WILKIES POOLS

Duration: 1 hour, 20 min

Difficulty: Easy

Distance: 1.9km

Terrain: Mountain, forest, excellent track Start/end: Dawson Falls Visitor Centre

This easy walk on the slopes of Taranaki is hugely fun for kids while being gloriously scenic for adults. Highlights include an enchanting ‘goblin forest’ and a set of lava- formed pools with a natural rock slide – we told you kids would love it! It’s a short stroll but there are plentiful options for extending it into something more substantial by joining up with adjacent tracks.

GETTING THERE

The closest town is Stratford, 23km away, or you can drive here from the city of New Plymouth in less than an hour.

STARTING POINT

The Dawson Falls Visitor Centre has a large car park with a toilet. There’s a cafe in the adjacent Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge.

01 From the visitor centre, cross the lawn and look for the well-labelled start to the track. The first 900m is touted as being wheelchair accessible, although you’ll need arms like Popeye for the steep section a little further on. The track heads straight into one of Taranaki’s famous ‘goblin

forests’, a gorgeous mossy, fern-filled subalpine wonderland, where the trees all sport long, straggly lichen beards.

02 After a steeper incline, the path reaches the Kapuni Stream and offers magnificent views of Mt Taranaki, directly ahead. You can easily see why the pictureperfect volcano was cast in the role of Mt Fuji in the 2003 Tom Cruise flick The Last Samurai. The path then follows the gurgling rock-strewn stream until it crosses it via a bouncy suspension bridge.

03 Just across the bridge, a short track leads to the Wilkies Pools, a set of small pools formed within 20,000-year-old lava, with waterfalls tinkling into them. A short, steep natural rock slide connects them, which hardy kids delight in swooshing down.

Being hardy is a necessity: the water originated from snow melts further up the mountain and is bracing to say the least. A wetsuit is sensible attire.

04 Pick up the trail again, which is a little rougher and damper on the return loop (it’s still fine, but definitely not wheelchair accessible, and muddy in places). It heads back through more goblin forest and steps down to some picturesque little waterfalls and a small stream. Just after the junction of the Ridge Track, look out for the intake

weir for the hydroelectric power station, which you can visit later, just off the road near the car park (built in 1899, it’s the world’s oldest continuously operating power generator).

05 Metal steps head down to the

Kapuni Stream, which is easy enough to cross by hopping between the rocks (although it’s impassable after heavy rain). The loop then rejoins the wheelchair-accessible part of the main track; turn left to head back to the visitor centre.

TAKE A BREAK

The cafe (06-765 5457; dawson falls. co.nz; 1890 Manaia Rd; mains $6-7.50; 9am-5pm) within Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge has a counter cabinet full of simple savoury and sweet pastries. Alternatively, stock up on supplies in Stratford or New Plymouth and enjoy a picnic by the pools.

Wilkies Pools