The 100 metre Nuku Dune sits roughly halfway between Back Bay and Front Bay on the Nuku Walk
New Zealand Outdoor Instructor’s Association Bush Leader and senior writer Chris Gardner completes the Nuku Walk around Nukuhakari Station at Waikawau in the King Country, with his wife Liz.
Chris and Liz Gardner reach the top of the Nuku Walk’s flax covered staircase on day three of the 30km tramp. Photo: Chris Gardner
On the Beach: Liz Gardner
The last day of the Nuku Walk starts with a difficult choice.
Either climb 240 metres from the beach to Mangangū Pā to get extensive views of the three-day 30km tramp or follow an easy path along the flat to the farm hut at the start of the walk.
Sheep and beef farmer Hamish Nelson, who operates the walk with his wife Bridget St George, visited our group of nine trampers at the end of the second day as we enjoyed DIY pizzas having completed more than 26km of the 30km-ish walk.
Over dinner seven of nine of us decided to take the easy route back to the car park on the last day, while my wife Liz and I opted to rise early to beat the tide at the station’s Front Bay and climb the cliffside staircase to the clifftops and further up to Mangangū Pā.
Cattle graze the clifftops of Nukuhakari Station. Photo: Chris Gardner
A combination of the early start and knowing they had to ascend the staircase they had descended the previous day were factors that put the rest of the group off.
Liz and I woke at 6am and enjoyed a quiet breakfast and coffee and hit the beach as the sun rose shortly before 7am.
Foam rolled in off the sea as the wind blew.
Liz and I walked north back along the beach to the staircase once used to transport stock from the paddock to paddle steamers and on to the stockyards or meat works. Up we went – the climb seeming easier than the descent the day before. Within half an hour our accommodation was a dot on the landscape to our south.
Within an hour we had reached the pā.
Looking south to Front Bay on the Nuku Walk. Photo: Chris Gardner
It was easy to see why Māori had chosen this highly defendable site, with views for miles across land and sea. As we looked down on creation, we felt blessed to be alive.
It afforded us extensive views of nearly the whole walk including the extinct volcanic Mount Whareorino that we had skirted on our first day before descending through bush, and the 100 metre Nuku Dune we had scaled on the second day as we walked from Back Bay to Front Bay.
We spent our last hour descending farm tracks from the pā to the farm hut where we had parked, and arrived at 9am.
It had taken us two hours to walk nearly 6km and we had beaten the rest of our group back. They arrived half an hour later, when we said our goodbyes,
The Nuku Walk is one of the most delightful tramps I have done, mostly because of its diverse landscape being walked by only a small group.
I’m used to multi day expeditions carrying my accommodation, sleep system, and food on my back, so joining a catered walk where the bulk of your gear is transported from camp to camp with my wife was a real treat.
A group of walkers ascend from Back Bay on the second day of the Nuku Walk. Photo: Chris Gardner
“Of all the walks we have been on in New Zealand it was easily the best in terms of terrain, scenery, accommodation, catering and organisation,” said one of the Nuku Nine, Elaine Coker,
“In short it had everything you could possibly want for a wonderful experience.”
Darry Boroughs, one of five Upper North Island women enjoying the walk for what they called Galentines weekend, said she had one word for the walk: incredible.
“From start to finish, I loved every minute of this intrepid three-day hike,” she said.
The Nuku Walk will stay with us all long after we have washed the sand off our boots.
Chris and Liz Gardner on the Nuku Walk.
The 100 metre Nuku Dune sits roughly halfway between Back Bay and Front Bay on the Nuku Walk and is pivotal to the second day. Photo: Chris Gardner
