Tiritiri Track

Dogs No Dogs

Features Views

The Tiritiri Track is a fun trail with a few challenging hills and some lovely views from the coast of the bird sanctuary island Tiritiri Matangi Island. Starting from the car park along the beach, the trail climbs concurrent with the blue-blazed Lookout Track up to the man-made lookout. From here, the trail turns east on a gravel road, skirting the edge of New Zealand Defense Force Land and several pastures.

At the northeastern most point, the trail turns south and heads through a gate into an open pasture. Here the doubletrack fades to grass and you are simply running through a field looking for the wooden post that marks the trail. This is a steep downhill, followed promptly but a tough but short uphill after which you pass through another gate.

At this point, the next trail marker can be a bit tricky to spot and there are several cow/sheep tracks that look like vague singletracks through the fields. If in doubt, I would recommend backtracking to the previous post and stopping to have a look around to identify the next post before continuing on as you should always be able to see the next marker from the previous one. Alternatively, you can go for a nice hike with the cows through some very deep grass on steep hills in a large pasture looking for the next marker along the fenceline. You are fenced in so you can’t really get lost…

Once you have found the next marker by one method or another, continue through the gate, down some steps and back to the beach to complete the loop.

Some friendly bovines and some skittish sheep. Pukeko and paradise ducks in the fields and oyster catchers, seagulls, and terns along the beach.