Te Kopahou Tendrils

The Te Kopahou Tendrils line takes in the 4 prominent lines - ‘tendrils’ - in the Te Kopahou Reserve on Wellingtons South Coast. The project uses the Hawkins Hill radome (the highest point in the reserve) as the bulb that the tendrils grow from. For the full Te Kopahou Tendrils a runner must ascend and descend each of the four major tendrils; The Tip Track, Te Kopahou Track, Radome Track, and Pari Whero Track (Red Rocks). The total distance of the run is 30.9km, with 2110m elevation gain. The run takes place almost exclusively on double track trails with a very short sealed road section up along the top. The best and worst thing about The Te Kopahou Tendrils is that once you get up near the bulb you basically spend the rest of the day looking across at all the tendrils winding their way down to the sea. So… there is never any doubt that you still have a lot of climbing to do. On each tendril you descend to the lowest point that the particular tendril crosses the Waipapa stream, and on each ascent you climb until your trail junction with your next tendril.

Route Description

The line starts at the base of the Tip Track. Make your way up the Tip Track for your first climb. At the top of the Tip Track turn left on the sealed road and run up the road to the Hawkins Hill Radome. You will top out at approximately 490m. On a very clear day looking north west you can just make out Mount Taranaki from this point.

Once you reach the radome carry on down the sealed road. After around 600m of sealed road from the Radome you will veer left and continue on a dirt road. Be careful along here there are often cars and construction vehicles that aren’t always expecting runners. You will undulate along the road here until coming to a junction between the main road and the Te Kopahou Trail. Take a slight left onto the less established trail of Te Kopahou. You will know you have done it correctly as signs will warn you of Private Property of Long Gully Station if you carry on the main road to summit Te Kopahou Peak. Descend down Te Kopahou trail, around half way down the descent you will meet the intersection with the Bunkers Tail. At this junction take a hard left and carry on your descent until you find the lowest point of Te Kopahou Trail at the Waipapa stream crossing. In order to reach this you will first cross a smaller stream, and climb back up 15 meters before hitting the main stream crossing. You do not need to cross the stream. In proper tendrils style, turn around and now head back up.

After making your way back up Te Kopahou and along the road section again keep an eye out for your next tendril - The Radome Track. Your radome track junction will be a turn onto double track trail around 200m before you get back to the radome itself. The junction is at an altitude of around 475m. Descend the double track of the Radome Track all the way to meet Waipapa stream. Once again you do not need to cross the stream, turn around and enjoy your climb.

The final tendril is the Pari Whero track. After re-summiting the Radome Track head back along the sealed road, past the actual Radome and start making your way back down the Tip Track. Roughly 200m down the Tip Track you will take a slight right and follow the double track on to Pari Whero Track. This is at the same junction as the Car Parts Ext track and is signposted. From here make your way all the way down Pari Whero. It will involve roughly 3km of double track undulating along the right before a sharp left hand turn before the real drop (also signposted). After a few mins on the proper drop you will find it flatten out just for a few meters and there will be a single track trail to your right. Follow the single track down the switch backs and all the way to the bottom. As you get to the valley floor you will need to cross the stream and head up the other side for the last 200m before reaching the lowest point of the Waipapa stream. You will be right by the ocean. This is Te Kopahou Tendrils, so you don’t need to cross the stream, just turn around and head back up.

The good news is you only have to go as far as the Tip Track junction on your return up Pari Whero (which is very near all the way). Once you get to the junction of the Tip Track, take a right hand turn for your final decent down the first tendril you came up. The line finishes when you hit the sign at the bottom of the Tip Track.

You can view the route and download the GPX here.

There is a Strava segment for Te Kopahou Tendrils which follows the route described above. The current Course Record is 4:31:02, however we will also be maintaining a FKT for the route, which currently sits at the same place as the Strava CR. For the FKT you may run the tendrils in any order you like, as long as you start and end at the Tip Track sign, and you take each tendril to the designated turn around at the Waipapa stream.

If you run this route, whether for an FKT attempt or just for fun we would love to hear about it. Lets us know about your adventure.

Fuelling

Each of the tendrils ends at the Waipapa stream that flows fairly strongly all year round. Above you is farmland and there are possums and wild goats around so it is recommended to filter and/or treat your water. I have drunk from this stream many times, but always used water treatment tablets.

Access

From Wellington city you can access the route by driving (or running) along Brooklyn Road over Brooklyn Hill then continue on Ohiro Road. Once you get past Carlucci Land you will see a turn off the the Wellington city Tip, the tip track is right by this turn off. There is parking at the base of the Tip Track that generally has plenty of spots.

Tips

The trail is generally in fairly good condition, the majority of the route is maintained as 4x4 access so it isn’t overly technical however it can get quite rutted out after big rain.

Whilst not technical the trail is almost never flat, some of the sections are decently steep and you are pretty much either ascending or descending long sections for the entire 30km. Whilst you can certainly do it without, I find light weight trekking poles to be pretty helpful along this route.

If you aren’t from Wellington you can easily be tricked by the weather of the south coast. In some ways you are basically in the middle of the city, but you can get remote very quickly in the Te Kopahou reserve, and we’ve often been on these trails and only seen other people on the Tip Track. In a northerly the winds can absolutely howl through this area, the bulb areas of the tendrils are often in the clouds and fog. In a southerly you get the weather system coming straight off the south coast and it can bring sleet, cold sideways rain, and of course the wind. The top of each tendril allows you to bail out back down the Tip Track if you need to, you could bail to the Red Rocks car park along the coast from the bottom of any tendril, you will likely be about 5km from your car by the time you run along the coast then back up Ohiro Road. I always take minimum of small first aid kit and a waterproof jacket in this area if I’m out for the day.

You will have cell phone coverage while you are up along the top around the Radome area but for most of the route there is no reception.