Wainamu - Why Not?

This is a clockwise route description and distances are measured from the start point. Starting off at the carpark, follow the signs and the single track. You'll keep the stream on your left and the Great (the Greatest, trust me) Dune on your right as you generally head east, for a couple of hundred metres until it's into the stream and time to get the feet wet. There are Hilary Trail markers to help.

After about 1100 metres, follow the stream around to your right (south) as the farmland to your left opens up and the Great Dune (you'll love it, it's the greatest) climbs to your right. At 1800m you'll cross the stream, up on to the back and follow the track in a SE direction for another 300m until you find a large body of water to your right - Lake Wainamu. Keep running along the track, keeping the fence line to your left and the lake to your right.

At 3.6km you'll reach the top of the lake - take a minute to savour the waterfall and say kia ora to the statue standing guard to the water feeding the lake. The southern side of the lake is a trifle more damp under foot, with boggy bits, muddy bits, slippery-oh-heck-I'm-going-over-on-my-arse-while-I-do-Riverdance bits, but we're not shy about getting our shoes dirty are we?

At 5.3km there's a few steps, then it's a gentle coast down to the southern end of the beach where the Great Dune (did I mention how great it is?).
Right.
Decision time - you can make a beeline straight back across the Great Dune (I'm not to go there again - great, huh?) and follow your original path back the carpark. Or, if your keep to the southern edge of the Great Dune (I'll stop - these must be getting really grating), you can follow a path down a vehicle path to a gate. The gate is about 600m from the carpark and it's nice and flat...