Oparara Basin, Oparara Arch, Moira Gate Arch

As DOC will tell you:"Oparara Basin is one of the finest features of the Kahurangi National Park. The 35 million-year-old complex of limestone caves, arches and channels is popular with walkers, cavers and nature lovers." However the Basin's importance rests what a find here has taught us about the great extinct bird, the moa.

Getting there from Karamea involves a 26 km drive the last sixteen of which is along a narrow windy shingle road not suitable for camper vans.
From the car park on McCallums Rd you can walk to the Oparara Arch and the Moira Gate Arch.

Oparara Big Arch - 45 minutes return

The track starts across the road from the first car park, just before the bridge. You walk alongside the tea-coloured river - it shines a bright gold in sunlight - occasionally climbing short sets of steps. A bridge takes you across a beautiful, mossy, stony creek, and suddenly you are gazing up at a huge 37m high limestone arch. It’s no surprise to learn it was used as a setting in The Lost World, a film about dinosaurs. If you are an able and fit hiker you can make your way across fallen rubble to the other side where the river enters, 200 metres away. Feel the mystery of the place as you walk through the vast cavern where there are blunt, ancient stalactites hanging from the roof. A torch isn’t necessary, but it would help.

Oparara Little Arch (Moria Gate) - 1.5 hours return

Start at the small footbridge at the western end of the first car park. This is loop track which passes over the Moria Gate Arch. Near the arch a side track involving something of a scramble takes you into a river-worn tunnel about 15 metres long beneath the arch with the descent aided by a fixed chain. Continuing on the loop track will take you past the Mirror Lake and then out to a car park just up the road from where you started.

Travel a few minutes north from here to find another car park from where you can take a short walk to the Box Canyon Cave the home of the Spelunga spider**.**

Honeycomb Hill

Further North again is Honeycomb Hill, a significant deposit of sub-fossil bones, part of which can only be visited with a DOC approved guide while a major portion is a scientific reserve and out of bounds.
At Honeycomb Hill at least 15 kilometres of tunnels and huge caves are contained in an area of less than one square kilometre. The cave complex was a trap for over 50 species of animals, at least half of which are extinct. Apart from six species of moa, some of which are extremely well preserved, bones of at least five giant Haast's Eagle, the moa's natural predator have been found.
Analysis of the moa remains using radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis has removed a lot of unknowns about the moa. One question which appears to have been answered is the number of species, nine.