I’ve been ticking off a lot of the day hikes in the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest and the Rapurapu Kauri Track was the perfect kind of chill hike to get me out of my recent funk. Normally, I like to hike at least a couple of hours for each hour I’m in the car - I guess this one was the exception. I figured I could make a day of it and grab a late lunch on the way home.
The start of the track is along SH 29, it’s not signposted, but easy enough to find if you Google ‘Rapurapu Kauri Track’ like I did. Even though the turn off to the car park isn’t signposted, there is an official DoC (Department of Conservation) sign on the fence at the start of the trail. You’ll walk through a grass track and a wide gauntlet of gorse for about 10 minutes before you reach the bush edge.
I had recently joined the Kaimai Track and Hut Users Facebook group page before going on this hike, and if you use Facebook, I highly recommend it. We had had a storm a few days before and someone posted photos of large windfalls from that morning. It was still passable, but it’s always good to know what you’re up against. The same was said about the water levels - it was high enough that you were definitely going to get wet feet, but not enough to make stream crossings dangerous.
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