The Whitecliffs walk is one of our favorite walks to do in the Taranaki area. Here is an overview of this hike that crosses some paddocks, tall cliffs, and a beautiful stretch of beach.
Most of the walking or hiking tracks in the Taranaki area are centered around Mt. Taranaki. There’s a good reason for that. Mt. Taranaki is spectacular and the views from most of those trails are sweet. The Whitecliffs is a nice trail that offers something a little bit different than the mountain. While there are a few variations of this walk, this description covers the round trip walk starting and finishing at Pukearuhe on the southern end.
Whitecliffs Walk Overview
Located in Taranaki.
To do the Whitecliffs walk along the beach under the cliffs you need to go within two hours of low tide! Some sections the ocean will be too high and you can’t pass by.
Note – the walkway is across private land and it’s closed between 1 July and 30 September.
Getting there – The trailhead is located at Pukekaruhe. Turn off State Highway 3, about 35 minutes north of New Plymouth. Follow the road about 10 minutes until the end of the road when it arrives at the beach at Pukearuhe. There is no real good car park, so just park on the side of the road. Just be sure to not block the boat ramp or road. The walk starts by heading up the steep road past where you parked your car and then will finish at the beach in front of you.
Easy to moderate,
6.5 km about 3-4 hours
Whitecliffs Walk
Here is a nice DOC factsheet about the walk and a map.
We always choose to start this walk by following up the road. The road is a bit steep as it climbs from the beach up to the cliff tops. This section of the walk has some pretty great views out over the ocean. On a real clear day you may even get to see Mt. Taranaki in the distance.
I like to think of this walk as having three distinct parts – 1) the road, paddocks, and cliff tops, 2) the bush and river, and 3) the beach.
The first part is the road section from the car park along the cliff tops. It follows along the road for a bit and has a couple of very steep sections. The final part of this section climbs all the way to the high point of the track. The high point is a pass that completes the first section of road and paddocks before starting the next section that is in the bush.
From the obvious pass, if you follow the ridge towards the west you will make it to the true high point of this ridge and find a trig.
The second section is a long descent that drops down to the Wai Pingao Stream. This part has some nice views out over the bush and a long, seemingly never ending stairwell. There is a nice bench before you start too much of the descent to sit on, have snack and take a break.
At the bottom of the steps you come out to the stream. A bridge crosses the stream, which you can cross and follow the trail as it continues farther. The trail eventually makes its way up to Mt. Messenger and highway 3.
Or follow the trail along the stream towards the beach, which is what we usually do. This section can be a bit muddy at times.
It’s always cool when you pop out on the beach just below some of the amazing white cliffs.
The final section of the walk is the walk back along the beach to where you parked your car. Just follow the beach along and if you timed it right you will have no worries about the tide. That means hitting the beach within two hours of low tide.
However, if you didn’t pay enough attention to the tide charts you may not be able to complete this part. Once we had to run across a few points when the waves were out so we didn’t get wet.