Weekend Walkabouts: Whatipu Regional Park

Whatipu Regional Park, Waitakere Ranges, NZ

We are really getting a taste for the Waitakere Ranges with these weekend hikes & day trips of ours! To recap, so far we’ve visited: Piha (& Arataki Visitor Centre), Karekare, Armour Bay, and now Whatipu! The Waitakere Ranges is a HUGE area southwest of Auckland, so there is still definitely much more to explore, but I’m proud of the progress we’ve made thus far! Whatipu Regional Park is just a 15 minute walk from the beach, and boasts several very picturesque walking trails. From the car park, we set off on the Kura Track.

The first stretch of our hike was a nice & flat 2.5kms with four (4!!) stream crossings! Luckily, there hadn’t been a rainfall for a few days, so the water level was low & we could easily hop from rock to rock. No wet feet for this gal!

The Kura Track met up with the Puriri Ridge Track which was the beginning of what would be a hike full of hills! We took a slight detour to hike on the Donald McLean track to reach the summit (395m). From the summit, we had a great view over the Manukau Harbour & the Tasman Sea. We could even see the Sky Tower in the distance! We stopped here for lunch before continuing onwards.

We retraced our steps back to the Puriri Ridge Track which eventually met up with the Omanawanui Track. I hadn’t anticipated any more hills after reaching the summit of Donald McLean, but BOY was I wrong!!! You can see two more hills in the pictures above, and you better believe we hiked to the top of BOTH of them! They were steep too!

It was all worth it though as we were rewarded with some pretty stellar views. I couldn’t get enough of that deep blue water!

After reaching the top of the final hill, we made our way down (a very steep & slippery trail) to the car park. The four of us were totally wiped from the hike and the drive home was a very quiet one.

Practical Information

Whatipu Regional Park: Located in the Waitakere Ranges. It’s 42km from Auckland, and about a 50 minute drive.

Omanawanui Track

Distance: ~13km

Time: 5.5 hours (including a 40 minute stop for lunch, and a few snack/picture/taking-in-the-scenery breaks).

Difficulty: Medium – the total elevation gain for this hike is about 900m. The later part of the track is very exposed to the elements (it was SO WINDY! – be sure to wear sunscreen!). Some parts of the track are very steep (there are even chains bolted into the rocks to help pull yourself up in particularly steep sections). Mac & I both slept VERY well that night.