Hiking the Ahukawakawa crossing on Mount Taranaki was a great adventure for our family.  This trail combines part of the Pouakai Crossing with a lesser known trail towards the west.

Our family has explored the trails around Mount Taranaki in Egmont National Park quite a bit.  We’ve been to some huts and trails that were full of people and some areas that were remote and little visited.  At some point I came up with the idea for this multi-day trip with our kids that would let us link up a couple of different areas we’d been to on the mountain.  There was one very scary moment, but overall it was great and I’d recommend it to others if you want something a bit different.

Ahukawakawa Crossing – About The Name Of This Trail

I need to mention that I don’t think this walk we did has an actual name, so I’m calling it the Ahukawakawa crossing since that is the centerpiece of the trail.  We did part of the Pouakai crossing and then left from Holly Hut to leave the mountain on a lesser known trail on the West side of the mountain that exited along the Stony River Track to Puniho track to the carpark at the top of Puniho Road.

Ahukawakawa Walk Overview

Highlights – Obviously the highlight of this trail, like all of them in the park, are the stunning views of Mount Taranaki.  However, this trail has a great variety of terrain, from native forest, the Ahukawakawa swamp (with clear skies the views of Mt. Taranaki are amazing), a waterfall, Stony River (where you may get lucky and see Blue Ducks), a side trail to the Pouakai tarns, and a side trail to the Pouakai summit.

Location – Taranaki Region on North Island of New Zealand in Egmont National Park

Length Of Hike – Mangorei Carpark to Pouakai Hut 2 – 3 hours (1 hour side track to tarns from Pouakai hut); Pouakai Hut to Holly Hut 2 – 3 hours (1 1/2 hour detour to Pouakai trig); Holly Hut to Puniho Road carpark 3 – 6 hours.

Difficulty – Easy (along the well maintained Pouakai crossing section of the trail up to Holly Hut) to Hard (on west side with less maintained trails and river/creek crossings).

Trailheads – Top of Mangorei Road outside of New Plymouth and on the west side the top of Puniho road outside of Okato.

Our Hike Along The Ahukawakawa Crossing

We began our day parking at the top of Mangorei Road.  The first part of the trail from the carpark goes towards the Pouakai Hut.  This trail is well maintained and consists of a long series of steps heading up through a forest.

From the carpark we loaded up our gear and set off up the road with beautiful, sunny skies.  Our destination for the first day was just the Pouakai hut, only about 2 hours up the trail.

We decided to spread our walk out over three days so that we would have lots of time on the mountain and our days would be short.  The two huts we would stay at, Pouakai hut and Holly Hut, are both popular and can’t be booked ahead of time.  Thus, we wanted to arrive early to ensure we got a bunk to sleep on for the night.  The short days would also give us plenty of time to explore some side trails.

The paved road turns into a gravel road, which leads to the actual trail and great native forest after a few minutes.  The first fifteen minutes or so of the trail is a gradual climb, passing by a few huge old Rimu trees.  Then the steps begin and continue unabated for the next hour or hour and a half.  The forest along this stretch is beautiful and you may be lucky to hear or see a few native birds, such as fantails.

Eventually, two hours after some good climbing you will get start to traverse around the side of a ridge and get your first peak of Pouakai Hut.  From there it is a few more minutes to the hut.

Pouakai hut is a small hut, with 16 bunks, water, and a drop toilet.  The hut has a porch that looks out to amazing views of New Plymouth and the Tasman Sea.  The views from the porch are incredible and offer up a wonderful sunset.

A short 5 minute walk above the Pouakai hut brings you to the top of the ridge. This is a wide, flat area with some scattered boulders. This is possibly my favorite spot around Mt. Taranaki because the views are incredible. From one side you can look out over the Tasman Sea and the opposite side looks down to the Ahukawakawa swamp and then up to the towering Mt. Taranaki overlooking it all.

After setting into our bunks we headed to the lookout and hung out for a bit. We played a game up there that involved using all of the natural features to hide behind. Another game we played is seeing how far you can travel without touching the ground, staying on the rocks. It’s always fun to play the games like this with the kids when we are out on our adventures.

