Strange Walks in New Zealand: Hidden Tunnels, Curses & Shipwrecks
Strange walks in New Zealand with some seriously odd history
Nobody warns you about the rabbit holes that come after a good walk.
You get home curious about an old doorway, a place name or something you passed on the track. One search turns into another, and suddenly you've got far too many tabs open and you're reading newspaper reports from over a hundred years ago.
We've done that with quite a few places around New Zealand, but these five really sent us digging. We've walked them all, and between the old military sites, coastal history and stories attached to the land, there's some wonderfully odd stuff to uncover.
Not all the stories hold up, either. Some are backed by historical records, others have been questioned for decades, and a few are more meaningful than a spooky headline could ever explain.
That's half the fun of looking into them. You never quite know what you're going to find.
Which strange New Zealand walk should you try?
These five walks offer quite different outings, so it depends what you're after.
🔸 Maungauika / North Head, Auckland: Military tunnels, underground rooms and rumours of a hidden network. Allow 60–90 minutes to explore.
🔸 Karangahake Gorge, Waikato: Old gold-mining tunnels, bridges and a bizarre story about horses. The Windows Walk is a good shorter option.
🔸 Whatipū Caves, West Auckland: Giant sea caves and the story of a dance floor buried beneath the sand. Roughly 3 km return.
🔸 Manukau Heads Lighthouse, Auckland: A short lookout walk above the site of New Zealand's deadliest shipwreck. The drive takes considerably longer than the walk.
🔸 Maungatautari, Waikato: A forest walk with rich Māori ancestral history and remarkable birdlife. The Northern Enclosure outing is roughly 4.5 km including the approach.
For tunnels and old ruins, we'd start with North Head or Karangahake. Whatipū is hard to beat for unusual coastal scenery, while the other two are worth visiting for very different reasons.
1. Maungauika / North Head: the secret tunnels nobody can find
North Head looks like a fairly ordinary grassy hill above Auckland Harbour until you start finding doorways disappearing underneath it.
We'd planned a quick wander, but kept getting sidetracked by staircases, gun rooms and old concrete passages. Some tunnels get properly dark, then suddenly you're back outside looking across the harbour towards Rangitoto.
Every time we aimed for the summit, something else pulled us away. There was more going on beneath the grass than we'd expected.
Maungauika was important to Māori long before the military arrived. Coastal fortifications were added in the late nineteenth century, particularly during fears of a Russian attack, then expanded and altered through the world wars.
The result is a collection of batteries, underground rooms and tunnels you can still explore today. But for decades, people have claimed there's another network hiding beneath them.
Depending on who's telling the story, these supposed secret chambers contain sealed ammunition, military equipment or even buried aircraft.
The New Zealand Defence Force has investigated the claims repeatedly, without finding evidence that the hidden network exists.
In an April 2024 response, the NZDF also confirmed that three known sealed tunnels had been inspected in the 1990s and found empty. No ammunition, no equipment and certainly no forgotten aircraft.
You'd think that would settle things, but North Head seems particularly good at keeping people curious.
After wandering through the passages that are already open, we can understand why. There are enough old entrances, blocked doorways and dark corners to make you wonder what else might be tucked away.
Whether there's anything more beneath the hill is another question. The tunnels you can actually explore are interesting enough without trying to get somewhere you're not supposed to be.
Our North Head Auckland walk guide covers parking, the accessible passages and the different ways to explore the hill. Bring a proper torch and allow more time than the short climb suggests. We certainly needed it.
2. Karangahake Gorge: the very unfortunate horses
Karangahake Gorge has enough mining history to keep you entertained without bringing a curse into it.
The Ohinemuri River runs below steep hillsides, bridges cross between sections of bush and old mining tunnels cut through the rock. Around the Windows Walk, openings left by miners give you views straight down into the gorge.
We loved how quickly the scenery changed. One minute we were outside beside the river, then we were walking through damp passages with daylight coming through holes in the hillside. There's always another bridge, tunnel or old working to investigate.
It was while looking into the area's history afterwards that we came across a rather unfortunate story involving horses.
In 1904, the Auckland Star published a report describing the apparent suicide of horses at Karangahake Gorge.
Nobody had actually witnessed what happened, which does raise the question of how anyone managed to reach that conclusion.
More than a century later, DOC historic intern Rebecca Nuttall found the report and decided to investigate the supposed curse.
