Te Ara Ramaroa Loop

This is a nice little grunty loop through Whareroa Farm, with a BIG hill.

Start off on the path to the left of the visitor shed. Run past the toilet block and through the gate onto the Farm Race. Directly opposite is the stile for the 'Te Ara Ramaroa track'. Follow the orange triangles and blue posts to guide you through the bush. At around 0.6km in, the trail will meet the 4WD Road. Don't cross the stile here (this is for horse access) Instead, turn left again following the blue poles. The next couple of kilometres take you up through the sheep farm where there are lots of little stream crossings.

The trail gets progressively steeper and steeper (up to 30% gradient in places). Eventually you'll pop out at the 'Ti Kouka' rocks at about 320m elevation. Cross the stile and turn left onto the Ti Kouka/Rocks track and head back down the hill, running alongside glorious views out to Kapiti Island. At around 5.1km, look for the left turn through the gorse which takes you to the Cairn lookout (worth the very short detour). Head down the hill following the blue poles until you get to the stile on your left marked 'Ramaroa Wetland track'. Follow this for about 400m and it will bring you back to an earlier intersection. Turn right and retrace your route to Farm Race, which you can follow back to the car park.