Waipatik Beach is hidden in a sleepy valley
Quick Facts about this walk
- Location: North Island NZ
- Distance: 6 km
- Time needed: 3 Hours
- Difficulty: Medium
- Wheelchair Access: No
- Route: Round Trip
- Elevation: 160m
- Wet Feet: No
- Toilets: Yes
- Dogs: No
- Mobile Coverage: Yes
- Last Updated: November, 2019
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Summary points about this walk
Points of interest along the walk
Point 1: Start of The Waipatik Beach Walk
Just drive to the end of Waikiki road and you should be in the picnic ground
Waikiki bay is a very pleasant bay. It has a good bay to swim in, with good fishing from the rocks and the beach.
The day we were there work was in progress on the new picnic grounds, when finished, Waipatik bay will make a very good day trip from Napier
From the pick nick grounds walk to the Northern end of the beach, you should see people walking along the track
Point 2: Arpoapanui Beach
1 Hour 10 Minutes = 3.3 Km
This is a easy walk along the cliff face but to day there is no shade it was very hot
The track starts from the northern end of the beach. There are no track sign, so look for the tell tail sign of a white clay track.
The track is well used and easily seen from half way along the main beach.
Their really is no ideal placers to swim along this track, unless you feel like climbing over tones of large sharp rocks, you will have to wait till you reach Arpoapanui Beach before you can put your toes into the water.
You can try your luck at fishing, but again you will have to climb hundreds of rocks.
Point 3: Up and Over
Arpoapanui valley is on Maori land, please stay on the beach, don’t walk on to there land without permission.
A two Hour detour.
I asked the elder at Arpoapanui village if I could walk back to Waipatik bay along the cliff face.
He was so pleased I had asked him for his premising, he even gave me brief direction on how to get around the tricky cliff face and said it was a good walk.
This walk is a lot longer, and there are a lot of gullies to climb in and out of, some of the gullies are a bit on the rough side so wear long pants to protect the legs from getting badly scratched
As you climb stay close to the cliff face as possible but when you reach the gullies it is easier to walk inland for 200 Mt then drop down into the gully, there is not so much rubbish to fight your way through.
when you reach the highest point 160Mt, the views were tremendous well worth the effort plus it was very quite sitting at the trig looking up and down the coast, It reminded me of my walk down the coast line from Napier to wellington many years a go, It took me 24 days, a Fantastic walk.
Now the easy part, down hill all the way to the bus and a hot fat white.
Again there was no track to follow just acres of long green grassy paddocks
I picket out my bus parked in the caravan park and run, tripped and rolled down to the bottom, Then crawled in to the bus for a hot shower and my flat white.
