About | Mangawhai Cliffs Walkway
2-3 hours. 9km. Go at low tide.
I was really excited about doing the Mangawhai Cliffs Walkway as it’s been described as one of New Zealand’s best short walks! You’ll get some rewarding sea views from above and get to explore the rocky coastline down below.
You’ll start the Mangawhai Cliffs Walkway by walking along the beach, when you’ve walked about 10 or so minutes you should see a DOC sign, showing you the start of the track. It’s just before the rocky coastline.
You’ll then head uphill and up some steps until you reach the clifftop. The views from there are stunning and it just keeps on going.
After you’ve walked for about an hour, it’ll start heading down, to the rocks, and most of the way back will be like this. It gets uncomfortable to walk on after a while, but stop and enjoy the rock pools and you won’t mind too much.
Hopefully, you’ve planned it to be low tide, otherwise, this won’t be accessible (if the water is surging through the huge rock archway it is best to return the clifftop way).
Along the way we found lots of starfish in the rock pools and the kids loved stopping and discovering what new creatures they could find.
This is a stunning walkway that your whole family will enjoy.
Nearby
Location
Head to Mangawhai Heads Beach and park up. Head up the beach (about 10 minutes), before you reach the rocky coastline, you’ll see a DOC sign, this is where the track starts.
Photos
Setting off, we get to walk along the stunning Mangawhai Heads Beach.
This is the sign that you should be looking for and marks the start of the track.
As we head further away from the beach the kids get some snacks and supplies out.
Watching the waves come rolling in is so mesmerizing, we could just sit and enjoy from here, but we continue on, going even higher up.
I’m really enjoying the colours of the ocean!
After walking for about an hour, the track leads us down, down, down.
We’re so happy we made it down to the rocks. Low tide was getting close to dinner time and we didn’t know how long it was going to go for, so when we saw the track starting to go down, we were elated that we weren’t going to be stranded out there for the night! Haha.
We found lots of starfish in the tidal pools.
Back on the beach, we throw our shoes into our bags and enjoy the touch of the cool water. That was such a great walk!
