We were on a mission to reach the summit of the Karioi Mountain near Ralglan. The crew was Jai and myself, and we decided to take the shorter track to the top. You can access the summit from two places, one from Te Toto Gorge carpark, and the second entry point is the other from the end of mountain on Karioi Road (If you drive to the end of Karioi Road there is parking lot at the end, this road is a gravel road in parts). We chose Karioi road as our start point, we got there by driving through towards Te Mata from Raglan and taking the Ruapuke road then turning right on to Karioi road.
The start of the track was on farm land and what was interesting was as we were walking Jai casually mentioned that this was his grandparent’s land. So we were basically walking on Jai’s family land. Jai is a 22 year old that works for a joinery company in Hamilton but has lived in Raglan his whole life and still does.
The farmland walk was about 20min and then we started our ascent through lush green forest. We had views of the harbour and ocean which were magnificent. Then it was a steady up hill for quite some time with the forest terrain flatting off and we thought we were near the top, but it tricked us and it became steep again. Then we were climbing up wooden ladders that had been put in place to help us get up the more tricky places, which was fun.
The walk took us about 1 and half hours to get to the top. The summit had a concrete helicopter pad. The views were great even though it was a bit misty. It was cold as well, we sat down had some food and I put some layers on and a beanie as the wind was blowing through at the top where we sat.
Then we descended down, through the pretty bush, we made our way to slowly down enjoying being out in nature and the views the hike had to offer.
Over all we loved this walk, we would highly recommend you give a go. I have walked from both side and definitely enjoyed this side better due to it being quicker and not so much down hill on the way down. I don’t enjoy too much steep down hill, but this was the perfect amount.
It was a great day, and great to go and explore Jai’s family land, even though he told me he has done the hike about 20-30 times but still enjoys it every time
Click on the link below for a driving map of how to get to the start of the walk. The walk itself is well marked, once you get to the carpark just follow the orange triangle markers.