If, while you're trekking along the Pinnacle Walk's paths, you think that you're doing it tough – spare a thought for the original miners and loggers who cut these tracks - because you’re walking in their footsteps.
Located within the Kauaeranga Valley - upriver from Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula - the Pinnacle Walk was constructed for packhorses carrying supplies for kauri loggers, gum diggers and gold miners in the early 1900s.
A three-hour walk to the base of the craggy Pinnacles traverses groves of nikau palms, huge rata trees, and crosses streams and swing bridges. Crossing those streams, you can imagine what it must have sounded like when logging dams released torrents of water and massive kauri logs on their roaring downhill journey.
Of the many historic walks in these foothills, the Pinnacles rates as one of New Zealand's most popular overnighters and the 80-bed Department of Conservation hut is often booked out well in advance (but well worth checking).
You'll find out why when you grab an early check-out from the hut to clamber up the peak. You'll experience first-hand the awe of watching the first rays of sun hit the Pacific Ocean and 360-degree panoramic views of the Coromandel Peninsula, the Hauraki Gulf, Bay of Plenty, and the Hauraki Plains.