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.