Upper Nihotupu Walk

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted about some of our local adventures, but the Upper Nihotupu Walk deserves it. This is another one of the walks in the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, and it is about a 45 minute drive from the Eastern Bays. This is not one of the big attractions in the area, so the Nihotupu carpark sneaks up on you as you make your way towards Piha.

The trek itself is relatively easy. The path is well maintained and not too steep. A good stroller could easily handle the terrain, especially when you get to the gravel road that leads to the dam itself. The tramp from the carpark to the dam takes about 40 minutes if you don’t stop, but you would be missing out on a lot if you didn’t stop to check out the waterfalls - yes, plural - on the way.

The first stop along the path is at a narrow part of the stream that screams “come play on the rocks and take a picture next to the drop off.” The kids loved jumping back and forth and staring into the rock pools. I was terrified someone would fall in, but fortunately everyone stayed dry. On the other side of the stream, we found this strange, decaying structure. Please leave me a comment below if you know what it is.

But the truly impressive waterfall was down the gravel road a few minutes more. This one was - as one of the online guides I read before hand said - EPIC. This was a powerful waterfall with lots of fun, craggy rocks to climb on. The rocks weren’t wet or slippery, so the kids were able to be explorers as the powerful waterfall crashed into the water next to them.

At the end of the path, we found ourselves at the Nihotupu Dam, a structure that built in the 1920s and is part of a system that helps supply Auckland with about 20% of our drinking water. There was a small shed with benches where we stopped to enjoy our picnic lunch. We could’ve gone the five minute walk to an actual picnic area, but the kids didn’t want to leave the dam because it is was a) very cool and b) too far past lunchtime to get them to move anymore without food.

By the picnic area, there’s the option to follow the old tramway and get to the basin of the dam, but we knew that our kids - age 6 and 8 - would be completely exhausted and extremely difficult if we tried that plus the walk back. I think older kids could handle it, but for us that was a no-go.

We made it back to the car with little complaining. Overall, this walk is fantastic and extremely family friendly. I would love to have restroom facilities at the carpark, but alas, there aren’t. There is a toilet hut/shed/scary-looking-wooden-box at the intersection of the gravel road and car park path, but it wasn’t something that I would use unless there was an emergency. I think this particular walk would be good in warmer months because it is well shaded for the majority of the trek. Perhaps we’ll head back in the summer.