We then took a trail toward the Pouakai tarns. The tarns are another can’t miss spot on the mountain. They are really not more than little ponds, but on a clear, calm day Mt. Taranaki is perfectly reflected in its smooth surface. We lucked out on got to the tarns around sunset for great views. Karen stuck around and got some great photos while the kids and I returned to the hut and to start cooking dinner.

The next day we left the hut and headed up to the lookout again. The lookout is where the trails merge, one continues by the tarns back to the visitor center, one towards Holly Hut on the other side of the swamp, and one down towards Mangorei road. We took the trail towards Holly Hut, but shortly we took the side trail up towards Pouakai trip.

Unfortunately, it was super windy and only Aster and I decided to fight the wind very long to head all the way to the top. We fought our way through strong gales, across open tussock. The final climb to the high point incredibly windy, but the views were more than worth it. From the top we had 360 degree views of the surrounding areas.

Returning to the trail, we then continued along the trail towards Holly Hut.  The trail follows along the top of the ridge through a mixture of bush and tussock before descending to the edge of the Ahukawakawa swamp.  After rains this section of the trail can be ridiculously muddy.

The trail soon crosses over the headwaters of the Stony River on the edge of the swamp.  The track across the swamp and into the bush where Holly Hut is located on the sides of Mt. Taranaki doesn’t take too long. On a clear day the views are unbeatable, but on a cloudy day you can’t see much.  This area gets a lot of rain and we’ve had more cloudy days here than sunny, so if you get a sunny day be sure to enjoy it.

Stick to the wood boardwalk when crossing the swamp both because you will damage the fragile ecosystem and you can sink into the ground easily.  Once, when we were walking here the boardwalk was already partially underwater (a few centimeters) when the boards were hard to see.  My son took a step, thinking he was stepping onto a board, but none was there.  His foot quickly sank and he found himself floundering with one leg in the mud up to his waist!

Holly Hut is another nice hut that is a bit larger than Pouakai hut, but is still a first come-first serve basis.  We arrived early and secured bunks.  Then we had the rest of the afternoon to hang out, play cards, and explore the area.

The final day of our Ahukawakawa crossing walk would now take us off the Pouakai Crossing trail towards the west.  Our plan was to walk down to Bells Falls and then continue on along that trail.  The first part of that trail is part of the Around The Mountain track, but then we were planning to take the trail out along the Stony River towards the trailhead where our van waited for us.

We had never been on this next part of the trail, but the maps made it look like it would only take about 2-3 hours.  This section of the trail proved to take much, much longer and be more difficult than we anticipated.  After Bells Falls thetrail was not as well maintained and became slower and challenging.

From the falls the main trail crosses a small stream several times.  A few of these were small enough to rock hop across, but a few required wading. Unfortunately, we had a very scary moment as we crossed the first of these.

The first one was a bigger stream with several braids.  I jumped across one tricky spot and then stationed myself to help my son across. Karen was on the other side, holding him hand to help him to me.  There was a mix-up and before we knew what happened Karen had fallen in the river with her backpack on.  She quickly got up, but she had hurt her leg severely.

At first it looked like her leg was broken because there was a huge bump just above her shin and lots of blood.  She couldn’t put any weight on her leg for a minute.  That was so scary because we still had a ways to go to get to the trailhead and our car.  We were in a remote part of the mountain with the two kids and I wasn’t sure what we would be doing to get her out of there and to hospital.

Somehow, she was super lucky and her leg wasn’t broken.  Her leg hurt her very badly and was bloody, but she could walk on it.  We transferred all the weight out of her bag and then we slowly continued down the trail towards the trailhead.

Our plan was to follow the trail along the Stony River to the trailhead, but it turned out that section of the trail was closed.  Thus, our trail took longer, but we still found the fork that went down to the trailhead. The trail included some steep climbs, ladder descents, and some more stream crossings.

What we thought would be a short, fun, 3-hour day turned into a 6-hour adventurous day with a very scary moment.  I think that last day took so long because we had that problem with her leg, which led us to go slower than we could have.  Overall, we all had a lot of fun exploring the Ahukawakawa crossing.  We explored some new areas on the mountain and had a great family adventure.