Tahuna Torea and Pt England

Here's the first entry of my new off-road running blog, Trailophile, where I aim to find and share the locations of awesome trail runs in Auckland and beyond.My goal is to do one new off-road run (ideally between 7-15kms) a week and post an entry in this blog about it – let’s see if I can meet my own challenge!

For the first week I’m starting with a track very close to home. My fiance Kelvin and I live on the Glen Innes/Glendowie border, and at the end of our road you can access the Tahuna Torea nature reserve to the north and also a track that goes south to Pt England reserve. Both tracks form part of the Point to point walkway maintained by Auckland City Council, and have fantastic views across the Tamaki estuary towards Bucklands Beach and Half Moon Bay. Yesterday, Kelvin and I decided to check out these trails from a runner’s perspective.

We started our run from the carpark at the end of West Tamaki Rd (which is also the main entrance to Tahuna Torea nature reserve). This means that we essentially did two out-and-back runs.

Tahuna Torea out and back:First we headed through Tahuna Torea via the Upper Bush Track (there are a few different tracks through here) which heads towards Roberta Reserve at the bottom of Riddell Rd. There are fantastic views through regenerating bush out to Brown’s Island in the Hauraki Gulf. We ran around Roberta Reserve and then back to Tahuna Torea and along the beach towards the spit. At low tide you can walk from the end of the spit directly back to the West Tamaki Rd carpark, but be prepared for wet and muddy shoes! I also don’t like to disturb this area as there are living mangrove forests. So instead of this option, head back along the spit and rejoin the Lower Bush track to head back to the carpark. In total this was about 4k although you could make it longer with more loops of the tracks. Mention and thanks should be made of the huge amount of work done here by Forest and Bird.

Out and back to Pt England reserve: After emerging from a bit of bush, the track disappears and you run for a while on a grass reserve between residential houses and the water’s edge. There is nice shade from some big macrocarpas and a beautiful view down to the water and across to Half Moon Bay marina. You then cross a bridge to the Pt England reserve, which has a nice sand/shell track on the sea side and a field on the right where cows are grazing. The track meanders along with its stunning views and lovely picnic tables and it was all but empty – we saw only two other groups out and about! Watch out for water and mud on some parts of the track. When we reached Pt England Rd we turned and ran back, although you could turn inland and do a circuit of Pt England reserve if you wanted. We were enjoying the view too much to stray from the water’s edge, so it was back to the carpark along the same track, stopping for a muesli bar at one of the picnic tables along the way.

Maps

Here's a very crude map of this run using mapometer.com (it’s a little difficult to see the exact track locations so I promise to look for ways to improve the quality of these maps to make them more useful! Perhaps I'll have to get an iphone with GPS, hehe). And here is a link to a map of the entire Point to point walkway on the Auckland City Council website, including the tracks we used in this run.

Evaluation

• Distance: about 7-8k depending on how many different tracks you’re keen to explore
• Hills: very mild hills – this is a good run to do if you are just starting out with off-road running and you should be able to manage the hills without getting too tired.
• Track type and condition: Tahuna Torea has a combination of nicely kept gravel tracks and wooden tracks that protect the wetlands. There is no track along the spit so it’s sandy and shelly. To Pt England it’s a mixture of mud tracks (some badly maintained), grass, and a nicely formed track laid with shells.
• Mud: It’s winter so we expected mud, but all in all it was pretty good – our shoes got a bit wet and muddy but never completely immersed!
• Views: nice harbour and estuary views and, on the Pt England side, a voyeuristic glimpse into the backyards of houses bordering the reserve
• Novelty: Pt England reserve is definitely a novelty and would be for most people who haven’t been to that area (and even for those that live there by the looks of the empty tracks!)
• Remoteness: not really remote at all, although I was surprised at how quiet it was!
• Crowd factor: at this time of year the tracks are not busy at all, but you'll definitely need to stay aware of others using the tracks
• Watch out for: Remember that dogs are not allowed in Tahuna Torea.
  
• Extra for experts: you could do the whole Point to point walkway (about 15km there and back) - it’s not totally off-road but this will be a good challenge for a later blog post perhaps! Watch this space.

Verdict

A stunning local track, especially the under-utilised Pt England component. Kelvin and I are definitely feeling lucky to have such a great running route on our doorstep!