Auckland Coast to Coast Walkway

Coming from Canada, a country that stretches approximately 5000 km from coast to coast, the thought of walking from coast to coast in a single day was a completely foreign one.

The coast to coast walkway in Auckland is about 16 km from start to finish (not counting detours or getting lost, more on that later). It took my husband and I around 7 hours, but that was including getting lost a few times, detouring to look at interesting sights along the way, and stopping for a picnic lunch.

We started by taking the train to Onehunga and then walking from there to the start point. There weren't any signs from the train station pointing towards the start of the path, so it took a bit of extra navigation to find the starting point. We made 2 wrong turns and got a bit lost before finally pulling out the smartphone to navigate to the start point of the path.

It is possible to start from either end of the walkway and it is easy to get a bus from one end to the other. We are staying in a hostel near the end of Viaduct Harbour end, which made the choice of starting point easy.

Auckland City council has some good information on the hike, listed here. There is also information and maps available at most of the i-sites around the city.

The first part of the hike was through residential areas. We missed a few of the signs and lost the trail a few times through this area. It wasn't too difficult to use the map and find our way back to the path, but it is something to be aware of while walking. The trail went past a Pac n' Save, where we picked up food for a picnic lunch. Crackers, some sandwich meat, and some hummus makes for some really easy picnic food and isn't too expensive.

Fields of sheep, looking down One Tree Hill back towards the city.

 The first truly scenic area was One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie), which is a 182 m volcano with multiple craters. There is a nice playground at the bottom  for the kids before the trail goes up the hill. The Stardome is also here, which can make for an interesting break from walking. They have shows every hour. The earlier in the day, the younger the audience that the show is aimed at. We were a bit disappointed since this is something that we wanted to do, but we weren't really interested in a show targeted at 4-5 year olds. They do offer adult nights, which is something that I think we will end up doing at a later date.

The top of One Tree Hill

There were also a number of picnic spaces, which made this park a nice place to stop for a picnic lunch. The path then wound up the hill and through fields of sheep. It is spring here (still very strange that spring is in October for someone who grew up in the Northern hemisphere!) so there are also tonnes of cute little lambs. They won't let you get close enough to pet them, even though they look so cute, cuddly, and fluffy. The path continues through Cornwall park and past a grove of Olive trees before descending back into residential areas. The path through the university campus is also not well marked, but we found the students to be quite helpful. Simply walking out to the road and watching for the right intersection also worked well.

Maori art on the walk up Mt. Eden.

There is a fair bit of interesting art to see along the walk, as well as quite a few beautiful gardens and trees if it is the right season; we hiked at the beginning of spring. 

The hike up Mount Eden is a bit winding, but there are several short cuts up to the top for those who seek a shorter path. We decided to follow the pathway and found some interesting facts on signs, artwork, and an easier trail to follow, especially if it has been raining and the grass is slippery. 

The view from the top of Mount Eden is spectacular and could be worth driving back up at sunset (or doing only part of the hike). It is the tallest volcano in Auckland, at 196 m in height. The crater is quite defined and, for someone not accustomed to seeing volcanoes, a bit of a shock. It took my husband and I a few minutes to figure out exactly what it was that we were looking at. We started out talking about how it would be a fun tobogganing hill in the winter if it snowed here and how it would be the most fun with a saucer shaped crazy carpet. It slowly dawned on us that we are in an active volcano area and that we were standing on the rim of a volcanic crater.

Rim of Mt. Eden Volcano Crater

From Mount Eden the path continues through the city again to Auckland Domain, another large park in the city. The Auckland War Memorial Museum is here, along with a number of beautiful gardens, fountains, and walking paths. The Auckland museum is free for residents, and is well worth spending an entire day at (if you like museums, that is). There is a good view of the harbour and the Sky Tower from the steps of the Greek-influenced architecture of the museum.

Historic Ferry Building on Quay Street

The path then continues through the university campus past Albert Park. From here, we lost the signs again, but it wasn't too difficult to rejoin the path. From here we walked down Queen Street, which has quite a few interesting shops. It is a quite lively part of the city as well and can be busy in the evening.

The path continued past the Britomart Ferry building to the Viaduct Harbour, which was a beautiful place to watch the sunset before heading back to our accommodation for the evening.

Perhaps more time looking at the map and less time looking around might have kept us from getting lost as often, but it was rarely a large detour. The walk was long, but covered a lot of key sites in Auckland that are worth seeing. I would definitely recommend it, although for a shorter day, I would probably skip the first part that we did and simply start at One Tree Hill.