Waiharuru Hut, Waikaremoana, from Hopuruahine

Te wharau o Waiharuru, Te Roto o Waikaremoana

The Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk is a back country, off the beaten track, hiking experience. The full "around the lake" hike is a multi-day adventure, but three options for a shorter overnight hike are to Waiharuru Hut, to Panekire Hut, and to Sandy Bay Hut. Hut bookings can be made, and hut fees paid, through this website, where you will also find information about other day walks nearby. Department of Conservation Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk

Te Urewera, a stunning natural wilderness enclosing Lakes Waikaremoana and Waikareiti, is the homeland of Ngāi Tūhoe. At Te Wharehou o Waikaremoana at Aniwaniwa, you can learn about Ngāi Tūhoe and the significance of Te Urewera to the tāngata whenua (the people of the land). New information panels at each of the huts around Lake Waikaremoana offer further information - about the name of each hut and significant events that occurred in the local area. As well, the key purposes of Te Urewera Act are stated, including to strengthen the connection between Ngāi Tūhoe and Te Urewera, and to preserve the natural ecosystems - work that is being carried out by the mana whenua (local people) through pest control.

Beginning at the Hopuruahine River suspension bridge at the northern end of Whanganui Inlet, Lake Waikaremoana, this section of the great walk track climbs around several rocky points, at one point climbing more than 100m over a slip between Hopuruahine Stream and the old Whanganui Hut site. As you walk, you will encounter each of the four main forest types in the Lake Waikaremoana catchment: beech forest, rimu-broadleaved species forest, mixed beech/rimu-broadleaved species forest, and secondary forest dominated by kānuka and other broadleaved species. Huge old rata trees hang over the lake on steep sections of the track where the understorey is made up of tree ferns, tawa, hinau, kamahi, lancewood and many other trees, shrubs and plants. 

At the lake edge, the track is on the lake bed, which became permanently exposed when the lake was lowered five metres in 1946 as part of its hydro-electric utilisation. Kānuka forest and areas of wetland dominate this lake margin.

Waiharuru Hut, an attractive 40-bunk hut, is in Upokororo Bay at the mouth of Waiharuru Stream. Along a short boardwalk track over a seepage is a campsite and cooking shelter. If you arrive at the hut in rain, there is plenty of room to hang up dripping jackets and wet clothes under the spacious verandah. You can swim or fish in the lake, and there is room for games on the open grass areas around the hut. With no city lights anywhere near, on a fine night with no moon you will amazed by the starry night sky!