- Area
- Ruakumara Range
- Distance
- 10.1km
- Time
- Car park to Hikurangi Hut, 3-4hr and hut to summit, 2hr
- Grade
- Easy
- Accom.
- Hikurangi Hut (8 bunks) NOTE: Hut must be booked prior to departure through Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou: 06 864 9004; info@maungahikurangi.com. $15 per person per night.
- Access
- 15km drive from Ruatoria to Pahikiroa Station. Park car at the station. The hut and the station are maintained by Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou.
- Map
- BE43, BE44
- GPX File
- Hikurangi Hut (gpx, yo 40 KB)
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From the car park at Pakihiroa Station, there is around 1500m of ascent to reach the Hikurangi Hut.
Most of the route is spent on a farm road marked with bright yellow poles. Around 30 minutes from the hut there is an unmarked turn-off which takes trampers to contemporary Maori carvings depicting the mythical Maui-Tikitiki-a-Taranga and his family. A few hundred meters beyond this turn-off, is a 4WD car park and then the farm road disappears and a tramping track begins.
The climb becomes steeper here and is at an altitude where cloud can settle and obscure visibility.
The basic eight-bunk hut should be reached within 4hr.
There is a further 2hr tramp to reach the summit and many of those who visit the hut climb Hikurangi before dawn to be the first in New Zealand to see the sun rise.
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