From the end of the Coast to Coast at Onehunga Bay Reserve head southeast through the Reserve to cross the four-lane Hugh Watt Drive on a foot bridge to Orpheus Drive. Follow Orpheus Drive east along the Manukau foreshore until opposite the Airport Harbour View Motel where it heads onto the old Mangere Bridge. The piles of the old bridge were founded on a lava crust from nearby Mangere Mountain, and over the years the bridge footings broke through that crust and sank slightly. As a result it's bike and foot traffic only here, and it's a favourite local fishing spot.  

Once you've crossed the Manukau Harbour on the bridge, head west along Kiwi Esplanade, following the coastal margin for 3km to Ambury Regional Park. Follow the marked track around the edge of the paddocks near the shore.
You'll see the Ambury Regional Park headquarters, including a ranger’s house, and a fairly basic campground - fresh water on tap, loos, and a barbeque. Forward bookings are essential for this campground, see this link for more information. 


Mangere Foreshore Track - 9km / 2.5hr

Exit through the kissing gates that mark the Ambury Regional Park’s SW boundary. Cameron the draughthorse is the main resident on this stretch.

Beyond the kissing gates you’ll see the first signage of the Mangere Foreshore track, opened in 2005 as part of Watercare’s Manukau foreshore rehabilitation.

2.5km later, you pass the Mangere Lagoon, part of the Auckland volcanic field. In the 1960s, earthworks for the Mangere Sewage Works sludge ponds in the lagoon damaged the scoria cone at the centre of this explosion crater, and the crater itself.  The sewage works handled Auckland’s waste for 40 years. Its sludge ponds stood on this shore, and its oxidation ponds webbed the sea on the right-hand side of the track all the way out to Puketutu Island.

Walk on another kilometre and you’ll see version 2 of the old sewage works, Watercare’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, opened in 2003. Thirteen hours processing by clarifiers and ultra violet radiation now treats what used to take, by sludge settlement and oxidation, 21 days. These days the sterile solids are trucked away, and the sterile fluids are released on the outgoing tide at the rate of 25 tonnes a second, Auckland's biggest river.

As Watercare decommissions some of the old treatment systems, they have embarked on a project to rejuvenate the area and nurture the abundant birdlife. The Te Araroa route goes around one of these areas - past the main Watercare works and offices turn right/west next to the canal then turn again left/south past the bird roost and continue past the restored area.

Across the Oruarangi Creek pedestrian bridge, a galvanised gate lets you onto a nicely gravelled path that leads past a bird hide, and past white-shell beaches. The overall walk features two bird hides, and you'll pass roost islands that host godwits, lesser knots, wrybills, spoonbills and the distinctive red at-arms slope of the oyster-catchers' bright bills.

By now the Otuataua Stonefields are in sight - a good, emphatic, heaped finish. Volcanic vents once effervesced here, and Maori moved in later to trap the sun's warmth, piling up these stones and expanding their kumara-growing season. The Maori garden mounds, the storage pits, and the drystone walls of later Pakeha farmers are still prominent in this area.

Head through a galvanised gate into the Stonefields, and various paths wind through the old remnants of a previous culture. 

From the Otuataua Stonefields, exit onto Ihumatao Quarry Road and follow SE, turn right into Oruarangi Road, left/E into Ihumatao Road for 3 kms. Turn right/S into George Bolt Memorial Drive for 1km, and past the Airport Shopping Centre (and the Airport to the south). Turn left/E into Tom Pearce Drive, and follow it for 1.5 km as it turns south. Turn left/E onto Puhinui Rd and follow it for 3kms. Turn right into Price Road. Follow Price Road for 1km down to Puhinui Reserve. 

• Vehicles on road or track Take care crossing roads, especially around airport
• Farming operations
• Open drains
• Track exposed to sun, wind or cold

From the end of the Coast to Coast at Onehunga Bay Reserve head southeast through the Reserve to cross the four-lane Hugh Watt Drive on a foot bridge to Orpheus Drive. Follow Orpheus Drive east along the Manukau foreshore until opposite the Airport Harbour View Motel where it heads onto the old Mangere Bridge. The piles of the old bridge were founded on a lava crust from nearby Mangere Mountain, and over the years the bridge footings broke through that crust and sank slightly. As a result it's bike and foot traffic only here, and it's a favourite local fishing spot.  

Once you've crossed the Manukau Harbour on the bridge, head west along Kiwi Esplanade, following the coastal margin for 3km to Ambury Regional Park. Follow the marked track around the edge of the paddocks near the shore.
You'll see the Ambury Regional Park headquarters, including a ranger’s house, and a fairly basic campground - fresh water on tap, loos, and a barbeque. Forward bookings are essential for this campground, see this link for more information. 


Mangere Foreshore Track - 9km / 2.5hr

Exit through the kissing gates that mark the Ambury Regional Park’s SW boundary. Cameron the draughthorse is the main resident on this stretch.

Beyond the kissing gates you’ll see the first signage of the Mangere Foreshore track, opened in 2005 as part of Watercare’s Manukau foreshore rehabilitation.

2.5km later, you pass the Mangere Lagoon, part of the Auckland volcanic field. In the 1960s, earthworks for the Mangere Sewage Works sludge ponds in the lagoon damaged the scoria cone at the centre of this explosion crater, and the crater itself.  The sewage works handled Auckland’s waste for 40 years. Its sludge ponds stood on this shore, and its oxidation ponds webbed the sea on the right-hand side of the track all the way out to Puketutu Island.

Walk on another kilometre and you’ll see version 2 of the old sewage works, Watercare’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, opened in 2003. Thirteen hours processing by clarifiers and ultra violet radiation now treats what used to take, by sludge settlement and oxidation, 21 days. These days the sterile solids are trucked away, and the sterile fluids are released on the outgoing tide at the rate of 25 tonnes a second, Auckland's biggest river.

As Watercare decommissions some of the old treatment systems, they have embarked on a project to rejuvenate the area and nurture the abundant birdlife. The Te Araroa route goes around one of these areas - past the main Watercare works and offices turn right/west next to the canal then turn again left/south past the bird roost and continue past the restored area.

Across the Oruarangi Creek pedestrian bridge, a galvanised gate lets you onto a nicely gravelled path that leads past a bird hide, and past white-shell beaches. The overall walk features two bird hides, and you'll pass roost islands that host godwits, lesser knots, wrybills, spoonbills and the distinctive red at-arms slope of the oyster-catchers' bright bills.

By now the Otuataua Stonefields are in sight - a good, emphatic, heaped finish. Volcanic vents once effervesced here, and Maori moved in later to trap the sun's warmth, piling up these stones and expanding their kumara-growing season. The Maori garden mounds, the storage pits, and the drystone walls of later Pakeha farmers are still prominent in this area.

Head through a galvanised gate into the Stonefields, and various paths wind through the old remnants of a previous culture. 

From the Otuataua Stonefields, exit onto Ihumatao Quarry Road and follow SE, turn right into Oruarangi Road, left/E into Ihumatao Road for 3 kms. Turn right/S into George Bolt Memorial Drive for 1km, and past the Airport Shopping Centre (and the Airport to the south). Turn left/E into Tom Pearce Drive, and follow it for 1.5 km as it turns south. Turn left/E onto Puhinui Rd and follow it for 3kms. Turn right into Price Road. Follow Price Road for 1km down to Puhinui Reserve. 

  Download Map 1 (map028)

  Download Trail Notes (Onehunga to Puhinui)