The Coast to Coast Walkway

The city of Auckland stretches over an isthmus between the Waitemata Harbor of the Pacific Ocean and the Manukau Harbor of the Tasman Sea.


Last weekend we completed the 16km Coast to Coast Walkway which takes you from one harbor across the city to the other harbor by way of several beautiful parks and historical sites. This is a popular walk and all of the guides suggest setting aside 4-6 hours to complete the walk. It took us about 7 hours as we made many long stops to ruminate with the ungulates and photograph all the monuments, plaques and statues - this is part of our continuing fascination at the sheer number of plaques in Auckland. The plaque below can be found attached to a rock under a very nice tree in the middle of Auckland Domain (domain = park). I'd like to find out why this site was chosen for this plaque as it seems a bit random, and why it took eleven years to unveil this plaque.


You can begin the walk at either harbor, but we started from the Waitemata harbor since it is so close to us. From our apartment we walked up to the University of Auckland and Albert park, then down to Auckland Domain. The walk goes through the domain and on up to Mt Eden aka Maungawhau which is the tallest volcano in Auckland. The most charming part of Auckland's parks is that many are also farms so while overlooking the city from the peak of a volcano you can discuss the majesty of it all with a friendly cow or sheep.



I made several new friends on this walk.

This cow may have been the same cow that licked B on his last trip up Mt Eden.

Hunger finally drove us from the park and we took a detour from the walkway to eat at a bakery in Mt Eden (the suburb). It is here that we lost our map and B had to backtrack to find it. P and I picked flowers and climbed trees while waiting for him to return.


From there we walked to Cornwall park where we watched the Cornwall Cricket Club compete for the world record for the longest continuous cricket match. They won the record after playing for more than 53 hours straight.


The walk continued through Cornwall park to One Tree Hill aka Maungakiekie, another volcano/park/farm.



We visited the Stardome Observatory at the base of One Tree Hill where we met some more nice lassies before winding down to the Manukau harbor.


The walk was a fantastic way to see the city and the parks. When you visit us plan an extra day or two in Auckland to do this walk or one of the coastal walks!