Her 2015 article, The Curse of Karangahake Gorge, follows her through the old mining area in search of anything unusual. She explored tunnels, wandered beside the river and kept an eye out for strange behaviour, but found nothing particularly supernatural.
She even joked about whether investigating the original report had helped start the curse rumour herself.
As for the actual walk, Karangahake is worth visiting regardless. The old mining workings and river views give it plenty of character, and the tunnels make a relatively short outing feel much more involved.
Just don't assume all the tracks take you through the same places. The Windows Walk and old railway tunnel are different experiences, and some routes are better suited to dogs than others.
Our Karangahake Gorge walking guide breaks down the routes, difficulty and access so you can choose the one that interests you.
We'd happily head back for another wander. Cursed livestock or otherwise.
3. Whatipū Caves: the ballroom buried beneath the sand
Whatipū is one of those places that makes Auckland feel a very long way away.
Past Huia, the road winds through the hills before opening towards enormous cliffs, wetlands and dunes. The caves sit along the base of the rock, with some entrances big enough to make you feel rather small standing inside them.
We went for the caves but ended up enjoying the wider landscape just as much. Some of our favourite views were from near the entrances, where the dark rock frames all that open space outside.
We kept wandering farther along the coast until somebody eventually suggested turning around. What was supposed to be a little cave walk was quietly becoming a much bigger outing.
What we hadn't appreciated was that people once came out here for a completely different reason.
Around 1899, a wooden dance floor was installed inside one of Whatipū's giant caves. People travelled out to dance and socialise, back when reaching this isolated stretch of coast was considerably harder than it is today.
There was, however, one fairly obvious problem with holding dances inside a sea cave.
When the floor wasn't being used, it could be raised towards the ceiling using ropes and pulleys, keeping it out of reach of rough seas.
It's an impressive amount of effort for a night out. Rather than find somewhere drier, somebody apparently decided the dance floor itself should move.
The floor is believed to remain buried beneath the shifting sand. The coastline has changed dramatically since then, with the sea now roughly 1.5 kilometres farther west.
There's no ballroom waiting to be explored today. You'll find huge cave entrances, uneven rock and sand beneath your feet, with little obvious sign that people once came here to dance.
It's hard to picture, especially when you think about the effort involved in getting everyone out there. But somebody clearly thought the location was worth building an entire floor for.
Our Whatipū Caves walk guide covers the access road, cave conditions and why we ended up wandering much farther than planned.
And if that dance floor really is still buried somewhere beneath the sand, we hope it got plenty of use before disappearing.
4. Manukau Heads: the shipwreck behind the view
You spend considerably longer driving to Manukau Heads Lighthouse than walking to it.
The path is short, but the view from the top is enormous. Across the harbour entrance are Whatipū and the Waitākere Ranges, with the Tasman Sea stretching beyond. It's an exposed place, and we spent a fair while up there looking around.
What you can't see from the lighthouse is what makes the harbour entrance so dangerous.
Beneath the water are shifting sandbars that have caused trouble for sailors for generations. On 7 February 1863, they contributed to New Zealand's deadliest maritime disaster.
HMS Orpheus approached the Manukau bar with 259 naval officers, sailors and Royal Marines aboard.
The ship was navigating with outdated charts, and the channel through the sandbar had shifted. Warnings were signalled from shore when the vessel began heading into danger, but the message was missed.
The Orpheus struck the bar and was battered by heavy waves. As the ship began breaking apart, men climbed into the rigging to escape the water. Eventually, the masts collapsed into the sea.
Of the 259 people aboard, 189 died.
The NZ History account explains how navigational errors, missed warnings and the dangerous harbour entrance led to the disaster.
Standing above that water, it's difficult not to think about what happened there.
The harbour mouth looks enormous from the lighthouse, and from up high it's easy to underestimate what's happening beneath the surface. The same exposed coastline that makes the view so impressive could be unforgiving for ships trying to cross the bar.
The original lighthouse wasn't built until 1874, more than a decade after the Orpheus sank. The structure standing there today is a replica, opened in 2006.
We'd enjoyed the visit for the coastline and view, but learning about the wreck afterwards gave that stretch of water a very different weight.
It's a terrible piece of history, and one that doesn't need anything supernatural added to it.
Our Manukau Heads Lighthouse guide covers the long drive, short path and what to expect at the lookout. It's not much of a hike, but we'd still happily make the trip again.
5. Maungatautari: the mountain above the mist
Maungatautari has a different sort of story, but it's one we wanted to include.
