Moeraki Boulders/Kaihinaki Walk
Moeraki · Otago
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 on a leash only. Other pets on conservation land rules. (Department of Conservation, Moeraki Boulders/Kaihinaki Walk page, read 27 August 2026.) Waitaki District Council says the same thing from the other direction: Dog Control Bylaw 2024 Schedule 1 clause 1 makes every public access area in the district on lead unless it is named as an off lead area in Schedule 2, and no part of Moeraki or Hampden is named there. Two prohibitions from Schedule 3 sit nearby and are worth knowing. Dogs are banned outright in the Moeraki coastal area between Okahau Point and Katiki Point, which is the seaward side of the peninsula about 4 km south of here, and banned within 10 metres of any identified protected wildlife colony anywhere in the district”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Moeraki Boulders/Kaihinaki Walk
Near Moeraki in Otago, Moeraki Boulders/Kaihinaki Walk runs 0.3 km.
The boulders are the whole point and the walk to them is short. DOC calls it 300 m one way and ten minutes, and our line makes it 355 m, so take it as a five minute stroll rather than a hike. It runs from the carpark by the Moeraki Boulders Restaurant and gift shop down a formed path to the beach, and the boulders are right there when you arrive. Koekohe Beach is a long grey sand curve and the boulders sit in a loose scatter at the tide line, big spheres up to two metres across, some cracked open like eggs. They are concretions, formed in the seabed mud about 60 million years ago and now weathering out of the cliff behind, which is why more keep appearing. Come at low tide if you can, because at high tide the sea covers most of them and you are looking at the tops of a few. Early morning here is the one to plan for. There is a second way in. The public carpark 600 m south has a beach access that lets you walk up to the boulders along the sand, which is a nicer approach and costs nothing, but it needs a low tide to be comfortable. That beach route carries on north all the way to Hampden and we have it as its own walk. Dogs are on lead, and both authorities agree on it. DOC's page for this walk says dogs on a leash only, and the Waitaki bylaw makes every public place in the district on lead unless it names an off lead spot, which it does not do anywhere near here. Keep the lead on for a practical reason too: this is one of the busiest roadside attractions in Otago and the beach in front of the boulders can be shoulder to shoulder with tour buses in summer. The serious wildlife closures are further south, around the Moeraki peninsula and Katiki Point, where dogs are banned outright for the hoiho and the fur seals. Those are a separate drive, not a wrong turn off this path, but do not let a dog near any roped or signed colony anywhere on this coast.
Graded easy, it stays flat overall, and takes about 4 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
