New Zealand Wlks: The best of Opotiki: 5 easy walks in the eastern Bay of Plenty
Opotiki sits on the sweeping eastern Bay of Plenty coast, two hours’ drive from Tauranga. The town is the northern gateway to Motu Trails, one of 22 Great Rides making up Nga Haerenga, New Zealand Cycle Trails—the Dunes Trail and Pakihi Track both offer excellent walking as well as biking. Beyond Motu Trails there’s good reason for a longer stay in Opotiki, with several other excellent walks.
Dunes Trail
This 10km trail is the most popular section of Motu Trails, attracting as many walkers as bikers.
In the summer peak, the Dunes Trail can get busy, but most times of the year there’s ample space—and in winter an outlook of an empty beach is common.
Complementing the magnificent coastal views, since the trail opened, local volunteers have dug in around 25,000 trees and plants.
Start the Dunes Trail at Memorial Park, at the northern end of Opotiki. Walk over the Otara River on the impressive Pakowhai ki Otutaopuku Bridge and after 600 metres you’ll reach the coastal dunes.
Around the trail’s 800 metre mark there are several bird tile displays, with life-sized birds made in pottery and mounted on concrete culvert ends. Check it out, then keep an eye out for the real thing.
The Dunes Trail surface is compacted gravel and about two metres wide, with no steep gradients and a maximum elevation of about 20 metres.
Walk to Hukuwai Beach and back (5km total), Tirohanga Beach and back (12km total), or to the shelter at the eastern end of the trail and back (18km total).
There’s handy accommodation at Tirohanga Beach Holiday Park, Opotiki Holiday Park, and Eastland Pacific Motor Lodge, all Motu Trails official partners.
Hukutaia Domain
This is a stunning pocket of forest, with a well-formed track around the perimeter. You can walk around the whole of Hukutaia Domain in about
The best of Opotiki: 5 easy walks in the eastern Bay of Plenty
15 minutes, but this place is so special it’s easy to spend a couple of hours. Hukutaia’s highlight is unquestionably taketakerau, a puriri tree of colossal scale (a girth of over 20 metres) and estimated at 2000 years old. The enormous trunk is hollow and in ancient times, taketakerau was used as a burial tree by Te Upokorehe tribe. It remains tapu. Local resident Marnie Anstis wrote a popular book based on the tree’s life, called The Millennium Tree, which is available from Opotiki i-SITE. Hukutaia is looked after by an environmental care group and with comprehensive predator trapping, the domain has good bird life. There’s a wide range of tree and plant species too, thanks largely to the efforts of early-caretaker Norman Potts, who collected rare plants from around the country. Hukutaia Domain is 10 minutes’ drive from Opotiki town. To get there, at the western end of the Waioeka River SH2 bridge, turn onto Woodlands Road and drive south for 7km, almost to the road end.
Pakihi Track
The Pakihi is rated as an advanced ride for cyclists, but for any experienced hiker/walker the track is easy going.
There’s 20km of track, with a basic DOC hut at midway, so you can choose between a shorter out-andback day walk, or getting a drop-off and walking the full length, or doing an overnight trip (a growing number of keen beans walk all the way to Motu).
The southern entrance of Pakihi
Track is at almost 600 metres elevation, on the gravel Motu Road. From there, the track twists down through Urutawa Conservation Area, to the Pakihi Road end, which is south of Opotiki.
While the surrounding slopes are in places near vertical, the track is well formed (though very prone to rockfalls). The gradient is never steep, there are no steps or large roots to negotiate, and the benching seldom goes below a metre wide.
Higher up, the forest is dominated by kamahi, which gives way to tawa. There’s podocarp too, including some fine miro trees hung with rata vine. Lower down, there are lots of nikau, tanekaha and rewarewa.
To get a drop-off at the Motu Road end, get a group together and contact a Motu Trails shuttle operator (see motutrails.co.nz for operators).
To park at the track’s northern end, drive 23km from Opotiki, down Otara and (gravel) Pakihi roads. From Opotiki, it takes 35 minutes.
There’s handy accommodation at Weka Wilds and Bushaven (both near the Opotiki-end of the track), or up at Motu at The Weka Nest and
The best of Opotiki: 5 easy walks in the eastern Bay of Plenty
Motu Community House. Pakihi Hut tickets are $5 per person per night, ask in Opotiki i-SITE.
Onekawa Te Mawhai Regional Park
Ohiwa Harbour is a gem of the region, a mostly tidal estuary nestled behind the peninsular of Ohope Beach.
Overlooking the harbour, 15 minutes’ drive from Opotiki, is Onekawa
Te Mawhai Regional Park.
The tracks here (walking only, no cycling) are fairly steep, with steps and a bit uneven in places, but the distances are short.
On the hilltops are the pa sites Onekawa and Te Mawhai, presenting sensational views of Ohiwa, Ohope, Moutohora (Whale island) and out towards East Cape.
The bush sections of the regional park feature impressive puriri and pohutukawa trees. There’s extensive trapping across the whole area led by Ohiwa Headland Sanctuary care group, so there’s plentiful bird life.
From Opotiki, take SH2 to the bridge at Waiotahe, turn onto Ohiwa Beach Road then Ohiwa Harbour Road. An ideal place to stay is Ohiwa Holiday Park, from where one of the tracks heads straight up to Onekawa.
Waiotahe Beach
If you want sweeping beach views for minimal effort, it’s hard to beat this coastal wander.
Three kilometres of track has been installed in recent months, with hopes of connecting the trail back to Opotiki. Start at Waiotahe Beach at the pou whenua (carved poles), 4km from Opotiki, or at Island View Holiday Park which is another ideal base for an Opotiki stay.
The flat gravel coastal trail extends towards Te Ahiaua Reserve (the Pipi Beds).
The coastal sand dunes are very low here so the ocean views are uninterrupted. Most of the way you’re in front of the Pohutukawa trees that form SH2’s iconic tree tunnel heading for Opotiki. To find out more, visit motutrails. co.nz, exploretheeastcape.co.nz, and opotikinz.co.nz. To have a map and information about trails posted to you free (NZ only), contact jim@motutrails.co.nz