About | Karangahake Tunnel Walk
Walk or ride along the Karangahake Tunnel Walk and explore a place both beautiful and rich in history. The track takes you through native bush, across bridges, into a 1070m rail tunnel and along the Ohinemuri River where you’ll discover lots of places for the kids to explore the rocks and go in for a swim.
Toilets: at the Karangahake Gorge carpark.
Tips
- There are a few swimming spots along the track so it might be worthwhile bringing your togs and a towel if you fancy a swim. There are nice swimming spots along the river, we saw people swimming near all of the bridges/swing bridges along this walk.
- Even though the tunnel has dim lighting, it’s still worth taking a torch, especially for the kids to hold as they explore and navigate the old rail tunnel. Great for if they want to more closely inspect something and helps them if they are afraid of the dark. Remember, it’s 1km long – you’re going to be in there for a while.
- Bring a picnic lunch and enjoy it on the rocks beside the Ohinemuri River.
WALKING time & distance
1.5 hours (when walking), 2.5 km loop walk
Where do I start the walk?
There are two places that you can start the walk from:
- the main Karangahake Gorge carpark
- Karangahake Hall
We started the walk from the main Karangahake Gorge carpark and enjoyed doing it this way. All of the best parts were saved for the end.
Map
The Karangahake Tunnel Walk goes along the orange track.
Image: DOC
Nearby
Location
Park at either the main Karangahake Gorge carpark or Karangahake Hall, depending on where you want to start.
Photos
It seems like the Karangahake Gorge is a destination in itself, a beautiful and rocky river and amazing swimming spot right where you park. It was pretty hard not to give up the walk, chuck on our togs and go for a swim instead. It was a brilliant day – and nobody was in the mood for walking. But we put on our walking shoes instead of our togs and continued on. I knew this walk would be a goodie.
Walking over the swing bridge we looked down at the people happily swimming in the river and second-guessed if we’d made the right choice, but knew now that the next time we drove past here, this is where we’d be.
Spirits up, we enjoyed the shade that the trees gave and even came across two chickens.
As we walked across the bridge that went over the river, we saw a couple of guys jumping from the ledge and a few fish down below. It was quite a big jump but these guys were doing it fearlessly and good on them.
We’d found the tunnel and coming across it we realised just how long 1km really was. Gearing up with torches we began our trek through the dark tunnel, and on and on it went.
It had dim red lighting in it but as you got deeper into the tunnel the more you felt closed in. It felt like we were in there for an eternity and didn’t come across anyone else. In the end, we ran the remainder of the tunnel, glad to get out of the darkness.
We passed another bridge where we found a family swimming under it. We chose to explore the rocky outline of it for a bit before heading back onto the track which went along Ohinemuri River.
There were plenty of spots for the kids to go down and explore the rocks.
…and we found even more spots along Ohinemuri River to swim in. I was starting to think that this walk had the wrong description because if we’d known there were so many swimming spots we would have brought our togs and spent more time there.
It was a really beautiful walk, mostly flat and we loved being next to the Ohinemuri River most of the way. Next time, we’ll be back with a picnic and our togs!
