May 27, 2013 NZ Cycle Trail - Auckland Ambury Regional Park ( Manukau Coastal Cycleway ) It's a beautiful Monday in late May 2013. The sun is out, the temperature is around 17 degrees and the forecast looks good for most of the day. After spending a good while yesterday trawling google looking for a good NZ Cycle Trail in Auckland (one that we haven't visited before), we found out that there was a cycle trail in Manukau, Auckland. Its apparently coastal, so in theory it should offer more views than your average bike park. Also there are apparently upto 25km's worth of bike trails here. So we took an iPhone with our iPhone 4 bike mount and decided to get out there and do some serious biking! How to Get There Heading southbound, come off the South Western Motorway at junction 12 (Mahunga Drive). At the end of the exit ramp turn right onto Rimu Road and keep going straight for a good while. Eventually, the road will naturally curve round to the left, follow this and the road will become Wallace Road. Ambury Regional Park will be signposted, but turn right into Muir Avenue. Follow the road all of the way to the end of Muir Avenue (ignore the other Ambury Regional Park sign). At the end of Muir Avenue turn right into the Regional Park. The map below should help! The Setting Set in the Ambury Regional Park, the Watercare Coastal Walkway offers both cyclists and walkers the ability to explore the Manakau harbour. Ambury Regional Park seems a fantastic place for families as well as for school trips. It's a working farm with lots of livestock, but also has an incredible range of birds throughout the reserve - many of which you will see on the cycle trail. There are public toilets as well as places to sit and eat your packed lunches. The Cycle Trail The great news is that this place is really well signposted. Its not hard to get lost here and there is plenty to see! Follow the signs for the Watercare Coastal Walkway. You'll go through a couple of gates (please ensure they are shut once you're through). You'll then see one of the many grey signs that are dotted throughout the cycleways. These signs have a map and tell you what you'll see if you go that way - easy right? At the first junction we turned left and headed for the Mangere Lagoon. As you can see from the photo above, the trail is pretty easy and flat. We did this on hybrid bikes as opposed to full mountain bikes and found it to be great fun. There are many look outs of the harbour and the trails are largely the same all the way around. What Routes? There are quite a few different routes here, its really up to you how much you want to do. We cycled for about 3-4 hours and didn't do all of the trails. We would definitely recommend you cycle around the lagoon. Below is a map which highlights in red what we think is the main route. Also, for further detailed information, we found the following map on google maps: View Manukau Harbour Cycleway in a larger map Puketutu Island Apparently you used to be able to cycle out to the far side of this island, but sadly this has now been closed off from general public access. We did however find 2 very slight cycle trails here which give you a couple of different viewpoints from either side of the island, they are highlighted in purple in the map in the previous section. The Bird Hide We said we'd do this on our way back and we did. There are a number of Dotterels here and that would explain why its called the Bird Hide - check out the photo below. In the hut there is lots of useful information about the various birds in this reserve. Do go and find out more. More Photos You can find additional photos in our photobucket album here: http://s1317.photobucket.com/user/phonecasesnz/library/Bike_Trails
