Advisory: The Puhinui Stream Walk is not finished. It’s doable if you don’t mind a bit of street walking and wet boots from fording the stream twice. It’s all legal and much of it is a pleasure, but Manukau City hasn’t quite finished this path.
At the end of Price Road, you’ll see a stile across the fence into the reserve. Head across the reserve to a gate in the extreme north-east corner– the row of trees on your left intersects the reserve at that point. A track then leads away upstream. Te Araroa Trust was putting a track up this side of the stream – you ascertain true left and true right on waterways as if you’re standing astride the stream downstream looking towards the outlet, so this is the true right.
A market gardener en route refused to sell a strip of stream-side land on this true right bank, so the track is now being formed on the Puhinui’s true left. A bridge is planned to take walkers across, but until this work is complete you have to ford the stream. Choose your own cross- point, but be careful. It’s about knee deep on a good day, but you shouldn’t attempt a crossing when the stream is swollen by rain.
The wide track on the Puhinui’s true left bank takes you through to Aerovista Place.Turn right out of Aerovista into McLaughlins Road, then left into Vogler, and through to Roscommon Road. Turn right up Roscommon. The traffic lights up ahead have a pedestrian phase.
Turn left off Roscommon into Wiri Station Road. Follow this road about 2.5 kilometres to its junction with Lambie Drive and Druces Road. Diagonally across the intersection, the Puhinui Stream track opens up again, nicely manicured now. Follow it through to its junction with Kerrs Road. Follow Kerrs Road east up to Great South Road, turn right down Great South Road. The Puhinui Stream goes underneath this road, and the stream is accessible again using the pedestrian underpass.
The underpass takes you to the true right-hand bank of the Puhinui and a good track but the Southern motorway crosses immediately ahead. To cross it, you’ll need to ford the stream again into Alicante Road, and turn left onto the Orams Road overbridge. Note that it’s possible to avoid this second stream crossing by keeping on along the true right bank, and scrambling through to Totara Park and the Botanic Gardens under the motorway bridge. We’re working on bringing that route up to a good standard, but it’s not yet ready. It’s definitely a scramble at any time, and dangerous if the stream is running high.
Assuming you use the Orams Road Overpass, this will take you straight through onto the Puhinui Stream Forest Trail. Follow this trail through to the Wairere Road-end toilets and parking area.
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