Day 16: The Pinnacles
An awesome hike in the heart of the Coromandel Peninsula
I know I’ve mentioned getting up early in the past, but this time, I mean it. We had a six and a half hour round-trip hike ahead of us and we wanted to get started while it was still cool.
We set an alarm for just before six and woke up to find it was still dark and still cold. This was a shock to the system as we’ve had amazing weather ever since we started, so it has always been warm and sunny by the time we’ve gotten up.
We had breakfast in the van with our hoodies on, while the heater worked at trying to dry up the condensation.
We then drove to the start of the hike. Instead of paying to camp at the base of the hike, we freedom-camped in Thames the night before.
The road up to the start line was one of the worst we’ve driven on so far; it was just a long gravel road with a lot of potholes.
We eventually made it, got set up, and set off at bang on eight; slightly later than the seven o’ clock start we had planned, but still early enough to reap the benefits of the cooler temperatures.
We started from the end of Kauaeranga Valley Road and hiked to The Pinnacles Hut via the Hydro Camp and Webb Creek Track which the sign said would take us three hours to do. Sticking with our average of doing walks in around two-thirds of the time that DoC signs suggest, we made it to the hut in two hours and ten minutes.
About five minutes in, we were already off to a great start when we stumbled across two fantails; They are native New Zealand birds and we’d been hoping to see one at some point on our travels, but hadn’t had any luck up to this point. As it turned out, the first time we saw one, we ended up seeing two of them playing together! They also seemed really interested in us and came and landed on branches right next to our heads, before then flying around us in an amazing aerobatics display.
As far as birds go, they’re really quite small, growing to about 16cm in length however, half of that length is their tail. This relatively massive tail means that the way they fly looks a lot different to many other birds. They seemed to be able to do manoeuvres that you’d think weren’t possible for birds to do, and it was amazing to watch.
I like watching birds as it is, and I could sit and watch these guys fly around all day. Annoyingly, they were pretty hyper and didn’t stay still for long enough for me to take a photo of them.
After they left us, we set off once again. The lower part of the hike crosses the river in a few places so we needed to be good at stepping stones to get across.
For all of the crossings, there’s an alternative route you can take if the river is flooding, and we had to take one of these at one point as the main route was closed. It took us up to a precarious swing bridge that had a maximum load of one person.
The track itself has a rich history and used to be a packhorse route used by kauri bushmen back in the days when kauri trees were logged. Packhorses would be loaded up and would have to walk the track all the way to the top. Most of the way we were walking on the stone stairs that were walked by the packhorses all those years ago. Some parts have definitely been repaired since then, and other parts have deteriorated so much that we had to slow down and take it easy on the loose rocks.
We definitely made the right decision to leave early as we were walking through the shaded bush in perfect temperatures for most of the way, with cool breezes coming through the trees. It was only in the upper section, when we left the shade of the trees, that we began to feel the heat.
Eventually, we made it to the hut at ten past ten, exactly two hours and ten minutes after setting off.
We stopped for a quick snack, topped up on water, and we were getting ready to leave when we spotted our third fantail of the day! This one seemed just as curious and playful as the others and actually stayed still for just long enough for me to take some photos.
He wasn’t playing ball at first, but after a short time of watching him, he fanned out his tail for us.
After this second display of the day, we set off on the final ascent to the summit.
The sign reckoned it was a 50-minute trek but again, we came in well under this at thirty minutes.
This last stretch was a tad more technical than the rest but Anna, despite not being the most confident climber, tackled it head-on and smashed the difficult sections. It was a proud moment.
The climb was well worth it because the views from the top were amazing.
Here’s a photo to get your heart racing, Mum…
Oh, and did I mention that it was windy at the top.
After this exhilarating ending to the climb up, we were left with walking back down again. The walk back to the van is never as enjoyable as walk up, but it’s the price you pay for the experience.
We made it back down safely and drove down to Whangamata to camp for the night. We made use of the solar shower to freshen up after a long and sweaty day.
