[3] A council supported community group, the Hakarimata Restoration Trust,[4] created in 2001, is helping care for the range.

[10] Hakarimata's name derives from a 17th-century feast, when Ngāti Maniapoto joined the local Waikatos to celebrate the birth of a child.

Occasional large rata and rimu stand above the canopy of tawa, kohekohe, hinau, rewarewa, mangeao and pukatea.

[3] Tūī, kererū, pīwakawaka, pīpīwharauroa, kārearea, pekapeka,[3] copper skink, Auckland green gecko[14] and peripatus are among the species in the bush.

[15] Since the land was reserved (from 1905 onwards), the fringe areas and lower slopes have slowly regenerated after suffering light logging, fires, pigs, goats, possums, cats, hedgehogs, rats, mice, stoats, weasels and ferrets, with occasional deer and wallaby.

[21] Environment Waikato granted Perry Aggregates resource consents in 2009,[28] following which bait stations were put in the area in 2011[29] and the quarry was given Mimico Environmental Awards for that[30] and, in 2018, for extending native fish passage.

[3] Te Araroa follows that walkway to the summit,[33] where a viewing tower offers vistas towards the coast, across the Waikato Basin and to Ruapehu on a clear day.