The Far North’s premier day-walking track! This marvelous loop track encompasses both Twilight and Te Werahi beaches, an option out to Cape Maria Van Diemen’s lighthouse, a golden-dune crossing, some red/yellow badlands, and a dip in Te Werahi stream. SO GREAT, quintessential Northland! You may see golden dunes elsewhere, but this track is the country’s only marked route through a dune field.
The Te Werahi loop is a long route under the hot sun—it’s not for the feeble. It is one of my favorites! At a brisk pace the main loop takes 2.5 hours, plus an extra 1.5 hours if you visit the cape. Go clockwise—this way you’ll cross the dune while you’re fresh and then get a rinse in the stream before the plod back up to the carpark.
The Track: Take a photo of the trailhead map. Head left to the treeline (note the trees so you can look back from the dunes to spy your car.) Cruise along the marked fenceline down to the stile and bog boardwalk. Across the dunes it’ll take an 
hour to Twilight, then 30 minutes more to the Cape Diemen fork. A 90-minute visit to the Cape is totally worth it. The Cape is a 30-minute walk over shell-dune, then a grind up to the lighthouse…but ahhh, then you’ll see from Cape Reinga to Ahipara. Have a bite then a splash in the surf, knowing a fresh water rinse at Te Werahi beach is only 45 minutes away. So, backtrack to the junction then head left for 20 minutes over the red badlands to Te Werahi. After a rinse pick up the marks (near the stream) for the 50 minutes of up and down back to the carpark.
