If you haven’t done the WOPs Weona/Meola Walkway walk (offered in Term 4 2020) but want a suburban walk which is a change from pounding the pavements around your local streets, I suggest you try it. It has bits of bush, lots of native planting and plenty of green spaces. It’s one of my local walks but we usually start at Western Spring Lake, an easy walk from home.  

It’s worth spending time at Western Springs. There are good picnic spots, lots of birdlife (although the geese can be a bit ‘pecky’ at times) and eels of all sizes in at least three areas of the lake. Walking anti-clockwise and about halfway around the lake, you’ll come to a path which leads over a stream and up into bush. You may remember that locals protested against a plan to fell pine trees here. The pine have all come down so it looks a bit bare at present, but there has been natives planted to replace them.The track climbs reasonably steeply so gives good views back over Mt Albert to the Waitakeres. It comes out on West View Rd, a small crescent. 

Walk left and turn left into Old Mill Rd and then right into Savage Rd. There is an entrance into Jaggers Walk at the end - this is a small piece of native bush adjacent to Seddon Fields. A choice of tracks will eventually take you onto Meola Rd - consult Google Maps if you end up on a street. You won’t be far away. 

Look out for one of the entrances to Meola Reef Reserve (Te Tokaroa). It's a grassy park with both formal and informal paths, native planting, a big off-lead area for dogs and good views of Meola Reef, surrounding suburbs, the North Shore and the harbour bridge. It’s another spot for a picnic with several wooden picnic tables. 

Before you return to Western Springs, check out Lemington Reserve. The entrance to the reserve is adjacent to the scout hall on Meola Road. The path is through a ‘Significant Ecological Area’ and along a boardwalk which follows Western Springs Creek. There is yet another picnic spot at a little beach at the end of the all-tides section of the walkway (also accessed from Westmere Park Ave). We returned the way we had come, rather than walk along streets. 

You can return to Old Mill Rd and then Western Springs Lake through Jaggers Walk, Seddon Fields or a gravel road adjacent to MOTAT Aviation Display Hall. Walk round the back of the zoo, up through the zoo car park and into Western Springs. Check out the Fukuoka Japanese Garden (closed at present), ‘chook corner’, and try to get a glimpse of the elephants before completing your circuit around the lake. 

Kim H

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