Kauri Point to Chelsea Estate, Birkenhead

This run on the southern coast of Birkenhead – just over the bridge from Auckland City – is in a coastal cliff forest with pretty harbour views. But beware of steep slippery clay steps, mud, military land and maybe even some random drunk people.

Kauri Point Centennial Park
We did this run on the first Tuesday after daylight saving - a beautiful sunny day. We began the run off Onetaunga Rd in Birkenhead, where there are three entrances to Kauri Point Centennial Park. Various steep tracks go down towards Kendall Bay, and a couple go westward but end abruptly with a 3m high barbed wire-topped fence or 'Beware, explosives' sign announcing the boundary to NZ Defence Force land next to the park. This whole area is like a naughty teenager - it's got potential but is a bit unruly so has been proffered to the military. I guess it's a bit steep to do too much else with.

So we turned back and headed down towards Kendall Bay. This is a nice beach, accessible only by the track we had just run, and has great views over towards West Auckland.

From Kendall Bay there is a great track eastward towards the Chelsea Sugar Refinery Estate. The nicely maintained track gives way to mud and clay again, and here we heard hooting, yelling and flying pine cones, only to encounter two very drunk men absolutely reeking of alcohol, laughing and throwing pine cones at each other and just generally playing silly buggers. What on earth were they doing here? Strange place to be - they must have walked down from the Birkenhead shops, about 3km away. They didn't seem aggressive, but were very intoxicated so 'Mr and Mrs Runner', as they called us, laughed with them nervously then ran away very fast until we couldn't hear them any more.

Chelsea Sugar Heritage Estate
Now, "off-road run" and "sugar refinery" are words you probably don't hear in the same sentence every day, but here in Birkenhead they go together quite nicely. The Estate is open to the public during the day, and visitors can wander around the grounds which include lakes, regenerating forest and beautiful views towards Auckland City.

Getting here from Kendall Bay is easy - just follow the track east. But it's not an easy track to run on: the parts that aren't completely criss-crossed in tree roots (which are surprisingly difficult to run on) are a swampy mud-puddle mess.

You emerge from the bush on a road within the Chelsea Estate - follow this down the hill to view the lakes and rest of the estate. From the looks of the map, within the estate there are some other bush tracks which we didn't explore - we were too tired from the initial hills. Plus, it was starting to get late and we didn't want to encounter our drunk friends again in the dark, so we headed back to Onetaunga Rd.

Maps
Here's the best map of Kauri Point Centennial Park that I could find, published by the Birkenhead Northcote Glenfield Community Facilities Trust.

For Chelsea, the only maps of the tracks are on the picture boards onsite (you can see a picture in the Trailophile Picasa gallery). See the Chelsea Sugar and Auckland Regional Council websites for more information about the Chelsea Estate.

I attempted to map this run on mapometer....didn't really succeed though! Our good old Wises Map in the car had a better view of the off-road tracks.

Evaluation

• Distance: probably about 5kms....but feels like more
  
• Terrain: some really steep tracks at Kauri Point - great for those looking to do hill work
  
• Track type and condition: mostly clay in Kauri Point, with a mixture of crude steps just cut away into the clay and proper wooden steps. Bit of a mixed bag: some maintained well; some not.
  
• Mud: The Kauri Point park just had dry clay. On the Kauri Point to Chelsea part: a lot. And this is at the end of a sunny day
  
• Views: nice views looking over towards Auckland city
  
• Novelty: Very novel, especially the Chelsea Estate part
  
• Remoteness: The slice of forest is quite thin and steep, so this run is not remote at all - houses are very close by all the time, but unseen because of the bush
  
• Toilets: None! You'll need to plan well and go before you leave. There are public toilets in the Birkenhead shops
  
• Crowd factor: There were only a couple of people using these tracks and I imagine they would stay relatively uncrowded even in summer
  
• Watch out for: tripping over tree roots, falling down cliffs, no toilets
  
• Extra for experts: I think you'll be tired enough if you've run up all those hills!

Verdict
Very challenging tracks. Good practice for those really difficult off-road runs with lots of hills, but not so enjoyable if you're just starting out! Chelsea Estate on its own is also worth a visit if you haven't been there before.