Arataki Track
Taupō · Waikato
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. DOC’s own wording: “Dogs with a DOC permit only. Contact closest DOC office to get a permit. For Pureora Forest Park that is the Te Kūiti DOC office. Permit first, walk second”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. Apply to the managing DOC office ahead of time; do not turn up with the dog first.
Opens your email app, addressed to [email protected]. You can also call DOC on 0800 275 362.
About Arataki Track
Arataki Track covers 5.3 km, near Taupō in Waikato.
The Arataki Track runs right through, from Arataki Road on the Taupō side of Pureora Forest Park to the Titiraupenga Road and YMCA Road end near Park Lee. It is an old road formation rather than a built tramping track, which is why it walks flat and wide for most of its 5.4 km. DOC describes it starting "with a suspension bridge crossing over the Mangakino stream before following along the Arataki stream amongst regenerating bush and abundant birdlife towards the base of Mt Titiraupenga". Emma, who sent this one in, calls it easy walking at about 5 km one way, and the mapped line agrees with her. Coming from Taupō it is about 38 km, following Poihipi Road, then Pakonui Road and onto Arataki Road. DOC lists a carpark at the Arataki Road end, and there is a second one at the far end before you reach the YMCA. Emma reports the last stretch of Arataki Road is rutted enough that she parked a few hundred metres short of the track head, across from the last house on the road. We have not checked the road surface ourselves, so treat that as her experience rather than a rule, but the seal does end about 550 m back from the track head, so it is easy to believe. With one car this is an out and back of roughly 10.8 km unless you can arrange a pick up at the other end. Dogs need a DOC permit here, and that is not a formality you can sort out at the gate. Pureora Forest Park is permit country, the office is Te Kūiti, and the permit has to be in hand before the dog leaves the car. Apply well ahead. The one piece of infrastructure to plan around is the swing bridge at the start: DOC says it "has a one person maximum capacity limit", so you and the dog cross together as one load, one at a time, and anyone else in the party waits. One thing to square up before you go. DOC grades this an advanced tramping track and lists it as 4.85 km "return via same track", which does not match DOC's own mapped centreline of 4.70 km end to end, or its own access notes describing two separate road ends. We have gone with the mapped line. The grade is worth respecting regardless of how gentle the formation feels underfoot, because this is unstaffed back country with no cellphone certainty. Further west the same name carries on as what DOC calls "the Arataki Track (overgrown)" up to the Mt Tītīraupenga lookout. That section is not mapped, not maintained and not part of this walk.
It sits at the moderate end and gains roughly 206 m, and takes about 1 hr 24 to walk.
A DOC dog permit is required before any dog walks here. Arrange it with the managing DOC office ahead of your trip. This walk is on the map because Emma & Baxter suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
