19th February 2020
Sitting to the southwest of Raglan in the Waikato region of New Zealand, is a 2.4 million year old extinct volcano called Mt Karioi.
On arriving in Raglan, I spied this stunning peak while enjoying a walk through the very cool surfer town on our first evening. With a few hours to spare the next morning, before doing some paddle boarding later in the afternoon, I thought i’d let my husband have some peace while I ventured out to explore this extinct volcano.
There are two tracks to the summit of Mt. Karioi and I decided to do a return trip via the slightly steeper Karioi track, starting from Te Toto gorge car park. To get to this car park you need to drive around 13km out of Raglan. Note the last 4 km of Whaanga Road is a gravel road, but perfectly doable in any kind of car.
The Department of Conversation suggests:
Time to lookout: 2 hr one way
Time to summit: 3 hr one way
The weather was unfortunately not the best on my arrival, but I was hopeful that I might be able to spy some good views along the way. So with the rain falling, I packed my waterproof jacket and some hot chocolate and set off.
As soon as you leave the car park it is all up hill. You start the trail by passing through a dense forest of kānuka, which then opens up into a grassy slope before reaching the main ridge.
You need to be ready to get the heart pumping and accept that you’ll get dirty hands along the way. Helpfully there are chains and climbing holds installed along this track to help you negotiate the occasional steep and muddy sections. This, for me, really added to the fun of this track, making it (very slightly) technical and pretty much an adult play-ground!
At the top of the long climb, a five minute side track takes you to a lookout. I imagine on a clear day this spot provides you with amazing views across Raglan Harbour…I unfortunately just sat at 2500ft, in the clouds, for a couple of minutes before deciding to turn around and trotting back down to the car.
To the lookout point and back is around 3.5 miles and the track takes you up to around 706m at the highest point. As I understand it, the summit is only around 30-60 minutes further and will take you up to 756m above sea level.
Returning to the car park, make sure you take some time to enjoy the fantastic views of the rugged coast line, looking north towards the Manukau Heads. The Te Toto gorge is equally impressive; 15 lava flows make up the 150 m cliffs of the Gorge.
Leave No Stone Unturned 