Liz and I are really into photography and stopped often to capture the beautiful light shining through the trees. We had the track to ourselves that day as most people usually walk the waterfall loop - the only sound louder than our chit-chat was the occasional kākā or tūi chiming in.

The Arohaki Lagoon in Whirinaki Pua-a-Tāne was the last day hike on my list. I’ve read plenty of stories that the ephemeral lagoon (rain-fed) rarely had water unless you went there after a storm. There had been a downpour in the forecast earlier that week, but nowhere near enough to make it look like the photos I’ve seen on Google. A small, resolute puddle did greet us, and the bird song was amazing. Lagoon or not, it’s still a lovely walk for the whole family.

It’s a great alternative to the Whirinaki Falls Track - wide track, steady underfoot, with only a couple of sections that narrow where windfalls have been cleared. The canopy is a mix of giant ancient podocarps, along with Beech trees and towering Kahikatea by the lagoon.


This was the first time Liz and Abhishek would be hiking in the Whirinaki. The plan was to check out Arohaki Lagoon, and if we had enough time, we could also walk to Waiatiu Falls too (approx. 1 hour return). The usual two hour drive to the River Road car park felt longer than usual so I was keen to get walking once we got there. The Arohaki Lagoon car park is 1.5km from the main car park on Old Te Whaiti Road, an old disused hauling hauling track. If your car got you to River Road, it should be able to handle the drive up the hill. It took us 15 mins to walk to the car park.


A copy of Wilbur Smith’s ‘Courtney’s War’ greeted us at the track sign - it reminded me of the old Reader’s Digests (that really shows my age, doesn’t it?). An ominous sign of an impending apocalypse maybe? It was wet and looking a bit worse for wear - turns out we had a lot in common.

Liz and I met through her daughter Holly - she was in high school at the time and was a part of the dance crews at my studio. Holly and I recently caught up - she’s just graduated university and was moving to Melbourne for work. Abhishek is my Bollywood dance teacher, he’s only been in New Zealand for a year, and this was his first hike in the country. He used to do a lot of hiking back in India.

We heard a lot of North Island kākā all around us, but those cheeky birds flew high in the canopy and eluded us. The track crosses the Waiatiu Stream and I hoped we might catch a glimpse of a Whio/blue duck or two - not this time. The stream was crystal clear, and pretty low, which confirmed that there hadn’t been much rain recently.


 Abhishek walked ahead of us as Liz and I chatted away. Liz and I are really into photography and stopped often to capture the beautiful light shining through the trees. We had the track to ourselves that day as most people usually walk the waterfall loop - the only sound louder than our chit-chat was the occasional kākā or tūi chiming in.


The lagoon was more like Eva Cassidy’s ‘Fields of Gold’ than the azure oasis I’ve seen online. We had lunch on the large viewing platform, soaking up the views of the towering Kahikatea trees and the occasional tūi and kererū/wood pigeon. The dried mud bed was littered with deer and pig prints, criss-crossing like Tokyo’s famous Shibuya Crossing. I wish I could read animal prints and find out the latest goss in the forest.

This isn’t a loop track and we headed back the way we came in. We came across a couple of guys and their dog at the Arohaki Lagoon car park - Liz of course had to go say hi to the dog. The mid-afternoon sun had cranked up the heat, so Liz and I criss-crossed the gravel road trying to walk in the shade. Abhishek didn’t seem to mind the heat as much and was once again far ahead of us. We caught up with him at the main car park.


First published in February 2025