Our visit to the Northern Enclosure started with a steeper climb from Maungatautari Marae than we'd expected. Once we reached the gate, the walking became easier, the bush closed in around us and we had the trail completely to ourselves.
The birds, on the other hand, were making an unbelievable amount of noise.
By the higher part of the loop, calls were coming from all over the canopy. There was so much going on above us that we stopped walking just to listen. We couldn't identify everything, but standing there while the forest went absolutely mental was easily the best part of the day.
It's also a place with a much older history than the sanctuary itself.
According to Raukawa tradition, the ancestor Rakatāura saw a mountain that appeared to hang above a thick blanket of mist. That sight prompted him to name the place Maungatautari.
Maungatautari holds deep cultural and historical importance for Raukawa and other iwi associated with it. This isn't a ghost story or an unexplained event to pick apart. It's an ancestral account connected to the people and history of the land.
There's also something remarkable about the forest today. The sanctuary's pest-proof fencing, restoration work and ongoing wildlife protection have helped native species recover, which goes a long way towards explaining why the place sounded so alive during our visit.
We went expecting a quiet bush walk and ended up standing still for ages, listening to birds we couldn't even name.
If you're planning to visit, our Maungatautari Northern Enclosure guide covers the steep approach, free short loop and the longer routes you don't want to accidentally wander onto.
The loop inside the enclosure is only about 1.5 km, but the walk in and back brings the full outing closer to 4.5 km. That uphill approach is worth knowing about before setting off.
Before you head out
Bring a proper torch and shoes with good grip for North Head, Karangahake and Whatipū. The tunnels and caves can be dark, damp and uneven. Keep an eye on the weather at Whatipū, and don't underestimate the steep approach to Maungatautari's Northern Enclosure.
Check access and dog rules before leaving. North Head allows dogs on lead, Karangahake has route-specific restrictions, and dogs aren't permitted at Maungatautari sanctuary or Manukau Heads Lighthouse reserve. Our DOC track conditions guide covers where to check for closures before heading out.
Final take
These places are worth visiting without their stranger stories, but knowing what happened there changes how you see them. We'll certainly look at the Manukau bar differently next time.
We've always had a soft spot for the weird side of the outdoors, which probably explains why Bigfoot and Mothman keep turning up on our Cryptid & Urban Legend T-Shirts. You don't have to believe every rumour to enjoy a good mystery.
And considering what we've uncovered about places we've already walked, there's probably plenty more we've wandered straight past.
Strange Walks in New Zealand FAQ
Are there haunted hikes in New Zealand?
New Zealand has walks connected to ghost stories, unusual historical events and local folklore. North Head and Karangahake Gorge are two we've explored, although we haven't found convincing evidence of paranormal activity at either.
What are some strange walks near Auckland?
North Head, Whatipū Caves and Manukau Heads are three good options. You'll find historic military tunnels, the story of an old cave dance floor and the site of New Zealand's deadliest shipwreck.
Are there really secret tunnels under North Head?
There are real military tunnels, but claims about a larger hidden network haven't been substantiated. The NZDF confirmed in April 2024 that its investigations hadn't found evidence of one.
Is Karangahake Gorge cursed?
There's no established evidence of a curse. The story comes from a 1904 newspaper report about horses, which was later investigated by a DOC historic intern in 2015.
Did Whatipū Caves really have a ballroom?
Yes. Around 1899, a wooden dance floor was installed inside one of the giant caves. It could be raised towards the ceiling using ropes and pulleys to protect it from rough seas.
Can you still see the Whatipū dance floor?
No. Whatipū Lodge says the old floor is believed to remain buried beneath the shifting sand. Its exact condition hasn't been confirmed.
What happened at Manukau Heads in 1863?
HMS Orpheus struck the Manukau bar on 7 February 1863. Of the 259 people aboard, 189 died, making it New Zealand's deadliest maritime disaster.
Which New Zealand walk is best for exploring old tunnels?
North Head is our pick for military tunnels, old gun rooms and underground passages. Karangahake Gorge is excellent for mining tunnels, bridges and railway history. Both are worth visiting.
Which walk is the easiest?
Manukau Heads Lighthouse has the shortest walk, taking just a few minutes from the car park. North Head is also relatively easy, although exploring the tunnels involves stairs and uneven surfaces.
Do you need a torch for these walks?
We'd bring one for North Head, Karangahake Gorge and Whatipū Caves. Some passages are dark and uneven enough that relying on a phone light isn't ideal.