The Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk takes trampers deep into Te Urewera. Photo / Getty Images
The Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk takes trampers deep into Te Urewera. Photo / Getty Images
One of New Zealand’s Great Walks is to be reopened after being closed for nearly a year by flood damage. Te Urewera Board says the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk will take its first walkers from January 10, after flood damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in February.
Bookings are already being taken by the DoC Great Walks website, with excellent availability from Onepoto to Hopuruahine Landing. The exception is Whanganui Hut, which is being removed from the trail.
Weather damage to the trail and high waters led to trail inspections being delayed until weeks after Cyclone Gabrielle had departed. The Waikaremoana trail was the only one without an opening date during this year’s Great Walk booking window.
A compilation of the flooding from Lake Waikaremoana after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Tūhoe
After the Heaphy Track reopened for through hikers in October, the Waikaremoana was the last trail on the network still recovering from last summer’s extreme storm damage.
Kirsti Luke CEO of Tuhoe Te Uru Taumatua told the Herald that the repairs were a significant task and one of many for the organisation after the de-stabilising effects of Cyclone Gabrielle.
“Tuhoe and Te Urewera Board’s made a call to get as much as possible open in order that our regional communities and wider get to enjoy Waikaremoana after the tough year faced by all.”
After a turbulent year of disrupted access and battles with late water levels, Luke hoped that the opening of the track this summer would mark a more even-keeled start for 2024.
“Repairs to the Waikaremoana Great Walk are underway and will continue beyond its opening in January, where we realise the new Te Urewera Track,” said a spokesperson for the structure team for Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua.
Prolonged high water levels have changed much of the low-lying area with a significant bridge repair near the Waiopaoa Hut still waiting for conditions to fly in materials.
Te Uru Taumatua said the repairs had been balancing trail access through Te Urewera and minimising damage to Papatuanuku.
They also thanked the Back Country Trust volunteers for their mahi on hut restoration, adding that the work to the Great Walk was about “not just repairing but improving the track significantly.”
The Department of Conservation has allocated $500,000 in cyclone repair funding to get the trail open for Janurary, says Henry Weston, DoC’s Deputy Director General of Operations. $191,000 of this was used to replace the Waiopāoa Bridge, paid to an external contractor. An additional $290,000 was allocated for repair work being conducted by Te Uru Taumatua.
“Further funding will be made available to Te Urewera Board/ TUT for access and for future planning for the Great Walk in the New Year.”
The news that the Great Walk through Te Urewera will be reopening comes days after a High Court ruling that the demolition of backcountry huts by Te Uru Taumatua was unlawful,RNZ reported last week.
The 29 huts were burned last year by the DoC director-general and the Te Urewera Board, contrary to the Urewera Act, which preserves freedom of public access and protection of its ecosystems.
Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk — how hard is it?
Te Urewera’s Great Walk in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island is a three-night backcountry trail through Ngai Tūhoe’s ancestral ipukarea.
At 46km long, it follows the western shore of Lake Waikaremoana, and is looked after by Te Uru Taumatua, Ngāi Tūhoe’s operational entity. There are four huts and five campsites, with plenty of accommodation for walkers. Despite sticking closely to the inland lake, the trail climbs 600m to Panekire Ridge, and walkers are advised to carry all their supplies and prepare for changeable weather and alpine conditions.
Huts on the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk don’t have gas cooking facilities, lighting or toilet paper.
