Mangorei Track Trailhead — Attraction in North Island

The views: If you love mountains, the view of Mt Taranaki is worth 5/5, you can see all the details and that's amazing. Sure, the reflecting tarn is small and if there's a bit of wind, you won't see the reflection but to be honest the reflection is just a photograph thing, the best view is the mountain.

It takes about 2h to get to the top, walking in the forest. On the track there are no views.

The track: The track to get there is however worth 2/5 stars. NOT because of the difficulty, because yes, it's a bit of cardio but there is no technical difficulty. For an adult in good health, I would say this is a medium track. NOT because of the stairs because most maintained paths I have seen in NZ have stairs so you get used to it. So why a 2/5 rating? The track is really not great. Yes, it is maintained. But the path is just stairs and pathways made of wooden slats. The slats are so far apart from one another that the tip of my shoes would always bump on them and almost made me trip on them. Walking on it hurts your feet and back. Hiking poles are useless, the sticks would get stuck between the wooden slats. I'd recommend running/trail shoes rather than hiking shoes to hurt less the feet (they are more flexible).

Parking: It fits quite a lot of cars, there are 2 toilets.

Overall, 4/5 stars, one less star...

Very beautiful when you’ve reached the viewpoints. The lake is alotttt smaller than one might think, but you still get some awesome photos! The earlier the better as the wind just picks up as the day goes on. Keep in mind it can take up to two hours to get up. I made it in under an hour and a half but was passing many people.

The boardwalk itself is annoying. I’d rather walk on the path, but in some points it is too muddy or impossible without the boardwalk. The reason I don’t like it though is because if you’re not someone with a big foot, then either your heel or toes leans into the gapping between the boards and it’s sooo annoying -.- I think it would be better if I had thick hiking boots, but I was wearing active barefoot sneakers and it was just painful. I don’t understand why they put the slats so far apart.

But all in all, glad I did it and enjoy for anyone else going. Wear proper proper shoes - unless you have big feet haha then...

Beautiful hike with some amazing views, and changes in scenery from the visitors centre to the mangorei track trail head . There were also signs along the way telling us about the environment and natural formations.

We did this as a day hike from the visitors centre to the mangorei track trailhead, with a shuttle drop off from Taranaki Mountain Shuttle. It took us approximately 8 hrs - we took plenty of breaks and took our time to enjoy the view. I would suggest bringing 2L of water and some snacks. You can also go to the tarn from mangorei track trail head as an out and back, but I would say from the visitors centre there is much more to see and changes in environment!

For a picturesque reflective mountain in the tarn photo, we received a tip to put the camera as close as you can to the water. Try to also look at the cloud direction and predict when you may have an opening if it’s...