The Tekapo-Twizel Track is easy but long. 42 kilometres from Lake Tekapo you can camp at the Pines Camping Area, which has pit toilets but only lake water. Nicer toilets and drinking water are available at the now closed Lake Pukaki Visitor Information Centre about a kilometre further along.
Unless you plan to treat water en route, carry plenty of drinking water.
Tekapo - SH 8
From Lake Tekapo township, follow the finger signs up Aorangi Crescent and into Andrew Don Drive. Continue on this road out of town towards Scotts Pond where there is Te Araroa destination signage. The Tekapo A power station is on the right. A stile leads over the Meridian security fence here, and across a control gate. One km on from here, cross the canal bridge and follow the gravelled road on the true right of the canal. Follow this road along for 12.5 kms to where Te Araroa diverts from, and then returns to, the canal road to enable SH 8's safe crossing.
SH 8 - Pukaki Power Station
Irishman Creek Station, visible to the right as the track continues along the true right of the canal, was formerly owned by Bill Hamilton, inventor of the jetboat. The prototype was tested on the dam and water-race here before proving its revolutionary potential on the Waitaki River in 1954. New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mt Cook or Aoraki (3764m) is in view from here. On a clear day its summit ridge chisels the sky to the north west. The track passes a sockeye salmon farm immersed in the canal, then, about 500 metres before the stilling ponds at the canal’s end, diverts from the canal road to descend the right-hand side of the penstock pipes. This is toward the Pukaki power station.
Pukaki Power Station - Pines Camp
The track then follows the Pukaki Lake shoreline alongside Hayman Road for 7 km. Just before the junction with SH8 the trail diverts to the lake shore and joins with a section of the the A2O Cycle Trail . This part of the route is sheltered by trees. The track continues around the lakeshore for six kilometres to reach the Pines Camping Area.
Pines Camp - Twizel
This section also along the A2O Cycle Trail though the signage on the ground may not yet reflect this. Where there is conflicting signage follow the A2O signs. Continue through the camping area and turn right onto SH 8. Walk the highway margin across the Pukaki High Dam and then turn left opposite the entrance to the now closed Visitor Information Centre.
The track heads south into the Department of Conservation’s Pukaki Flats Reserve then turns right and exits to the highway for at Bendrose Reserve. Turn left onto the highway for one last kilometre into Twizel. You’ll see finger signs indicating the safest crosspoint just outside the town.
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