Peaks and Places | Travel and Adventure Blog

One of the hikes that we didn’t do the first two times we were in the Coromandel Peninsula, was the Pinnacles hike. The Kauaeranga Kauri Trail, more commonly known as the Pinnacles Walk, is located in the Kauaeranga Valley. This is a scenic reserve located in the Coromandel Forest Park. We had to take the Webb Creek Track both in and back out, since the Billy Goat Track was closed when we were visiting. The hike in total was 14 kilometers, and it took us about 6 hours to complete.

We got a little bit of a later start to our hike, starting around 9am. By 9:30, we decided to take a little detour to the view point for Billy Goat Falls. I personally am super glad we did this on our way up, instead of waiting until we came back, but more on why that was later. After climbing a pretty steep little trail, we made it to an overlook. At first, neither of us saw anything, but as soon as you turn around, you are greeted with a view of Billy Goat Falls across the valley. This waterfall was absolutely massive. It stands about 180 meters tall, and a long time ago, loggers sent logs down these falls (unsuccessfully). Many of the logs did not survive the 180 meter drop in one piece.

After our little detour we continued on the track. It took us through a lot of native bush, and it was a pretty steady climb up from the get go. There were a couple of river crossings, and they even had flood detours in place for when the water would get too high. We decided to check out one of these detours, and were rewarded with a pretty sketchy little swing bridge, with a maximum capacity of a single person at a time. We spent a couple of minutes walking back and forth along the bridge and checking out the river and small falls in the area before continuing on to the next section of the hike: The Rock Staircase.

True to its name, the rock staircase was exactly that; a bunch of rocks carved into the shape of stairs. This was originally created when this valley was a logging operation, and I personally would not have wanted this to be my daily commute to work. It was brutal. The rocks were incredibly uneven, and if you have short legs like I do, then you have to take each step one at a time. On top of that, it felt endless. It was also pretty wet when we went, so we were additionally trying to avoid puddles and large areas of mud as we climbed up this staircase.

Eventually, we made it up and out of the forest and the hut at the base of the Pinnacles was in our sight. This is where we were planning on stopping for lunch before making the final stretch up to the Pinnacles themselves. As soon as we were out of the forest, the views were amazing. Not only could you really see the Pinnacles, you were also greeted with gorgeous views of the Coromandel Peninsula, and we could even see all the way out to the ocean! On top of all of that, this hut was definitely the nicest hut that we have come across so far, making it the perfect spot to take a little lunch break. It seems like a lot of people hike to the hut in the afternoon, and then do the hike up to the Pinnacles for either sunset, sunrise, or both, before descending back down.

After being rejuvenated by some sandwiches, we began the climb from the hut up to the Pinnacles. It was super windy, and we could see people very slowly making their way up the tons of stairs (actual stairs this time, thankfully). Due to the wind, the layers we had both taken off early in the hike went right back on as we made our way up. Once we finished the seemingly endless stairs, there was a ladder we had to climb. It was probably about 15 feet tall. We topped out of this ladder, and there was another behind it, probably around 12 feet tall. Neither of us mind heights, and it was a fun way to break up the stairs we had been climbing all day. What we didn’t expect, however, was that after we climbed up both ladders, the remaining climb was going to be a rock scramble.

Now, we are both familiar with rock scrambles, but I do want to mention that absolutely nowhere did either of us see any information or warning about this section of the trail in our pre-hike research. It seemed like many others were facing a similar dilemma, and some weren’t as confident of hikers as the two of us are. This made the last section of the hike incredibly slow. We had to wait for people climbing up as well as coming down, and we saw more than one person sliding down several parts on their butts. We didn’t want to be rude, or make anyone feel rushed, so we sort of just had to bide our time and slowly make our way up.

Eventually, we made it up to the top and were greeted with more wind and more people, but great views. There was a viewing platform on one side, so we spent some time checking that out before we went over to the tops of the Pinnacles to check those out as well. It was pretty crowded, and there were people definitely ignoring the barriers and signage, so we didn’t end up staying up at the top for very long. That being said, I felt like the views on the way up were much better than the views at the actual top.

Our way back down the rock scramble went a little quicker, but remember earlier when I said everything was wet and muddy? Yeah, the rock scramble was as well, making it super slippery. This was much more of an issue going down than coming up, so we still had to take it slow. We had been hiking for around 4 hours at this point, so we bypassed the hut on the way back in order to continue our trek back to the van.

The hike back was pretty uneventful, but it was very long and pretty painful. Endless uneven stairs are not kind to your knees, and we both decided it was probably worse going down the rock staircase than it had been going up. This is when we were very grateful to have done the Billy Goat Falls overlook on the hike up, saving our legs from some more stairs. After a total of 6 hours hiking, we finally made it back to the van and treated ourselves to some Ramen (we earned it, okay). We are both really glad that we did this hike, and the views were incredible. That being said, we both decided if we were to do this hike again, it would be worth it to hike to the hut, spend the night, and hike up to the Pinnacles for sunrise. Otherwise, we would probably opt to do another hike in the area if we ever were to find ourselves back in the Kauaeranga Valley.