Tuahu Track

I have had a few excursions into the Kaimai's and with a bit of time on my hands this week I thought I would check out a new trail.

The Tuahu Track is an East-West crossing of the Kaimai range that can be started from either side. As I had been in Morrinsville for the morning I chose the Waikato side. From Morrinsville you head out to Te Aroha and at the main intersection you will be looking at Mount Te Aroha right in front of you (I will climb that trail again in the future for the blog). Take a right at the intersection and follow the road right out of town. About 14km out you will reach Thompson's Road off to the left. There is a rather large sign indicating that this is the way to Thompson's Track, Tuahu Track and Killarney Lakes. Follow Thompsons Road for about a kilometre and turn left into Wairakau Road. Another kilometre or so along you will come to a forestry road on your right with a barrier over the road. Find somewhere safe to park... you are there.

The first part of the road is just over a km of pretty boring forestry road, but not unpleasant. After about 1.3km the little orange triangles, that we know and love from trails around the country, indicate a left turn and we have our first stream crossing. Don't bother taking your shoes off... your feet are going to get wet, if you can't handle that then hop back in the car. Just after the crossing the road splits in a 'V', take the left branch and head through the second crossing and start climbing - still on the roads.

Just over 2.5km you will come to what appears to be the end of the road with nowhere to go. However at the left hand edge of the forestry skid you will find a small trail leading up the hill (left).


This is where the real work starts, a tight narrow climb up sometimes grassy, sometimes clay trail. Not much running here unless you are a machine and I found myself wondering if it stayed like this.

But it doesn't... right out of the blue this grassy trail slides into a classic native bush single trail. And even better, most of it is at a lovely angle for uphill running, enough to know you are working but not enough to make you totally knackered.


The only negative was that the day I ran it was wet underfoot after two days of rain and a heavy dew. As the trail has lots of stones/rocks and roots it was rather treacherous in the wet. Especially as it gets very narrow in quite a few places and you would not want to slip with a 150-200m bank about 100mm to your right.

That couldn't detract from a lovely trail. I crossed 3 waterfall crossings and stopped at the 4th as it looked rather treacherous to attempt on my own and I was very near the saddle anyway and headed back.


The overall impression to me was that this trail would be fantastic in the middle of summer, the trail would be pretty dry and and waterfalls would have a lot less water and be easier to cross. Another option for those feeling fit would be to complete the trail to the BOP side where it meets up with Hot Springs Road just south of Katikati... just a couple of km down the road to Sapphire Springs, have a soak and lunch and the run back!

On the way back I stopped for a few more pics of some of the great views over the Waikato.


My total run was just over 10km with 795m of vertical climbing... so it is a nice workout and worth the time. Probably better with 2 or more... but up to you.






Here is my link to my Garmin recording...

Tuahu Trail - Kaimai's by mike3950 at Garmin Connect - Details