Unfortunately, the dreadful weather did put a stop to our Sunday walk this weekend, so I thought that I would tell you about one of Auckland’s fabulous parks instead. Wenderholm was one of the first of Auckland's Regional Park's to be established and is one of the most outstanding parks in the region. It’s situated between Puhoi and Waiwera and offers some wonderful walks and scenery. The park has a beautiful historical Victorian-Edwardian country house, Couldrey House, and it sits in the grounds of the park near a carved Pou Whenua that welcomes all visitors to Wenderholm.
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| Couldrey House |
Maori lived in the region for close to 1000 years and reaped the benefits of its rich natural resources and Wenderholm was an important Maori settlement in the Mahurangi District.
Not much can found about the about early history of the house, part of which is thought to have been built around 1857, by Robert Graham, and was originally named Wenderholm, or 'winter home'. The house was largely renovated by the Couldrey family, who were the property's last owners and the building was moved twice before being situated in its present location.
There are a number of trails throughout the park and from the house there is a 45 min walk over to Waiwera. Throughout the park area there are barbeques, picnic sites and access to the beach.
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| Pou Whenua |
The path eventually joins the Te Araroa Track that goes onto the Perimeter Track, this then goes down to Waiwera River. Unfortunately the day we visited it had been raining and the tracks were quite muddy and slippery so we didn’t make it that far. We did however double back to the beach as the tide was out and we took a walk along the golden sandy beach and from what I remember, it was fairly quiet that Sunday, we had the park and beach pretty much to ourselves.
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| Hauraki Gulf |
The park is a great place to visit for trampers, walkers and families, but the tracks are quite steep in places and thank goodness that we had our poles! I would advise caution when taking a walk on the Wenderholm tracks they can be hard going but it is worth it, the bush is beautiful and the views from the top of the cliffs are truly magnificent.
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