Hiking the Pinnacles, Coromandel

Hiking the Pinnacles

The Coromandel region is one of my favourites in New Zealand and the hike to the Pinnacles has long been on my to-do list. Famous for its striking views from the base of the Coromandel peninsula, the walk to the Pinnacles is a popular day hike.

Under 2 hours from Auckland Central, this trek can be either a day hike or split over two days. It’s usually split into 2 sections, the hike to the DOC hut and the hike to the top of the Pinnacles. A popular way to do it is to walk to the hut one day, stay the night and wake up really early to walk to the summit of the Pinnacles for the sunrise of the next.

The hike

The Kauaeranga Valley is the location of the walk to The Pinnacles. There are two main routes to the DOC hut; the Webb Creek Track (WCT) and the Billy Goat Track (BGT). I personally would not recommend the Billy Goat Track, especially for the ascent. The walk to the Pinnacles Hut via the Webb Creek Track is about 6-7 hours return, depending on how fast you walk etc. Via the Billy Goat Track it could be 1-2 hours longer and a lot more challenging. I would recommend a decent level of fitness, maybe a little more than a standard bushwalk through the Waitakere ranges but if you’re young and fit it won’t be a problem. We had a few older people in the group when I went but they were mostly from the hiking club and just went slow and steady.

The Webb Creek Trail

I did the hike on a very hot Sunday in December (the start of summer in New Zealand) which was not quite ideal. I went with a friend who invited me to join her and the Auckland University hiking club so we had a bus to take us down (about 30 of us). Unfortunately, we couldn't take the bus all the way to the start of the track and had to park it about an hours walk away, the stop after the visitors centre. This added two hours to our total trip and made it a really really long day.

Once we got to the WCT I found it manageable but hot work in the middle of summer. There were a lot of flat bits and plenty of uphills to give you a workout and there are some parts where you can turn around and see some of the valley through the canopy but most of the walk is in the shade. The shade was handy considering I didn't bring a hat and was a bit hungover.

We reached the hut after two and a half hours but we did have to stop to wait for slower walkers to catch up so I think I might've been able to do it in about two. I wouldn't recommend it if you have bad hips or the like since there are some stairs that might've been made by giants, even for my long legs they were a stretch but I was ahead of the rest of the group so didn't see how they fared.

The Hut

The Hut was pretty big once we got up there; heaps of toilets and showers, a large gathering area, two large rooms and a kitchen. Due to Covid restrictions, people who weren’t staying there weren’t allowed into the kitchen area. It was nestled in the bush and I was part of the group that was walking to the Pinnacles so didn't have much time to look around. If you are looking to fill up your water bottle you can do this at the taps in the bathroom, though they do not advise it because it is rain/tank water. It looked a bit brown but thanks to my poor judgment from the night before, my thirst outweighed my concern for a tummy bug and I risked it. Happy to report I survived and didn’t have to spend the day in the bathroom (although I was secretly pining for an extra day off work).

Climbing to the Pinnacles

Unfortunately, I didn't keep very good time of the walk from the hut to the top of the Pinnacles, partly because I was on the verge of a panic attack half the time. The start of the walk was flat so didn't take long and then we got to the stairs that steeply lead up to the top. After about 10 mins of those killer stairs, we got to the hard part. The stairs were steep but well kept, it was just the sheer slopes into valleys surrounding them that freaked me out.

After the stairs was the start of the giant rock pinnacles and after climbing two ladders I felt very accomplished. Though the ladders were perhaps the scariest bit as they were very exposed and fairly high, the next part was just a scramble up the rocks and through the bush which was scary in itself. There were parts with big metal bars built into the rock to grab for most of the tricky parts but there were a few times I had to grab onto tree roots. It was a relief to get to the top platform where the views were amazing. I didn't get many photos from the top because I was hot and shaky, my action camera battery had died and my phone was almost pretty low on juice too. You can actually climb even higher, onto the top of the rocks about 2 metres above the platform where everyone gets their photos for Instagram, but by then my nerves were shot to hell. I was happy with getting my scared ass up to the viewing platform.

The view from the platform was well worth the trip up. Even if you can’t make it all the way up, it’s still walking at least up the stairs to enjoy the scenes. You can see for miles out from either side of the ridge; lots of bush on the hills below and then further out to sea.

The descent

I was feeling hot and tired and wanted to get the descent over and done with so I really gassed it when we left the hut. We got to the Hydro Camp (which was just a clearing with some logs to sit on) and were given the choice to go back down the Webber Creek Trail again which was timed at 2 hours or the Billy Goat Track which was 3 hours.

The Billy Goat Track

I did the BGT (Billy Goat Track) in 1.5 hours and it felt like an eternity. The people who had done the track in the past said that there wasn't a huge difference in difficulty between the two options but I would disagree. Especially if you were ascending via the BGT. No way in hell would I ever do that! Although the WCT was challenging in parts, it was nothing on the BGT.

I was foolish to think that the whole track would be downhill, the first half had about as many uphills as downhills and the second half had some seriously steep downhills. It wasn't anywhere near as well kept as the WCT so on a lot of those downhill bits there remnants of stairs but a lot of the time it was just big rocks and bits of dirt. The views were nice in places but I don't think they were good enough to make up for the difficulty of the track. There was one point towards the end that would’ve been quite spectacular to see, you’re really high up on a ridgeline and there’s a steep narrow valley to one side and a waterfall but it was hard to see through the bush, unfortunately. The track ends at the river so it was nice to have a dip and dry off before everyone else arrived behind me.

This review might sound a bit negative in places but I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others and do it again myself! Have you done the hike yet?