Waikaremoana great walk

Hi folks, I'm trying to do this walk in a month and am finding a bit of a mix of info out there on how to approach it. Is anybody able to verify where the pickup and drop-off points are for the water taxi? And is there just the one provider for this service? Seems that if you parked at Onepoto and did the walk and caught the water taxi back, you'd still have another 10k of walk to get back to your car? I emailed ngaituhoe and they suggested a 2nd water taxi. Which would make it 2x $80. Am I missing something here? Cheers!

not sure anymore, there was a water taxi service that was the main go to one that quit. people are saying its hard to get hold of another service provider. theres complaints that the hut and toilet maintenance has gone downhill and the track condition is deteriorating...

well bit of an update since I completed this walk over the last few days. I found the Waikaremoana Holiday Park operators fantastic to deal with (in contrast to the bad reviews online) and the water taxi guys were prompt and great to deal with. The tourist flats were very clean and neat. Thoroughly enjoyed that. I recon tent site #7 would be the one to book if you came with a tent. Pretty much all the toilets were nasty. Somebody really needs to get up there with some cleaner and a brush. Trail is in good condition. It was basically mud around the lake. but with all the rain, what can one really expect. I had no issues although I'm happy climbing around the tararuas, so this walk is obviously much easier than that. Erin at the visitors centre is a delight to talk to. Full of information and enthusiasm about the area. Recommend dropping in there. A good outing. Weather was terrible. but hey, what are you gonna do.. :)

Hi Ben, Thanks for sharing. Did you organise the Water taxi's in advance, or just work it our once you were there? I guess, off-season you didn't feel pressure to get this done in advance. Cheers Paul

perhaps the problem is the doc site points you at the ngai tahu visitor center and people are getting nowhere contacting them... there's no contact details there for the holiday park.

organised in advance. I guess you could take your chances, but I would almost book earlier in the offseason just because we were the only 2 people being ferried that day. So potentially the boat might not even be there if there is no business for them. That said, the group we ran into did it all on the day and worked out great for them. Waikaremoana Holiday Park Phone: +64 6 837 3826 Email: waikaremoanahp@doc.govt.nz