5 Best Day Walks in Auckland

At a loose end of a weekend and wanting to escapes the city for a day walk? You may be thinking Auckland isn’t too well known for it’s walking trails, and for those of you who are real adventurous hikers, don’t expect anything too challenging or off the beaten track, but there are some beautiful trails well worth taking the time to visit – here are our 5 best day walks in Auckland…

During the 4 month 2021 Covid-19 lockdown, we were forced to cancel our trips further afield and stuck with border restrictions confined to Auckland. Little did we know that we’d fall in love with all these new parts of our own home that we didn’t even know existed.

We’ve collated just our favourites, so here’s our top 5 tracks for those looking for beautiful day walks to enjoy in Auckland.

1. Mahurangi West Regional Park

Mita Bay is one of our favourite spots in Auckland. Whilst this can absolutely be a day walk, we thought it was so special we stayed the night! We camped here between Christmas and New Year 2020, and fell in love with it.

After parking at Sullivan’s Bay, which is a beautiful beach too, the best route to the beach / campground is via the low route, only accessible by foot.

Walking about half an hour on the rocky foreshore, you come to the tiny but well maintained campsite with spots for your tent right on the water. Think the North Island’s version of the Abel Tasman, and its just 45 minutes from central Auckland.

We strongly recommend taking a weekend to camp there and as part of this completing the Mita Bay Loop track. The beauty of the bay itself makes it one of our best walks in Auckland.

It is short and sweet, but offers you amazing views of the surrounding bays and bright blue waters.

This is probably one for those wanting to get off the beaten track and avoid the well known hot spots of areas like Tawharanui regional park, but still experience the best beauty nature has to offer.

2. Wenderholm Regional Park

About a 40 minute drive from Auckland city, hop on the northern motorway to Waiwera and find Wenderholm Regional Park.

There are several walking trails you can enjoy and the beach itself which is beautiful.

We followed the red posts and completed the longest of the walking options – the Perimeter Track. We covered 6.5km and it took us just under 2 hours, with stopping for lots of photos.

The walk was very quiet even in lockdown, with most people seeming to head to the first lookout and head back to the beach. The second half of the track is more exciting though as the terrain changes frequently and becomes “tramping level” as opposed to just your easy walking trail.

Perhaps the best part about the park, is the picnic area with several available BBQ’s on the waters edge. The beach bends round a corner into an estuary with calm crystal clear waters where many were paddle boarding, kayaking, and launching their boats.

A picture perfect way to set up and enjoy a summers day.

3. Te Henga Walkway

If you drive West for an hour out of central Auckland, you can find this walk nestled in the Waitakere Ranges. It’s relatively well known to locals, meaning that’s mostly who you’ll find on the track. If you’re visiting, it’s absolutely worth adding to your Auckland list of things to do.

The Te Henga walkway is an easy walk, however does become more challenging in places with some steep sections and some rather boggy parts if there’s been a lot of rainfall. DOC grades it between easy and intermediate for this reason.

The views make the walk well worth it. You can admire the rugged cliffs, black sand beaches and crashing surf waves. Bethells Beach is just stunning.

The 10km linear track can be completed in two ways.

The first (as we did) is to complete the most of the track, but turn around halfway through your day. For example, if you set aside 6 hours to walk, after 3 hours, turn around to head back. You don’t want to end up walking in the dark.

If you’re hiking in a group, then a more ideal set up would be to utilise 2 cars. Leave one car at one end of the track, drive to the other to leave the second car and start the hike. Once you’ve completed the hike, your first car will be at your destination and then you can simply pop back to pick up the second car.

It is a little longwinded, but avoids you walking the same path twice. We found as we could see the final part of the walk but didn’t complete it, that we weren’t missing out on too many more views!

For us even doing a part of this is still up there with the best walks in Auckland!

4. Waitawa Regional Park

This is probably the most hidden of our recommendations in this article.

Heading out to east Auckland, just past Clevedon, is Waitawa Regional Park. It’s around a 45 minute drive, which itself is rather scenic.

The park has various parking spots to choose from if it’s busy, but we’d recommend parking at either end of the park for the best loop of the track.

There are two small beaches, one with BBQs and camping facilities right on the water, meaning you can make quite a day or a weekend of it whilst exploring the park!

Our favourite part of this Auckland walk was the Maori Pa Site, where we stopped to enjoy our lunch. We had the entire headland to ourselves, looking out over the turquoise waters. It was perfect.

The path is quite diverse taking you through different terrains within each section of the park. There are sections, which also offer mountain biking trails, of all different difficulty levels.

Be prepared to join several sheep as you cross the farmland, and watch where you step!

This park really does not have the reputation it deserves as one of the best walks in Auckland, in one of its most picturesque regional parks.

5. Waitakere Ranges

The Omanawanui Track on Auckland’s west coast may be the most impressive tramp in the Waitakere Ranges.

Wildnerness magazine

This is a new favourite Auckland walk for us, because until recently the kauri dieback had closed the track. Fortunately Auckland Council redeveloped the track and now it is less muddy and open again for all to enjoy.

To get to the start of the track at Whatipu Beach takes about 1 hour driving West from central Auckland.

You can find the carpark at Whatipu and then head towards the beach and left from there – signage for the start of the walk is difficult to find.

So difficult, in fact that we ended up going the wrong way and finding a short 20 minute side trail which took us along caves just set back from the beach. It was really quiet and eerie. There’s even access to camp in the caves, although Mitch is yet to persuade me to do that! Whilst you’re completing the main track, if you have time its worth swinging by.

The walk itself is steep requiring moderate fitness, and that’s why we’ve classed it as easy/intermediate. It’s mostly board walks and hundreds of stairs, with one very short section that requires a bit of a scramble.

Once you reach the top of the steep sections, the view is incredible. It’s very hard to believe you’re still in Auckland.

Similarly to Te Henga, you can go as far as you desire and turn back, as the end of the track is actually a road. We went a fair way along, finding the best views and then turning back.