Manutewhau Track & Walk
The Manutewhau Track can be accessed from Moire Park (at both the Granville Drive & Royal Road entrances), West Harbour Drive, Moire Road or two points along Allington Road.
When I’m running I tend to enter the track from the end of Allington Road and I turn left onto the track proper to run towards Moire Road. If you turn right you will cross a long blue bridge that will take you to West Harbour Drive (away from the track).
If you do happen to take a wrong turn at this point at least it’s only a five minute jaunt to the end of the bridge and back (which is when you’d probably figure our you’ve gone the wrong way).
The track itself travels along the Manutewhau Stream and you can either negotiate a dirt path that runs directly beside it OR like me, take the wide gravel path so that you have forest on both sides. It’s relatively flat with only two inclines at the Moire Road end of the track which is 1.2k away from the starting point.
This section of the track is great to come and explore with kids, (we bought ours here yesterday) there are seats located along the way (should they get tired) and I even saw a couple of randomly placed picnic tables by the waters edge.
Exploring Manutewhau Track
Manutewhau Track ends at Moire Road and becomes Manutewhau Walk once you cross over and re-join the path. This section is very undulating and goes right through to the Westgate Pedestrian & Cycle Bridge.
You join this section of the walk at a reserve and enter into the forest (there is a set of stairs not far in) the forest section is a rather uneven dirt track (with large protruding tree roots) but there are portions of this walk way that are concrete paths at the back of peoples houses.
The Manutewhau Walk
You have the option to leave this track at many points along the way and travel along Oriel Ave which is much flatter. I will say, if you stay on the track and are trying to get to the pedestrian bridge, make sure you turn right at the first junction in the forest section that you come to, however if you make the same mistake I did, it’s not long until you figure it out and come back because the path will suddenly end on a street with no yellow bridge in sight or path to connect to. 😉
On that note, you will need to cross a road (Holmes Drive) and continue along the path on the other side to reach the bridge, however the path is directly in front of you so you can’t miss it.
The Manutwhau Track is about 1.2k’s long and if you continue along the Mautawhau Walk and stop at the bridge it’s a total distance of 2.2k. If you decide to continue onto Westgate and have a coffee then that will probably round it up to a solid 2.5k.
Till next time
