Country:
Start: Rarakau car park, 1304B Papatotara Coast Road, Rowallan 9691, New Zealand
(S) From the car park, walk South-East along Papatotara Coast Road. As the road bends left, find a gate and path on your right.
(1) Turn right here and walk through a beautiful flat bushland before reaching the coastline via South Coast Track.
(2) On the way, you will find stairs to go down to the coast. Great on the way down, not so great on the way back but there's a bench at the end for a well-deserved break.
(3) Cross a bridge over Waikoau River still following the South Coast Track.
(4) If the track along the coast is very muddy you can decide to carry on left here along the beach if it is low tide.
(5) Further on, you leave the coastline views to enter bushlands.
(6) At the next junction, keep going straight along the beach track to cross a bridge over the steam. (If you go right, you will reach Teal Bay).
(7) Along the way, find a beautiful viewpoint of the coastline from the bush, worth the very small detour and hidden toilets.
(8) Walk past another bridge then carry on walking up to a junction. Here carry on to the right (possibility to go clockwise too) and take left (as from here it is a loop). Carry a little further.
(9) Then from here there is the possibility to carry on to Okaka hut or walk back. If you carry on, you will face more elevation gain. It is a nice wooden track in the bush. Otherwise, walk back via the same way back to the car park. (E)
