On a beautiful calm morning 13 WOPpers arrived for our adventure with Kay around the foreshore of the Manukau Harbour. A very warm welcome to the group of new WOPpers who came today. We started at the end of Portage Road & followed the steps down to the water's edge at Green Bay although the tide was well out. This Green Bay path which we joined in the bush on our way back is known as Te Ara o Tiriwa (the pathway of Tiriwa, the legendary high priest of the Waitakeres). The plan was to head around the headlands, over the rocks & lovely squelchy mud of the Manukau to end up at Wattle Bay then head inland thru lots of bush reserves & loop back to where we started. Today the tide was in our favour, nice & low with high tide not until 4.24pm, so not like the Thursday group wading thru water!

We enjoyed an early morning tea at Blockhouse Bay beach & a welcome break at Wattle Bay (see pic) before starting a few uphills & downs with plenty of steps thrown in for good measure. We had the option of continuing around Cape Horn but decided the shade of the bush was very welcome as the day heated up. We also decided to get a lot of the hills out of the way before having lunch! From Wattle Bay we join the Waikowhai Walkway. This walkway follows the northern shore of the Manukau Harbour from the Onehunga foreshore to Lynfield Cove in the west. We pass thru Halsey Reserve & part of the Manukau Domain & stopped to view the magnificent red granite sculpture "Opened Stone" by the late Hiroaki Ueda. The sculpture is placed in a commanding position with a panoramic view of the harbour. We continued on, admiring lovely gardens etc & enjoyed another awesome view by the pine trees looking out from Lynfield Reserve before dropping down to Lynfield Cove to enjoy lunch at 1pm.

Quite a bit of bird life around & I enjoyed watching an oystercatcher having a bath in the creek near us, plus a white-faced heron sitting proud on a rock. Further on saw pied stilts wading on the shoreline. We had just a bit more Manukau slosh as we headed into Flounder Bay & then back into the bush at Gittos Reserve. This walkway is now classed as Manukau Coastal Walkway. This is a very pleasant stretch of bush reserve. We passed Sandy Bay & as we climbed higher, it was amazing to see how much the tide had already come in, particularly on the pinch points. Before long we were back on the Green Bay pathway & back where we started by about 2.30ish.

With the combination of foreshore & bush & provided the tide is in your favour you can enjoy this walk with very minimal road walking. An excellent day, thanks Kay, with plenty of steps & steep bits to give us a good workout!

Colleen W.

To see Colleen’s photos, click here