The Huitatariki open up as soon as it leaves the park, with broad grassy flats and pines of the valleysides. A start contract to the tight, tangled, windfall-smitten valley of the headwaters.

Riverbed is LINZ land, and there's a Queen's Chain from the confluence with the Tupuaeroa to the park boundary. Access is via Tapuaeroa Road - the Mt Hikurangi roadend. Other than hunting, and there were heap of deer on this trip, the river would mainly be of interest as a route from the Oronui/Tapuaeroa into the Raukokore as the saddle at the head avoids the high, scrubby slipped ridgelines further west.