Manukau coastal walks

Introduction | Manukau Harbour | Blockhouse Bay explorer | Lynfield Cove ramble | Waikowhai circles | Hillsborough Bay circuit | Additional information

Lynfield Cove ramble

Duration: allow 1 & 1/2 hours
Classification: walking track and tramping track.

Early Lynfield residents earned a living supplying the city with produce from farms and market gardens. Then the strawberry market took off, and hundreds opted to grow the sweet red fruit, working long hours to supply local and national markets.

Old timers tell a story of a city magistrate who would banish repeat offenders to a stint in this part of the country. Some occupied old shacks in Halsey Drive, but instead of mending their ways they gave the local constable so much trouble that his horse would automatically turn towards Halsey Drive when it left the station stables.

The walk is pleasant and rambling with a few semi-steep rises. It skirts the forest strip that widens into the Manukau Domain - taking in panoramic scenes before plunging into the depths of primeval forest. You emerge from the semi-dark into a blast of light and magnificent views on the foreshore.

Our journey begins at Lynfield Cove at the Gilletta Road cul de sac. The track starts at the far end of the beach, crosses the Wairaki stream, and climbs through light native bush to a lookout that offers a superb view of the harbour towards Te Whau Point before joining Strathnaver Crescent. Almost immediately you drop down again for a grassy ramble below attractive houses before rising to Fairsea Place. Walk down Himalaya Crescent, right into Halsey Drive and continue to Manukau Domain (opposite the Halsey Drive School). On the far side of the reserve pick up the grass route that runs behind Sylvania Crescent houses to some steps at the edge of the bush. Before descending look west from Tau Nahi, - ‘Nahi’s Lookout’. From here at low-tide you can see the great sandbank Te Tau and the smaller Mutukaraka next to Te Whau pa.

Descend steeply through cool native forest to a pretty little beach piled high with white oyster shells. There’s a great view to the west taking in the Titirangi foreshore and Cornwallis Peninsula. Turn right and walk the low tide route along rock-shelf foreshore back to Lynfield Cove. It takes half an hour.

Oysters line the water’s edge and crunch underfoot. The last few minutes are across softer silt. Overhead, the bush edge is lined with those constant companions of the coast - the grey-green pohutukawa.

Alternative to low-tide route: Return to Halsey Drive, turn left into Strathnaver Crescent and right into Royal Viking Place and follow the pathway back to Lynfield Cove.