 500 metre climb up Panekiri Bluff (pictured, in background) at the other end of the track, but we figured we’d do it later with lighter packs and fitter legs. It took us a few hours strolling to cover the 8 kilometres to the Waiharuru Hut. It’s the flashest, newest, cleanest hut I’ve ever stayed in, and it’s huge. We saw big trout idling in the Waiharuru Stream mouth - people do come here for fishing and hunting as well.

Marauiti Hut

The second day was misty and drizzly and we mostly followed the lake edge again for 6.2 kilometres to the Marauiti Hut (pictured) in a stunningly beautiful bay. This is a good, standard hut, but a bit of a come down after the glories of Waiharuru. Our third day took us 12.1 kilometres (at times sidling along slopes quite high above the lake) to the Waiopaoa Hut, which we nicknamed blowfly cabin. It was hot, stuffy and buzzing. We cooked dinner down at the campsite (lovely) and only returned to the hut to go to bed.

Beech forest on the ridge

The climb from Waiopaoa Hut up the Panekiri Bluff (about 500 metres up) was easy and gave a spectacular transition from mixed podocarp and beech forest to mossy ‘goblin’ forest of gnarled old beech. When we hit the ridgeline we were immediately exposed to a chill southerly blowing through and it felt like the temperature dropped by 10 degrees - brrr. This leg of the trail is 7.6 kilometres and you get plenty of time to admire the ‘goblin’ forest on the ridge. Panekiri Hut (1,180 metres elevation) is good, with stunning views across the lake from out front. That evening two young men stumbled in and went straight to bed. They’d covered in two days what we’d done in four! We had my eleven year old son with us and we’d been taking it easy, looking at the views and the forest, and allowed ourselves five days to do the walk. Four days would be easy, but three wouldn’t give you much time to see where you were.

Panekiri Hut

We got up early to see the sunrise, but we were in the clouds and the sun appeared as a ghostly white disc. The clouds blew past and there were fantastic views across the lake and surrounding ranges. We were admiring one when the two young guys from the hut charged past us on their way to meet a pickup. We saw a long-tailed cuckoo, with its unusual swooping/flitting flight and heard its harsh, screeching call. At one point we could see all the way across the bare hills and farmland to the sea in the south-east. Ambling downhill, we passed people sweating their way up with full packs. I was glad we’d come the way we did. It’s 8.8 kilometres from Panekiri Hut (pictured) to Onepoto Bay, where we met our shuttle back to the motor camp.

The Lake Waikaremoana Track is a wonderful, easy tramp. The huts are good (great in places!), the track is excellent and there are bridges and ladders just where you need them. At the time we went, there were only a few people in the huts at night and we met hardly anyone on the trail, though apparently it does get booked out in January and February. It would be great to hire kayaks and paddle between some of the huts - maybe next trip.

The DOC headquarters is at Aniwaniwa, where there is also a shop and a motor camp with cabins and camping grounds. Stop in here to register your intentions itinerary. This is a popular walk, so you have to book huts and campsites before you go, but it is well maintained and full of handy bridges and ladders.

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