Route: Devonport ferry to Queen St. pier, Auckland Coast-to-Coast Walk to Onehunga and continuing across Mangere Bridge (pedestrians only) to the district of Mangere Bridge. Car transfer 80km exactly due east to Coroglen. Rangihau Road to road end, track to Pinnacles Hut. Webb Creek Track, Kaeaeranga valley road to Coromandel Park Headquarters. Piraunui Stream Track to Highway 26A, Highway 26A for 1-1/2 km east to summit, old ridgetop track to Neavesville Road, Neavesville Road to Puriri. Highway 26 to Hikutaia. Old Maratoto Road, Golden Cross Track, Golden Cross Road, Waitekauri Road, Old Waitekauri Road to Waikino. Victoria St., Seddon St., Kaurangahake Gorge Track, Whatawheta Road, Franklin Road, Whatawheta Tramway Track to Whatawheta Hut. North-South Track continuing past Whatawheta Saddle to Wharawhara Link Track (new) to Te Rereatukahia Hut. North-South Track to Tuahu Track, Tuahu Track west, Wairakau Road, Thompsons Road, Te Aroha Gordon Road, Old Te Aroha Road, Goodwin Road, Wairere Track past top of Wairere Falls to re-join North-South Track. North-South Track to Te Tuhi Track, Te Tuhi Track east becoming Ngamarama Track (no sign indicating the transition), Leyland O'Brien Tramline Track, Ngamuwahine Track, Ngamuwahine Road to Highway 29. Highway 29, McLaren Falls Road, Omanawa/Galaxy Road to Highway 5. Highway 5 to Maraeroa Road to Mamaku. Abandoned railroad track of Rotorua Branch Railway from Mamaku to Rotorua (with a "road respite" in middle: Tarukenga, Dansey, and Western Roads).

Towns: Puriri (lodging/tavern), Hikutaia (meals/store/B&B: 07-862-4710), Waikino (homestay/cafe), McLaren Falls (campground), Mamaku (meals/store), Ngongotaha (store), Rotorua (everything). Near Waikino, accessible by tourist railroad from Waikino, is the larger town of Waihi, which has everything, including an internet cafe (Emmaus Cafe and Christian Bookshop, 07-863-6728). Mamaku Blue, on Maraeroa Road just north of Mamaku, has a cafe open during the day, and there is a take-away open some days in Mamaku village.

Maps: T11 Whitianga, T12 Thames, T13 Paeroa, T14 Morrinsville, U14 Tauranga, U15 Ngongotaha, Coromandel Forest Park (336-11), DOC pamphlet "Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park Long Walks" (undated but appears to be quite recent).

Resupply: Auckland before section start; package to Jane Kinghan, homestay in Waikino (07-863-6417).

Route notes:

(1) The track from Rangihau Road to Pinnacles is well maintained in most parts, but offers a steep climb up and down into the Kaeaeranga River that is quite time consuming and demanding. A sign at Pinnacles Hut says the track is for experienced trampers.

(2) The Piraunui Track is very overgrown with Gorse and other barriers and is dangerous in a few sections due to the combination of overgrowth and steep drop-offs on traverses. It starts just south of the forest park headquarters, at a sign on the road, crosses the river at a eastern/upstream angle from an orange marker on the northern bank, to meet with a few wooden steps and an orange triangle up to the opposite dirt road, then follows orange markers the entire way.

(3) At Highway 26A summit, a sign indicates track north to Kaitarakihi. The track south to Neavesville Road is indicated by a short wooden stump in the ground and then perhaps 20m into the forest by a large sign with a long white arrow pointing to the left, indicate the direction of the ridgetop. The track is consistently marked by white plastic rectangles along its entire length. The first half of this track is quite straightforward, but the second half is severely overgrown. Towards the end, the track proceeds due east to peak 640m, and then turns south just 20m short of the peak to follow a broad sloping plain down to the road. Navigating this plane northward from the road might be impossible, but heading down it is slow but still doable. It took me 5 hours for this 4km track.

(4) An alternative to the old track from Highway 26A to Neavesville Road would be to continue east on Highway 26A and head back over the range along a few different roads leading to Neavesville. However, this is a long way around, both in distance and altitude, and this is all private land, so permissions might be needed.

(5) The Golden Cross Track is extremely well developed and signed -- very enjoyable to follow. Multiple stream crossings. At one point there is a fork with a bare wooden post and no orange markings. Take the right fork up the hill and the orange markers resume in a few hundred meters.

(6) It used to be possible to walk the old railroad grade, which goes from Thames to Pairoa, but when I tried to access it at Puriri to walk to Hikutaia rather than take the highway, a local living next to the railroad grade talked me out of it. He said all the bridges had been removed, leaving one to ford several steep-walled canals across which it goes, and that the railroad had ceded the land back to local farmers, who had put up fences across the old right-of-way, meaning fence-hopping and dealing with stock as well. How true all this is I can't say, but I took him at his word. A shame, because it was a nice route that would have eliminated the highway walk entirely.

(7) See journal for further discussion of the tracks in the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Park. The North-South track from junction with Tuahu Track to junction with Thompson's Track is described in DOC pamphlet as "the most rugged of the North South Track as the track negotiates a number of rocky outcrops....There are some very steep ascents and descends including one section with a 9-metre vertical steel ladder." That section is also described as "dangerous" in the Te Rereatukahia Hut book. For these reasons, my route bypassed this section and the one following it, by taking Tuahu Track out to the road, and then re-entering via the Wairere Track (re-entry could be along Thompson's Track as well, braving brushes with the 4WD vehicles which use Thompson's Track, but then one must traverse to the east side of the park along the North South Track and come back west, so continuing on the road to Wairere was preferred). The North-South Track from Te Tuhi Track to Leyland O'Brien Track is marked with sign at the Te Tuhi Track junction saying that that section of the North South Track was rugged and overgrown, and that a better alternative was to take Te Tuhi, leading to a new (1996) track called the "Ngamarama Track", which doesn't appear on the topo map but is a very good track, which then goes to the Leland O'Brien Track at the Whakamarama Road end. This "bypass", which would also include taking the Leland O'Brien Track back to the North-South track, was given on the DOC sign as a total of 4 hours, but in my estimation is closer to 5-6 hours.

(8) Active logging operations (by Fletcher Challenge) were ongoing along parts of Omanawa/Galaxy Road, and there was one closed gate across the road near the junction with McLaren Falls Road. Other open gates at various points had signs saying access by permit only, but in general the area seemed loosely open to trampers and even vehicles (no signs or closed gates coming north from Highway 5). As I walked along the road, my presence was noted and put on the radio (something like "there is a tramper coming along the road"), according to one local driving along the road who stopped to chat. Part of the road passes through a DOC reserve area for some distance, while at other times pine forest or clear-cut areas lie on either or both sides of the road.

(9) Walking on the abandoned railway track from Mamaku to Rotorua is not too difficult, but requires adjustment of stride to the wooden tie separation distance, and/or walking on shifting coarse gravel. Once begun, there are only a few places to exit the railway without having to cross a fence and private land (at Highway 5 crossing and at Ngongotaha).

Page updated December 6, 2003