Waimahia Path

It was a sticky hot December morning when we set out on this walk, brightly sunny at first, giving way to heavy grey clouds that chased us back to the car. The path starts at the bottom of a new housing estate, crosses over a mangrove bay, then twists in between the estuary and back garden fences punctured by escaping flowers. Native trees have been planted along the way: kowhai, maanuka and pohutukawa – this last in heavy red bloom at the time. There is a section of elevated boardwalk over the mudflats and at the end of the path you can climb up into a grove of trees to look out over the water.

It was a good distance for a walk, about six and a half kilometres there-and-back, which is just the right kind of length to mull something over or clear your mind. We’re on a mission to explore as many of the Auckland Paths as possible, so currently we alternate old favourites with new adventures. If you enjoy walks, that website is such a valuable resource, and while it can sometimes be difficult to get a good sense of what the path may be like from its detail page, the flip side is that you never quite know what you’re going to find and you can stumble across real treasures. I love getting outdoors, and the fact that people place so much importance upon it here, and that so many resources exist to facilitate it, is one of the things I love so much about New Zealand.

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Thinking of checking it out?

This was a path that would be very stroller-friendly, with plenty of parking and a couple of playgrounds at the start. In places though it is heavily graffitied, and not knowing the neighbourhood, I didn’t feel very safe or relaxed walking alone. The nearby Wattle Downs path winds along a much nicer part of the same coast, so personally I wouldn’t go out of my way to return here. However if you are interested, you can visit the Auckland Path webpage for full details.