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| Shepherds Park, Beach Haven |
Beach Haven
is located North West of Auckland city, the first European settlers to this
area arrived in the 1860s and until the early 1920s the area was primarily rural consisting mainly of farms growing
strawberries and holiday homes (baches).
The area was subdivided for housing later in 1923 and during the
construction in 1959 of the Auckland Harbour Bridge the housing development in
the area was sufficiently completed to make it into a largely
urban populated area.
Shepherds Park is named after the family who lived there
on a farm, originally the area was market gardens before it was developed into
a park for community use. The park
offers many amenities including rugby, soccer and tennis; it also features
an outdoors fitness circuit for anyone to use.
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| Making our way to the Bush Walk |
The headland that is adjacent to the park has been
restored to a beautiful bush environment. It’s situated on Hellyer’s Creek and
still contains middens from previous Maori occupation. Centuries later Thomas Hellyer
opened a kauri mill business in 1840 that supplied timber to Auckland city.
North Shore
Nordic Walkers met at 8.00 am at the park via the Melba Street entrance and
parked outside the football (soccer) club. We were joined by June and Paul
Stevenson from Nordic Kiwi who were also keen to try the walk.
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| Outstanding views of Hellyers or Oruamo Creek |
We started
our walk by taking the path on the left past the back of the soccer club, turning
right at the Oruama Landing sign we made our way through the bush and onto the
track. We followed the track by the coastline though the bush alongside the houses
that back onto the water.
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| Some of the steps are steep and can be slippery |
I’d advise
anyone trying this track to take extra care when it’s wet as it is full of tree roots
and holes. It is quite boggy in parts although some of the track is boardwalk
and there are steps to climb to take in the views of the estuary and the upper
harbour, with a backdrop formed by the steep slopes of Greenhithe.
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| Beautiful tree canopies along the walk and some branches are at head height! |
We stopped to
look at the views at Hellyers Creek (Maori name is Oruamo which means “for all”)
before continuing along the coastal track.
The views are truly outstanding along the estuary, we passed many
little wharves some of which looked to be in very precarious positions. The
area is marsh wetland and teaming with birds. The plants and trees are
magnificent along here, with huge rimu, kauri gum trees and many of New
Zealand’s native trees have been replanted by volunteers and the team at the
Kaipatiki planting project.
We proceeded
along the track before exiting at Beach Haven Road, turning right we then continued right into Lancaster before
taking the left turn back into Melba Street and onto the car park.
I think everyone
was surprised and delighted at such a beautiful walk that is tucked away on the
other side of the park. It’s definitely worth about an hours trip out to
walk the area.
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| Beautiful views along the estuary track |
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| Boardwalk view |
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| One of the small wharves along the way |
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